Rain stayed away during the second day of practice for the French GP, and so the two MotoGP sessions passed without any changes to the planned work. With any unpredictable weather eliminated from the equation the teams and riders were able to concentrate on their specific set ups during the day’s two sessions so that tomorrow’s race can be tackled in the best possible way. There was an excellent result for the Repsol Honda Team today at the French track of Le Mans; Dani Pedrosa won the pole at the end of the second session and Andrea Dovizioso was 5th, this means that tomorrow they start on the first and second rows respectively.
In the morning the two Repsol Honda Team riders were already showing what they were capable of, Pedrosa set the second best time – 4 tenths behind the American rider Colin Edwards, and his teammate Andrea Dovizioso was 5th, just seven tenths slower. During the morning session the two Repsol riders concentrated on their set up work and working out which tyres to use for the race tomorrow.
In the afternoon, during the definitive qualification session, both Pedrosa as well as Dovizioso took advantage of the first half of the session to do a long set of laps on the tyres chosen for the race checking on their performance after a long run of laps. The two started the second half of the session up with the leaders, the Spaniard 5th and the Italian 4th, even after changing from one of the two bikes they have available to the other and back again after making small changes to the set up.
Twenty-three minutes from the end of the session Pedrosa went out onto the track with a soft compound on his rear tyre to try and finish as high as possible in qualification. His teammate Dovizioso did the same with just 18 minutes left, the two quickly began to climb on the leaderboard. After a first set of five laps Dani was up to 4th, he then went back to the pits. The Repsol Honda Team rider then returned when there were 8 minutes left before the end with the intention of winning the pole position. He had five laps to get the best he could out of his machine. On the final lap, a perfect lap, he set the best time; though just 5 thousandths separated him from his compatriot Lorenzo, 2nd. This is the Repsol rider’s first pole this season.
Andrea Dovizioso, who had fallen down to 7th, also did a final set of four laps and was able to lower his times until at the end of the session he was 5th, guaranteeing himself a second row start in tomorrow’s race.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’33.974 secs, 57laps, 239 km. >> Audio
“Obviously I’m really happy with pole today and it was a very close battle for the front row. Right at the end we were able to set the fastest lap and I’m really pleased for the team as well as for myself. Being on the front row is important, and it’s also lucky that we had good weather for this afternoon and for most of the morning session because this allowed us to test a few set-up options and learn more about the machine at this track. We still have work to do before the race though, so we’re not going to relax at all. It’s a long race tomorrow and there are some improvements I’d like to make to the machine settings to give us a good chance. And of course the weather can play a big part at this circuit as we’ve seen many times before. We have to prepare for many conditions, so we’re staying focused.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’34.300 secs, 55 laps, 230 km. >> Audio
“Starting from the second row is ok and I feel I could have gone quicker still if I’d managed to get the maximum from the soft tyre. I’m happy though, because I had a good rhythm and was able to maintain a fast pace on both the soft and hard Bridgestone tyre options during the practice sessions. We will have to take a lot of care with the tyre selection because, with the changeable weather situation and temperature here, the choice of tyres for the race will be crucial. It’s likely that we won’t know which ones to use until just before the race when we’ll have the best idea of the conditions. Tonight we’ll study a few more setting adjustments and aim to finalise things in the warm-up. I like this track and I’m looking forward to the race.”
