Raceday turnaround gives Repsol Honda confidence for Assen

Dani Pedrosa concluded a difficult weekend with yet another podium finish, after having started ninth on the grid. Repsol Honda´s pneumatic valve engine wielding American, Nicky Hayden, was also positive after the race, despite perhaps having tempted fate when commenting on the lack of problems experienced with the motor over the past few days...

Dani Pedrosa - Third

`This has been a difficult weekend with the weather changing all the time and only one day of dry practice. So, considering that and the effects of my crash during the tests at Barcelona I think that finishing on the podium is a good result for us. I pushed hard today and I really wanted to get second. Unfortunately, starting from the third row at a tight track with a short run to the first corner was never going to be easy. I got a good start, but I got a bit boxed in through the first corner and I lost some time while I was behind Dovizioso. Once I got up with Valentino we had a good battle, made a few passes but I made a couple of mistakes so I lost the possibility to finish second. My Michelin tyres worked well today but I struggled a bit through the direction changes. Anyway, we got some good points for the championship and we can look forward to getting a better result at Assen next weekend.´

Nicky Hayden - Seventh

`We learned a lot this weekend. We could've done with another day in the dry to really understand things. I´m actually pretty positive, we´ll try to put everything we've learned to good use at Assen. We didn´t really know what to expect here, everything went smooth until this morning when we had to switch bikes. The first few laps of the race went okay and then about lap nine I had a dash light come on. I didn´t know what it was for, but if a sensor goes bad you realise just how much you use traction control, engine braking control and things like that. It was nothing serious but I lost some confidence for a couple of laps, so my lap times fell and it upset my rhythm while I got my confidence back. The guys are looking into it now. It would´ve been nice to finish higher up, because I´ve got a lot of English guys in the box. The bike was pretty consistent at the end and I got back into the 29s. We learned a lot about fuel, tyre life and so on, we got a lot of information. We knew the first race might not be easy, so I hope we can build from here. Thanks to the team and to HRC for all their hard work.´