DANI PEDROSA

(6th, 1’53”227): “Today the pace was a lot quicker than last year and the front two rows are very close together. But I think it will be a different story in the race because even though I am sixth fastest my rhythm is no worse than any of my rivals. Also, sixth place isn’t bad for me anyway – we’ve just got used to higher grid positions. Hopefully at the start I don’t have the same problems I had at Assen because I am ready to push it all the way again”.

HIROSHI AOYAMA

(15th, 1’54”738): “I am still learning the peculiarities of this circuit, which is very different to anything I’m used to in Japan. We have worked really well in the session but in the final couple of minutes when I was trying to lower my time I made too many mistakes. My lap time is clearly not good, nor is my grid position, but I have the impression that things will go better tomorrow. The key will be to get a good start and push hard over the first three laps. If I do that I think I can get a good result”.

ALBERTO PUIG

(Team manager): “In this session we worked to solve the problems we have been having all weekend with the front end. I think we’ve drawn some positive conclusions which will be very useful tomorrow, although there is no doubt that it won’t be an easy race.”

LAP TIMES

1.         Sebastián Porto       (Arg/Aprilia)   1’52¨503

2.         Toni Elias      (Esp/Honda) 1’52¨823

3.         Randy de Puniet       (Fra/Aprilia)   1’52´929

4.         Manuel Poggiali       (Rsm/Aprilia) 1’52´981

5.         Alex de Angelis        (Rsm/Aprilia) 1’53¨157

6.         Daniel Pedrosa      (Esp/Honda) 1’53¨227

……

15.      Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda)  1’54¨738