Grand Prix 2000 - Round 9 - Donington

Kenny Roberts - 2nd - "I had a lot on my mind in that race. With the rain on Sunday after dry practice, I wasn't confident at the start. This track is notoriously slippery. After the start I just wanted to hold my own, and get ahead of riders who might be difficult later in the race. I had my bike very well set up for braking, which allowed me to make up for mistakes at other parts of the track. When I got into the lead, then I was able to open up a gap of two seconds. Then when Valentino and Jeremy started chasing me and the gap started shrinking, I knew they would catch me, and I decided to wait and see what would happen - to keep my pace and save my tyres. At that stage the track was drying, but if it had rained again then I wanted to keep some edges on the tread. It did rain a little bit more, but not enough to wet the track. At the finish Valentino passed Jeremy, but when I tried to do the same I ran wide and he was straight back past me. So on the last lap I snuck up on him into the second last hairpin, moved inside and just parked it in his way. From then on I knew his two-cylinder bike would never beat the V4 power of the Suzuki. It was a great race, because unlike some other riders these guys were really over-riding the bikes, instead of just sitting on them. In that sort of race, I'll be happy to finish second for the rest of the year."

Jeremy McWilliams - 3rd - “Yes I was thinking about the win. In fact, I’ve got to thank Valentino Rossi for being in that position because Kenny Roberts had managed to build up a little gap on me. But when Valentino came past I saw that the grip was actually better than I thought it was. After I took the lead I tried to increase the gap to two seconds, but that number never appeared on my board. I was loosing concentration because I could see on my board that the others were coming back but I couldn’t understand where I was loosing time. It was a fun race but also a very difficult one. I made a mistake on the last lap and that allowed Kenny to come through. But getting a third after starting from the 4th row is a good result. Anybody can win from any position and that shows how competitive this class is right now.”

Norick Abe - 6th - “The beginning of the race was good as it was consistently wet. Everyone was sliding about but that was to be expected. It was in the middle of the race when parts of the track started to dry out that it got really difficult to ride. By the end my rear wheel was sliding and spinning a lot. I had a close call with a back marker who seemed to ignore the blue flag and instead of taking a wide line, he tucked into my race line, and we collided. It was a pretty stupid move because he nearly made me crash. It also pushed me wide, leaving room for van der Goorbergh to get past me. These conditions are almost impossible to race in; if it was completely dry or completely wet I could have stood a chance.“

Alex Criville – 7th - "I got a bad start and to make matters worse, Rossi almost crashed in front of me! After that I decided to take it easy for the first few laps and avoid taking too many risks. By the time I felt confident enough to up my pace, the rear tyre was worn. I don’t know why. We all chose the same tyres so that wasn’t the problem. It must be a set-up problem. This is not a good result for the championship. I really can’t remember having seen such a strange season as this one".

Sete Gibernau – 8th – "I got a good start and I was feeling good and pretty comfortable all the time the track was wet. But when it started drying out I began to have a lot of problems with the rear. I used a different engine than the other riders of the Repsol YPF Honda team today and it seems that maybe it wasn’t the ideal choice. It didn’t seem to be working as well. It was hard for me to open the gas as much as I wanted to. Every time I did so the rear wheel would slide. It’s a shame because we did a good warm-up this morning during which we managed to find a good set-up".

Max Biaggi - 9th - “Roberts moved across in front of me at the start. I lost places that were too difficult to get back. Because of my anti-fog mask I couldn’t breathe properly, and I had problems shifting from second to third all through the race. You have to make that change at three points on the circuit and it cost me about two tenths of a second every time. I had a big slide at the end too. I’m just very disappointed.”

Tady Okada – 10th – "I don’t know what the problem we had today was. Maybe it was due to something with the front suspension. The bike was handling very strange. It was like the front and the rear weren’t attached to the same motorcycle, like they had a mind of their own. Going into the corner, the rear would follow the line and behave normally but the front was tending to stand the bike up. I know it wasn’t a tyre problem because we all had the same tyres on today. I used wets like everyone else so that wasn’t what was wrong. Today was just not a good day for us".

Carlos Checa - 11th - “I started without enough confidence in the front end of the bike, and whenever I opened the throttle it just slid away. I just couldn’t go any faster. While I was still in the points it was important just to finish. I’ll try to make up for this at the Sachsenring, that’s all I can do. We had a very good race there last year. All we want now is good weather.”

Regis Laconi - 12th - “I was looking for a fast start and it worked, although perhaps in the first six laps I pushed too hard and this did not help later in the race when the track dried and my wet weather tyre lost traction. Halfway through the race I was fifth behind Abe and tried to pass him at the final corner, but crashed and this cost me a lot of time which I could not make up. That’s racing. I will try again at the next GP.”

Anthony Gobert - 15th - "I feel pretty happy with the way I rode, because it's a long time since I rode a 500 in the wet, and also since I rode on Dunlop rain tyres. But I'm disappointed as well. I started a bit too cautiously, but towards the end I was making moves on people and riding harder. At the start I just wanted to be sure to stay on, so I was taking it easy. By the middle of the race, I was kicking myself a bit, because the bike felt good in the conditions. I caught and passed McCoy's V4 and also Aoki's Suzuki. By the finish I was starting to feel comfortable and happy with myself and the way I was riding. With more experience on the bike I could have done that earlier in the race, and maybe had a better finishing position."

Garry McCoy - 17th - “Another wet race and a bad day. It’s really disappointing to be giving away points like this. There was no other choice but to use wets from the start but I just had no feeling from the rear end and when the track started to dry it didn’t get any better.
I just thought it was pointless riding around like that so I came into the pits to put a cut slick in the back and went back out to do some laps. The bike felt a lot better but unfortunately you don’t get any points for fastest lap; that doesn’t count for the championship. When are we going to get some sun on a race day?”

Chuck Aksland - Modenas Team Manager - "Anthony did the right thing being careful. He's getting on a 500 for the first time for a long while, against people who have already done eight
races already this year. Throw in some wet conditions, and it's real easy to make a mistake and end up with nothing. Instead he came away with a point, and we got another finish, as well as a lot more information on our new bike. We got a lot of feedback from this weekend. Now we'll go back to the workshop and analyse everything we found, and take the bike to the next stage. It's nothing in particular - just general development. We'll be concentrating on getting the best out of the bike for the next GP in Germany. We'll decide some time next week who we will ask to ride it, but we will only have one rider out in that race."

Ralf Waldmann - 250 - 1st - “I was very lucky today but that makes up for the bad luck I’ve had recently, and especially at the last race in Holland. This time, the tyre choice was my decision entirely. The team pleaded with me not to go for rain tyres and in the early laps, I was thinking that I had indeed made a stupid tyre choice. But in the end, it turns out I’m a hero for making that choice. There’s really very little between being a fool and being a hero in this sport!”

Anthony West - 250 - DNF - "It was a tricky race because the weather kept changing. It's better when it's either wet or dry, but not both. First it was damp and drying and then it just started raining really hard. I'd got a 'wet' on the front and a heavily cut 'slick' on the rear, with more cut than (Tohru) Ukawa's rear. Things should have been okay, but I got highsided off at Macleans."