The Repsol rider fell in the final moments of qualifying, fighting for pole. Tomorrow he will start third, just ahead of his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.
The second day of the British Grand Prix ended abruptly for the Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa who, after finishing first in the morning free practice, fell just seconds from the end of the qualifying session while battling for a better time. Despite a hard knock on both knees, serious injury was avoided and the Repsol rider will be fit to compete tomorrow.
His team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who also had a fall – in his case during the morning session, in which he finished fifth -, continued reducing his times throughout the qualifying session, finishing fourth, a position which will allow him to start tomorrow from the second row of the grid.
Pedrosa took part in a good day of testing today; in the morning free practices he considerably improved his performance compared to yesterday, reducing his times to place himself at the top of the timesheets. And in the afternoon, in the definitive qualifying session, the Repsol rider did not delay in placing himself up amongst the fastest, topping the timesheets from the opening moments. Halfway through the session, Jorge Lorenzo and Randy de Puniet showed themselves to be equally competitive and an intense battle began between these three riders to set the best time. It seemed as though pole would not be decided until the end of the session but, during the last attempt for De Puniet and Pedrosa – Lorenzo was leading at the time -, both finished up hitting the floor, as such, the grid remained with Lorenzo first, De Puniet second and Pedrosa third.
Although at first it was feared that Pedrosa may have been injured, in the end the Spanish rider had only suffered a hard knock to both his knees and will be fully fit for tomorrow. The incident occurred on turn 16 of the English track – a left-hander – and was caused by a small pothole in which Pedrosa, with the bike leant over, felt the steering of his Honda RC2112V close up.
Although he tried to prevent the fall, it was not possible, and the bike ended up hitting the knees of the Repsol Honda Team rider, although fortunately without any physical consequences.
And, on the other side of the box, the Italian rider Andrea Dovizioso is also thinking about the battle for the three podium spots tomorrow. Despite having spent the test sessions a little less noticeably – fifth this morning, fourth this afternoon -, Andrea worked conscientiously with his team and is tipped as one of the four riders who will battle it out for victory this Sunday in MotoGP.
Dani Pedrosa, 2’03.586 sec, 42 laps, 248 KM. >> Audio
“Today we were quite fast in both sessions and we have a good machine setting, so I think we have the potential for a strong race. We still need to decide which of the Bridgestone tyre options we’ll use because tomorrow it looks like it may be warmer than today. I crashed when I was on my last qualifying lap as I braked going into a left hander. I hit some bumps and then the front started to move a lot and then had a little slide. Maybe the bike went over me and at that moment it hurt, but afterwards the pain went away so I’m ok for tomorrow. The lap times were getting faster in each session and I think I’m still learning the track – every time you go out you learn more about the line, the braking points and the corners where the bumps are – and that’s normal on a new track. We’re on the front row which is always important for a good getaway, so tomorrow I hope we can have another good performance”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 2’03.995 sec, 44 laps, 260 KM. >> Audio
“I’m happy with qualifying in fourth place and starting from the front of the second row. I wanted to be a little bit closer in terms of lap times and we still need to improve the pace for tomorrow so that we can fight for first place, but I’m satisfied with the result today. This morning I crashed, fortunately without hurting myself, and I was able to get straight back on my second bike and be back on the pace immediately. Because of this crash we couldn’t do so much comparison work between the two chassis we had available, and so during qualifying I only used the new one, which seems to work well. The track layout is really fascinating – I like it a lot – but the main issue remains the bumps. We’re quietly confident for tomorrow and I’m definitely looking for another podium finish – at least”.
