Different luck for the Repsol riders on the second day of the Qatar Grand Prix.
The heat and a still dirty track continue playing the leading role in Losail.
With the track improving conditions as the sessions go by, today the MotoGP riders were able to further improve the times set yesterday. In the morning, Max Biaggi clocked a promising fifth fastest time in the third free practice session of the weekend. Everything pointed to the Repsol Honda Team rider and his mechanics having found the right path in Qatar. However, in the afternoon, during the qualifying practice, Max didn’t manage to feel comfortable at all, finishing in a back thirteenth position.
Nicky Hayden, seventh fastest in the morning, was eighth in the afternoon, finally getting a place on the third row of the starting grid.
Lively practice sessions in the quarter-of-a-litre class today, with seven riders within only one second at the end of the second qualifying session. Stoner was fastest in the morning session, closely followed by Dani Pedrosa; they are both fighting for the world championship title and tomorrow’s race will be with no doubt very important for their aspirations. In the afternoon and during the decisive qualifying session, neither Stoner nor Pedrosa were able to lap faster than Jorge Lorenzo, who took the pole after his absence from the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Second was De Angelis who will be joined on the first row of the grid by Stoner, third, and Pedrosa, fourth. It was however a difficult day for the riders of the Aspar Repsol Team, filled with crashes and mechanical problems, both in the morning and in the afternoon. In the free morning session, Sebastián Porto was ninth and his team-mate Randy De Puniet tenth. In the afternoon, Porto was able to move up to fifth, while De Puniet finished eighth, so that they’ll be both starting tomorrow from the second row of the grid.
The good results achieved yesterday by the Repsol riders in the eighth-of-a-litre-class were not repeated today, and Héctor Faubel as well as Sergio Gadea and Joan Olivé lost their places on the front rows of the grid. In the morning, the fastest of all was Joan Olivé in a back ninth position, with Sergio Gadea sixteenth and Héctor Faubel eighteenth. Things weren’t much better in the afternoon, despite being Faubel again the fastest of the Repsol riders, Aspar’s pupil wasn’t able to do better than eleventh, dropping down to the third row of the starting grid. Joan Olivé, who finally set the thirteenth fastest time, will start tomorrow from the fourth row and Gadea, eighteenth, from the fifth.
Rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden,
8th on the grid.
Third free practice 7th, 1’58.434, 25 laps
First qualifying practice 8th, 1’57.872, 24 laps
‘Not really where we want to be. We had a pretty good run of qualifying this season and I haven’t been on the third row since way back in Portugal. The main problem we have is with the front end of the bike. It’s vague into corners and I was hoping that we would carry on with the real solid start we had yesterday but we haven’t been able to continue with that momentum. We’ve got a lot of work to do before the race to get a good set-up. As always, if you start back on the third row you’ve gotta’ make a good start and stay out of trouble and get with the front guys early. It’s a big ask but I don’t want to be making excuses after the race and I know how important points are at the moment.’
MotoGP. Max Biaggi,
13th on the grid.
Third free practice 5th, 1’58.326, 25 laps
First qualifying practice 13th, 1’58.622, 24 laps
‘The strange thing about today was that we seemed to get a better speed with the race tyres on than with the qualifiers. I really can’t explain what’s going on at the moment. I had really hoped that these disastrous grid positions that we had at the start of the season were in the past. Here we are again starting from the fifth row. My lap time is 1.7s off pole position. Unbelievable. I’m so tired of this. I know that last year in the race here I started from the back because of the penalty – I can nearly accept that situation but the one we have now I just don’t understand.’
250. Dani Pedrosa,
4th on the grid.
Second free practice 2nd, 2’03.453, 21 laps
Second qualifying practice 4th, 2’02.544, 16 laps
‘We had some problems with the engine. It isn’t fast enough in the highs and it doesn’t work well in the lows either; it doesn’t carburet well and it isn’t as fast as it should. We’ve been improving along the sessions, but haven’t solved everything yet. I guess it’s due to the heat, but it’s difficult. Our rivals are being very fast, but more than our rivals, our problem is the state of the bike. It doesn’t work well and it doesn’t allow me to ride at a 100%. It looses a lot of time on the straights but also in different laps. There’s a section were it’s really hard, but I do better in others. This circuit is very demanding, especially with the front end; if we manage to solve the problems with the engine, I’ll be confident for the race.’
250. Sebastián Porto,
5th on the grid.
Second free practice 9th, 2’04.680, 11 laps
Second qualifying practice 5th, 2’02.704, 14 laps
‘I don’t have much to say today, I had problems in the morning with both of my bikes and that caused us to lose time. In the afternoon we also had problems due to not having done many laps in the morning. It’s a shame because here in Qatar I was hoping for big things, but that’s the way it is… we still have tomorrow’s warm-up to try and improve. I hope we don’t have any problems then and that everything goes as normal and from there I will try to ride a good race. At least the set-up of the bike is good and we know which tyres we’re going to use – therefore I am quite calm and looking forward to it.’
250. Hiroshi Aoyama,
7th on the grid.
Second free practice 7th, 2’04.281, 21 laps
Second qualifying practice 7th, 2’02.828, 16 laps
‘We’re having some trouble with the engine on this track. I guess it’s due to the heat, however I feel more confident than yesterday. We’ve made some changes and I fell more comfortable with the front end, something very important on this track. IT will be very hot during the race and it will be hard to stay in the front group. But I trust in making a good start and giving the best from the fist laps to get a place in the leading group.’
250. Randy De Puniet
8th on the grid.
Second free practice 10th, 2’05.020, 16 laps
Second qualifying practice 8th, 2’04.219, 15 laps
‘It was a bad for us because this morning an engine broke and we lost nearly all of the morning session. In the afternoon I fell when I was on my best lap. It was strange as I had problems breaking at all the fast corners. My team are going to work to try and find a solution to the problem and I hope everything goes much better in the warm-up tomorrow. In these conditions it has been difficult, but I’ll be starting from the second row and am hopeful of getting a good result.’
125. Héctor Faubel,
11th on the grid.
Second free practice 18th, 2’11.316, 14 laps
Second qualifying practice 11th, 2’10.075, 11 laps
‘I had some problems with the front end today. At first we thought we had solved them, but as we raised our rhythm the problems began to come back. Although we’re starting from the third from the row, we’re not far off pole. What we do know is the tyres we’re using for the race tomorrow. It will be hard to climb up the field, but I will try to get away well and catch up with the lead group.’
125. Joan Olivé,
13th on the grid.
Second free practice 9th, 2’10.589, 17 laps
Second qualifying practice 13th, 2’10.415, 12 laps
‘I’m happy, because we’ve made good practice session. The only ‘but’ was today’s qualifying practice, where we damaged a front tyre. We think that it was a defect because I wasn’t able to enter the corners well, the front jumped a lot. If it were not so, I think that I could have been on the second row of the grid. We’ll confirm it tomorrow, during the warm-up, but I’m happy with the set-up and I have a good race pace, so I feel quite confident for tomorrow. We’ll see what happens, I hope to make a good start and to be in the leading group. It will surely be an interesting race.’
125. Sergio Gadea,
18th on the grid.
Second free practice 16th, 2’11.203, 14 laps
Second qualifying practice 18th, 2’11.094, 11 laps
‘I will start from a long way down tomorrow but I am happy because the bike is going well. We were working on the tyres today and now know which ones we’ll use in the race. When I closed to within three tenths of pole I thought I would have finished with a better position. My placing on the grid is not good, but I will try to start well and, with the rhythm I have, climb through the field. It will be a hard race and it will take a big effort to get up with the lead riders.’
Standings:
125
- M. Kallio 209.455 seg.
- G. Talmacsi 209.601
- M. Pasini 209.653
- J. Simon 209.680
- F. Lai 209.699
11. H. Faubel 210.075
13. J. Olivé 210.415
18. S. Gadea 211.094
250
- J. Lorenzo 202.154 seg.
- A. De Angelis 202.303
- C. Stoner 202.473
- D. Pedrosa 202.544
- S. Porto 202.704
7. H. Aoyama 202.828
8. R. De Puniet 204.219
MotoGP
- L. Capirossi 156.917 seg.
- S. Gibernau 156.994
- V. Rossi 157.360
- C. Edwards 157.447
- M. Melandri 157.468
8. N. Hayden 157.872
13. M. Baggi 158.622
