Malaysian GP - Round 13 - MotoGP
Sepang - Saturday 24th September 2005 - Qualifying

Torrid Sepang tests MotoGP riders to limit

In the most torrid afternoon the MotoGP riders have had to face so far this year
in a GP qualifying session (40oC in the shade), and conditions which made it
even more difficult for the technicians to find bike and tyre set-up, Alex
Barros set the eleventh fastest time in qualifying, despite a small slide out in
the final few minutes which meant he couldn't use the soft tyres to their full
potential. Conditions couldn't have been more challenging for Shane Byrne
either, in his first race on board a Honda, but the Briton has work incredibly
hard with his squad to get everything he needs to be competitive with a bike he
has ridden for just four hours.

Sito Pons - Camel Honda

"I think that Alex would probably have been able to cut a few more tenths off
his time if he hadn't have crashed but this heat makes it really hard to find
the right compromise between the bike-tyre package. It was a challenging day not
only for us, but also for lots of other teams. However we will try a few other
solutions in tomorrow's warm up trying to improve the general set-up as a whole.
As for Shane, we knew that it wouldn't be easy for him, you can't get the feel
to take a bike like this to the limit in so few hours. In any case, he has made
progress in every session, without making any mistakes, and the race will be an
important experience for him to continue to adapt to the Honda".

Alex Barros - Camel Honda -   2'03.013 -  11th position

"I'm quite disappointed with this result more than anything because I didn't
expect it. We worked well in all three sessions beforehand, but when the
decisive qualifier came around, we came up against too many problems. We still
don't know why, but this afternoon I didn't have confidence in the front and I
wasn't able to battle for a top grid position. I set a time similar to this
morning, and that's  not normal. Now we will try to understand why the front
suspension isn't working as I would like and we hope that tomorrow in the
warm-up things go better."

 Shane Byrne - Camel Honda -    2'06.493 -  18th position

"It's not easy to get to grips with a bike like this in so few hours, but the
team is giving me all the support I need. Yesterday I wasn't able to get a good
run in the dry, but this morning we made the first changes and the bike improved
considerably. In the afternoon we continued down the same line, although we
still haven't improved the power delivery under acceleration, and in the corner
exits I'm not as fast as I would like. When the time came to use the qualifying
tyre I was a little lost. The first two laps didn't go too well and I knew it,
but the last one seemed really good and I hardly made an impact. Anyway,
tomorrow we will try to find something to try in the warm-up and then we will
see how the race goes."