Casey Stoner – Racewinner
`I saw Dani (Pedrosa) riding off into the distance and thought `fair play´, there was no way I would have been able to go so fast at that time. We used a harder compound on the tyres and they were taking time to warm up. Then I saw Dani tumbling and rolling in the gravel. Given his past record in the wet, he was riding very well up until then. From then on it was just a matter of making sure of increasing a small advantage with every lap. We ran the harder compound on the left side, with just some small `loses´ during the race which worried me a bit. Thanks to the team for everything, and it´s nice to close the championship up a bit more.´

Valentino Rossi – Second Placed
`It´s a positive result for me, because I am top of the ranking. Second is not so bad considering the track conditions today. It was fun to ride in the bad conditions, but starting from the third row we lost a lot of time at the beginning. I saw Dani in the gravel and tried to come back at Casey, but it was not possible. I´m happy because I was fast right until the end.´

Chris Vermeulen – Third Placed
`We had a bad qualifying session yesterday. Starting from the fifth row made it difficult for us, there was a lot of spray coming up. I stayed upright at the start but, like Casey said, we were using the harder tyre and it was difficult to get heat into it. There was no way I was going to catch these guys, they were too quick for me today! I´m very happy to be on the podium again.´

A new circuit record and a 1´21.582 lap of the Sachsenring circuit confirmed Casey Stoner´s credentials ahead of the Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, with the reigning World Champion heading both practice sessions and going round faster than the pole position record at the German track.

The reigning World Champion and winner of the past two MotoGP rounds, Stoner was once again the dominant force in the premier class on Friday, with his nearest rival some 0.745 slower than the Ducati Marlboro rider´s storming early afternoon lap. Alex de Angelis also confirmed his morning performance was no one-off, the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider the closest to Stoner´s rhythm with satellite machinery.

Tech 3 Yamaha´s Colin Edwards was the only other rider within a second of Stoner´s time, and he himself suffered a crash at the midway point of the session. Fourth on the timesheets was Valentino Rossi, the Fiat Yamaha rider once again fast but playing catch-up with Stoner. Dani Pedrosa was also unable to better his morning showing, and crashed his Repsol Honda RC212V after losing the front end early on in the session.

Shinya Nakano, Nicky Hayden, Andrea Dovizioso and Randy de Puniet completed the top ten in the opening practice sessions for the Sunday race, with Dovizioso taking a high-speed lowside in the afternoon from which he emerged unscathed.