German Grand Prix - Sachsenring

"Before the race I thought I would be able to go well at the beginning, before my arm started to get tired, but some of the other riders obviously had other ideas. On the first lap I actually ran into the back of Shinya when he got badly cut up by Valentino. After that I decided to let everything settle down and by the time I was ready to start attacking the second group my arm was well beyond its best. On the long left handers I was actually having to lie on the tank and use my elbows - a style that nearly caused me to lose the front end a couple of times. Then to cap it all, right at the end, I let Sete by when I hit neutral on the last corner. Still it was good to be back in the saddle and at least now I know just by how much I need to strengthen my upper body during the five week break to be ready for the rest of the season."

"It is a relief to get this weekend over and know that Garry has five weeks in which to get himself fit for the remainder of the season."

Mareike Fell (German TV star) and Heinz Kinigadner (2 times World Motocross Champion) came to support the Redbull Yamaha team at the Sachsenring.

"It was a difficult weekend for us and although we managed to get rid of the front end chatter we never found a good set up for the bike. Given the circumstances I think I rode a good race - I didn't crash and managed to get a few points."

"This morning, during the warm up, we managed to get rid of the chatter and find some grip but couldn't get the bike to turn in. For the race we made it turn better but at the expense of grip. It is a fine balance with these bikes and we never really found a satisfactory compromise."

SECOND DAY OF PRACTICE

Garry McCoy: 6th - 1'26.638 (at 0.541)

"Overall I'm pretty happy with how everything has gone so far this weekend. I think we have come back strongly and are getting close to where we should be. During the last session I was hoping that we could get on the front row, but perhaps that was asking for too much too soon. My arm started to feel weak again toward the end of the session, but was stronger than yesterday. I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to just forget about it, but realistically I have to accept that it may cause me problems towards the end of the race"

Hamish Jamieson (Garry McCoy's Race Engineer)

"One the one hand, I'm delighted that Garry is back and able to demonstrate just how good he, the bike and the team really are. On the other hand I can't help thinking about what might have been if he hadn't crashed at Le Mans.."

Nori Haga: 17th - 1'28.248 (at 2.151)

"We have better grip than yesterday but the chatter problem is worse. Hopefully we'll be able to find the solution during tomorrows warm up. The other problem I am having is learning the circuit - this one is especially difficult, particularly the series of six left handers."

Colin Davies (Nori Haga's Race Engineer)

"We're having a lot of problems with front end chatter and I think the improved rear grip we found today has made it worse. Before we have always managed to either get rid of it or substantially reduce it and I'm reasonably confident we can do so again."

First Day of Practice

Garry McCoy: 11th - 1'127.667 (at 1.212)

"I couldn't wait to get back on the bike and felt good on it straight away. Throughout this morning and until halfway through this afternoon's session my left arm felt fine, and then without any real warning it started to feel weak. It wasn't actually giving me any pain; I just felt I didn't have any strength in it. I think the problem is that I still haven't been able to do any upper body work since the accident nine weeks ago. I'm disappointed because I was hoping to put some good laps in at the end of this afternoon's session."

"Fortunately the bike feels pretty good and I don't think we'll have to make many changes tomorrow. I will probably take it easy tomorrow morning and make sure I'm fit to do a good qualifying time during the last session."

Hamish Jamieson (Garry McCoy's Race Engineer)

"Overall I'm very pleased with how things went. He did very good, very consistent times for most of the two sessions and the bike worked well straight out of the box. With hindsight maybe we tried to do a little to much - in total he did 50 laps - but I reckon he should be able to qualify on the first two rows and be competitive on race day."

Nori Haga: 16th - 1'28.833 (at 2.378)

"This is the first time I have ever raced here and it is a very difficult track to learn - lots of blind left hand corners. I also had a problem with the suspension and couldn't get a good feeling from the bike"

Colin Davies (Nori Haga's Race Engineer)

We've had a bit of a disappointing day. The front chatter has come back and we are having problems trying to find rear grip. Plus of course this isn't an easy track to ride if you've never been round it before."