Repsol Honda Team rider Nicky Hayden, fastest on the demanding australian track.
Dani Pedrosa, still physically undermined due to his injured right knee, finishes tenth and will start tomorrow from the fourth row of the starting grid.
Nicky Hayden was fastest today in the definitive qualifying session, after setting the second fastest time in this morning’s third free practice behind a surprising Carlos Checa. On a circuit in which riders on Bridgestone tyres are being especially competitive, the rider of the Repsol Honda Team managed to make a perfect lap in the final instants of the session. It was a fast lap that automatically boosted him to the lead of the MotoGP time sheets. Hayden will take the start of tomorrows race from the advantageous first position. And while the leader of the World Championship is trying to recover the path that took him to the lead of the overall standings since the Turkish Grand Prix, the second classified and also Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa continues suffering the consequences of his strong crash at the practise session of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Pedrosa, fifteenth this morning in the third free practice of the Australian Grand Prix, pulled through the pain of his hurt knee this afternoon to move up to the tenth position, fourth row of the grid. The wound is closing without there being an infection but the pain in the kneecap makes the brave Repsol rider remember that only one week ago he was doubting about taking part in last week’s race in Malaysia. Pedrosa will start tomorrow from a place quite further in the back than in Malaysia but fortunately he will do it in better physical conditions.
In the 250cc, Shuhei Aoyama had a big fright during the qualifying session. At the end of the main straight the Repsol rider hit a big seagull that completely disintegrated after the crash. Shuhei had to go back to the garage due to the intense pain he felt in the upper area of his right arm. After recovering from the fright and checking that there was nothing broken, the Japanese rider went back onto the track and was even able to improve his times, getting a place on the third row of the starting grid after setting the eleventh fastest time. Team mate Martín Cárdenas, who was forced to retire yesterday after the doctors of the circuit discovered that he had a small fissure in the collarbone he had fractured during the Dutch Grand Prix flew back to Colombia this morning where the will undergo surgery again in the next days to solve his physical problems.
Bradley Smith finally managed to take a place on the fifth row of the grid this afternoon. After setting the sixteenth fastest time this morning and the fifteenth this afternoon in the second and decisive qualifying session, the sum of the times on both days have given Bradley the seventeenth position on the grid so he will be starting tomorrow from row five. Still a bit sore due to the injury in his left arm, the Repsol rider hopes to be able to make a good start tomorrow and to score again some points.
Rider´s comments
Nicky Hayden:
Its really nice to be on pole and to get a good lap in. That Michelin qualifier worked so good and my bike felt awesome for that one lap. I was able to open the throttle as hard as I liked and it was really fun though it doesnt count for anything other than a really good grid position. I knew before the start of my lap that my timing wasnt good and I wasnt going to get use my last qualifier so I knew I had to get in a good lap. On race pace Im struggling a bit and I just cannot find any traction. Weve changed everything on the bike to try and get some grip and not just spin the tyre. Nonetheless it feels good to get a good lap in – weve still got some work to do if we want to do 27 of them tomorrow.
Dani Pedrosa:
Today we worked on set-up and my feeling on the bike was not quite as good as Id have liked. We are tenth on the grid and that is not fantastic but its much better than 15th which is where I have been for a lot of the weekend. I was able to ride quite hard on the qualifying tyre, but Im losing a lot of time on every lap in the first sector so I will have to improve that for the race. The bike set-up is not bad, although we still have to decide on the right Michelin race tyre. Tomorrow is another day so Im not sure of my potential yet. I dont know yet if Ill have painkillers I prefer not to but it may be necessary.
Shuhei Aoyama:
‘I had a big fright today. I was riding all the way down the main straight and just when I was going to enter the first corner a big bird crashed against my arm. I dont know how fast I was riding at that moment, but it must have been very fast because it was at the end of the main straight. I felt a strong blow and it hurt a lot. I even thought that something was broken, but my hand seemed to be working well, so I decided to go into the garage because I had a lot of pain. I just took some minutes to rest; I needed to relax a bit from the fright and then went back on the track. Everything seems to be OK now, but I dont know how it will look like tomorrow.’
Bradley Smith:
The second day didnt go as well as the first day. Not only because of the result but also because of the lap times and how I felt. The first session was pretty difficult and we had a lot to test. I never really got the lap times that I should have which meant we were quite far back. In the second session I wasnt able to find my pace but as soon as we put on the new rear tyres I felt good and was setting some good times in traffic. I left it a bit late and I got to the last lap and tried that extra bit more. We got the fastest lap sector in T1 but as I came round the corner into Honda Hairpin I just tried to out brake someone and went straight on so its a shame because I know that we could have been a lot further up. But the good thing is that we dont have to change nothing with the bike tomorrow. Hopefully we can get a good start and keep with the people. The lap times are so close so I think its going to be groups so Ill try to go with them and do my best. My arm is OK. When Im riding its not a problem its rather afterwards. Maybe the vibrations but weve been icing it so its not really a problem.
Standings
MotoGP
- N.Hayden (Honda) 1’29.020
- S.Nakano (Kawasaki) 1’29.258
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 1’29.271
- K.Roberts (KR) 1’29.662
- C.Edwards (Yamaha) 1’29.680
10. D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1’30.081
250
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 1’32.717
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 1’33.602
- S.Guintoli (Aprilia) 1’33.732
- A.Dovizioso (Honda) 1’33.866
- M.Simoncelli (Gilera) 1’33.941
11. S.Aoyama (Honda) 1’34.717
NC. M.Cárdenas (Honda)
125
- M.Kallio (KTM) 1’36.625
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 1’36.800
- L.Pesek (Derbi) 1’37.056
- T.Luthi (Honda) 1’37.084
- J.Olivé (Aprilia) 1’37.220
17. B.Smith (Honda) 1’37.927
