After the overnight showers warm-up was going to be a wet one. For European TV reasons our race was going to be the first of the day, so we were first warm-up as well. I had to run in new pistons, which doesn’t leave much time at the end of the session. I didn’t risk anything and was 18th, pretty confidant that it wouldn’t be too hard to find a few seconds. Rain or shine I wasn’t too bothered what it was going to be for the race.
In the run up to our race nobody knew what the conditions were going to be like. The track was 50/50 wet and dry and it looked like it was going to stay dry. The race was declared dry so we started on full slicks as did everybody else.
My start was ok, but I got stuck behind
Jorge Lorenzo and Simone Corsi for the first 5 laps. Corsi's bike was ridiculously fast in a straight line but he was very slow and cautious on the wet patches. I passed him for 3 laps in succession but he came straight back by me on the main straight. The final time I passed him I pushed hard in the tight bits to try and get away from him and not give him a chance to come back at me on the main straight.
My team-mate followed. By this time I had well and truly lost touch with the next group of Barbera, Smrz, Giansanti and Debon. My race had been stuffed in the first 5 laps. At half race distance I was in 15th and getting faster but there was no way I was going to catch anybody. My team-mate was more or less still hanging on to me, which I was quite surprised at. His manager had said he is a much better racer than a qualifier and I have to agree.
Most people in the race were about 2 seconds off their best lap in qualifying. The front guys were doing mid 43s where in qualifying they were in the 41s and I was doing 45’s where in qualifying I was doing 43s. This was due to the track being damp in a few places. My team-mate did a 1.45.5 in qualifying and in the race did a 1.45.9, only 0.4 off and with worse conditions. Quite strange.
