Valencia MotoGP: Top 5 quotes after race
Yamaha MotoGP signs off with 2016 team title at stirring Spanish showdown
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
| Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99 |  Jorge Lorenzo |
Yamaha | 45'54.228 |
| "It has been an incredible weekend with a perfect first few laps, the pole position, the fastest lap, and the victory. I arrived here in MotoGP at 20 years old, taking my first pole position on my first race. After almost ten years I leave with a pole position and a victory, I think I couldn‘t have given Yamaha a better present than this for their support and their hard work during these years. We always had a competitive and winning bike. Now we will enjoy and celebrate these memories. Tonight at the party I will enjoy the last moments with my team. During the race you spend 45 minutes completely focused on what you are doing to dominate this bike, so when you cross the line you aren‘t very emotional yet and you don‘t think too much, because you need to recover. After two or three minutes I started remembering the best moments in my career and also the hard moments and in parc fermé it was very emotional with my team. For sure I will throw one of my biggest and craziest parties today because it‘s a good day. We have to enjoy all of these experiences and especially this last moment with Yamaha." | ||||
| 2 | 93 | Marc Marquez |
Honda | 45'55.413 |
| “We’re happy because we’ve managed to get on the podium and we’ve finished the season strongly. This is the most important thing. In the race, the start penalized us a lot as I had an issue with the clutch and lost several positions. Afterward I wasted a lot of time behind Rossi and Iannone. As Valentino said yesterday, overtaking is difficult on this track, so even if I was able to get close, to pass them was another story because I was losing under acceleration and was a bit on the limit under braking. I waited behind as the tyres began to affect performance, and step-by-step I continued improving until I found the opportunity to pass them. From then on I was able to improve my speed, and maybe if the race had lasted a little longer I might have reached Lorenzo. Anyway, he had an incredible race and I was not able to catch him. Congrats to him for this result. It hasn’t been an easy season but we were able to win the title in Japan and secure the Constructors Championship this weekend, which is great. Now we’ll work hard starting from the next test to try and improve our bike even more.” | ||||
| 3 | 29 |  Andrea Iannone |
Ducati | 46'00.831 |
| “Today it was a great race. I got a really good start and then had an incredible battle with Marquez and Rossi: I feel sure that everyone watching today, either in the circuit or at home on TV, must have enjoyed it a lot. I’m pleased because, even though the final part of the championship didn’t go exactly the way I had planned, in my last race for the Ducati Team I was able to get onto the podium, despite a rather difficult situation to manage. Even though after four years unfortunately we go our separate ways, I want to thank Ducati, to whom I have always given 100% and from whom I have always received the maximum of support, and all its engineers, mechanics, team personnel, fans and Ducatisti. I will never forget this great big family, and part of my heart will forever remain in Ducati.” | ||||
| 4 | 46 | Valentino Rossi |
Yamaha | 46'01.896 |
| "I was pushing from the beginning to the end and the first half of the race wasn‘t so bad because I was in second position, but I wasn‘t fast enough to make a gap and after that I suffered on the second part. Marquez was very strong, so he arrived in second place and after that I had a fight with Iannone. Unfortunately he beat me because he was faster, so just fourth place for me today, but it was a good race. The 2016 season brought a lot of positive things; second place in the championship, a lot of podiums and front row starts. Next year I want to try to win more races, more than two, but we are always competitive. Unfortunately I made some mistakes and I was a bit unlucky with the engine in Mugello so I was a bit too far behind in the championship, but anyway it was a good season." | ||||
| 5 | 25 | Maverick Viñales |
Suzuki | 46'04.838 |
| “It’s been a hard race. Honestly I was expecting a little more, I thought the podium was achievable, but at the end of the race it was so hard to keep the pace. I tried my best at the beginning, but then I had to cease position and hold to the end. At the end my feelings are for these two years with Suzuki, we did a very good job, if I think all the struggles we had last year and now we’ve been fighting for podiums consistently in the last part of the season. It’s a good sensation, and also I’m leaving here some people with which we created a very good connection. I’m proud of the job we’ve done together.” | ||||
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