Norick Abe - 2nd - "I feel very good on the bike at the moment and confidence is so important, he said. We have a good set-up for this track and we can do better tomorrow."

Kenny Roberts - 4th - "We have much the same settings as we had at Jerez, and I don't want to get anybody depressed, but this is exactly the same time as we set last year with essentially the same package. I'm finding it real difficult to get much below that. Last year I jumped off at one of the places on the track where I do want to make improvements. That's why I think it will be hard to go faster. Having said that, Warren Willing and my race engineer Bob Toomey hopefully can get their heads together and improve the bike for those areas of the track where we feel we can go quicker. As usual, we won't give up."

Max Biaggi 5th - "Compared to the last two GPs, the bike is getting better, we did some nice work at Mugello and we’ve found a good direction, improving the bike on the brakes and in the turns. We started today with one of my bikes with last year’s Le Mans settings and the other with the Mugello set-up, and the second bike is working really well. Tomorrow we’ll run both bikes the same and we’ve already got an idea about how to improve the front suspension in the morning session. The team’s doing a good job, we’re going in the right direction."

Carlos Checa 7th - "My left shoulder gets a bit tired with all the braking here, but I’m not having any more treatment, he said. The best treatment for me is going fast Physically I feel okay and I feel better on the bike than I did at the last few races. As always, we’re trying to improve and our focus here is the rear. The front is working good but I want to improve the rear so I can get more feeling. At the moment it’s too harsh, so I’m not getting the feeling for the tyre I’d like."

Tohru Ukawa 9th - “Today wasn’t a good day, because neither this morning nor this afternoon we found the right gearbox settings. Apart from that, we have to refine the behaviour of the engine. My lap times therefore haven’t been very good today, I’m about one second down on pole position. But I’m sure that if we get the set-up right tomorrow, we can improve and reduce the gap to the fastest riders. At the end of the session, the engine worked much better, but it still wasn’t enough. Last year, I won here aboard a Honda 250, therefore I have very good memories of this track. It’s my birthday today, and it would be very nice to celebrate it again on Sunday with a podium finish.” 

Jurgen Van Den Goorbergh 10th - "We had a long discussion after Jerez. We had an idea what we had done wrong - going in the wrong direction with chassis settings, but with only one rider and only four hours of practice it's difficult to find these things quickly. Now we're back to a more basic setting, and I'm feeling comfortable. I can do consistent laps, even at this track, which is not one of my favourites, and where acceleration and top speed are the most important things. The engine is running really well. The changes have improved the throttle control, and I am not losing much to the four-cylinder bikes. Most important we have our good corner speed back. I could have been even faster, but I made a couple of mistakes on my fast laps. I'm sure I could have found a half second or so faster."

Sete Gibernau 11th - "This is my first time at this track with the Suzuki, and only the second time I've been here. And we struggled last year - so I'm happy that we are doing good lap times, fast and consistent. The bike is helping me more now. I tested some new Ohlins front forks at Jerez, and I think that they're an improvement for me. I'm getting to the point now where I can ride the bike how I like it. Thanks to hard work from the team, we're getting close to putting the puzzle together."

Alex Criville 12th - “This morning’s practice session went quite well, but in the afternoon, the track was wet at some points, and I didn’t want to risk a crash. Due to my lack of confidence, I went much less aggressive into the corners than I did in the morning, and that cost me some fractions of a second. Halfway through the session, the track dried up, but nevertheless I didn’t get the confidence back to push it to the limit. Fortunately the weather forecast is good for tomorrow, so our plan is to fine-tune the set-up of the motorcycle in the morning and to go for faster
lap times in the afternoon, in order to make sure of a good grid position for the race on Sunday.”

Mark Willis 23rd - "I had an absolute shit of a qualifying. The fuel hose came off the tank after 2 laps nearly sending me down the road, unfortunately I think Westy crashed on the fuel as he was behind me. Got back to the pits and I have no spare bike so had to wait for mine to return. Then 2 laps after going back out we had another problem with one cylinder, end of session. Its the first time here for me so its not what we needed. That's racing."