"I'm happy that the races are starting up again and I'm satisfied with the job myself and the team have been able to do in the preseason tests. The Ducati engineers have made a few small changes to the bike over the winter that have produced a notable general improvement. The GP8 has better acceleration in low revs and the set-up changes we made at Phillip Island have improved its performance on the exit of corners. The Bridgestone tyres have worked well at all of the tracks we've tested at, including the night test in Qatar, so from that perspective I'm also really happy. It is going to be fun to race at night but for me it won't be a completely new experience because I already did a couple of speedway and dirt-track races at night when I was a junior back in Australia. It will be different but I don't think it changes the job for the rider, especially because we've already had two days of tests last week to get used to the track conditions and the lights. Temperature will be an important factor, though, especially as far as the tyres are concerned because at 11 o'clock when we start qualifying and the race it is really cold. We'll have to wait and see if the conditions are the same as they were for the test."
"Finally the first race is here and it feels good to get out there and see what everybody is really capable of. I've been looking forward to today for a while because to be honest I've got a bit sick of testing. Anyway, it was good to get going - the bike itself felt good from the start but for some reason the overall feeling wasn't as good as it was at the test and I'd put that down to the slightly different track conditions. There wasn't as much grip and lot of riders were crashing today, much more than at the same time during the test, so it seems everybody is struggling with the same problem. Tomorrow we'll try and improve the set-up of the cycle part to get an even better balance but in general I'm satisfied with the first day."
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