Haga: I now know how important knee sliders are...

Sole remaining Red Bull Yamaha rider, Noriyuki Haga, lost his knee slider just over halfway through the Catalan Grand Prix, and believes this cost him as many as five places by the end of the race.

"Ten laps from the end on one of the last two corners coming onto the main straight I lost my right knee slider and I now realise just how important they are as it was quite difficult to ride without it," explained Haga.

"If I didn't lose it I think it would have been possible for me to finish behind Shinya (Nakano - fourth). Sure we still have a few setup problems I want to fix but this is the best setting we've run all year. I guess I have the next two rounds to look forward to as I know both Assen and Donington very well and should do well there."

"We're glad to get another race finish under our belts and I think if Nori hadn't lost his slider he would have been able to stay with the group trailing Rossi and Biaggi," confirmed Colin Davies, Haga's Race Engineer. "Although he said that the front was pushing a little in the right handers toward the end of the race Nori was generally happy with the tyre choice, and the set up changes we made before the warm up seemed to work well."