Weather conditions spread uncertainty over the Grand Prix of China.
Dani Pedrosa, second in the 250cc, and Nicky Hayden fifth in MotoGP, best Repsol riders. Rain forecasted for tomorrow, causing trouble to teams.
The weather, despite the constant threat of rain, respected the second practice day of the Grand Prix of China, allowing to improve the times set yesterday in the three classes. Only the intermittent drizzle during the last minutes of the quarter-of-a-litre session threatened to moisten the track, but fortunately it remained a threat and the session finished without any incident. Good and bad results for the riders of the Repsol Honda Team in the MotoGP class.
Positive practice for the North American rider Nicky Hayden, who after setting the fastest time of yesterday’s two free practices, was tenth in this morning’s third free session. Conscientiously preparing his bike for the race, Hayden pushed hard during the last moments of the afternoon’s practice on qualifying tyres to get a place on the second row of the grid after setting the fifth fastest time. His teammate Max Biaggi, who is still having trouble finding a setting to allow him ride comfortably and with confidence on his Honda, was twelfth in the morning and fourteenth in the afternoon, setting him back to the fifth row of the starting grid. The Italian rider of the Repsol Honda Team will race tomorrow his 200th Grand Prix.
In the 250cc, Dani Pedrosa was fastest in the morning’s free practice and stayed in the lead of the timing sheets almost throughout the qualifying session. However a splendid last lap of the Australian rider Stoner, winner of the Grand Prix of Portugal, hindered the Repsol rider from taking the pole position of the starting grid. With Stoner first and Pedrosa second, the first row of the grid is completed by Dovizioso and a surprising Jorge Lorenzo. Significant presence of Repsol riders in the second row with Aoyama fifth, Barberá sixth, Randy De Puniet seventh and Sebastián Porto eighth. Both of Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupils did not have a good day, suffering from set-up problems they will have to solve together with their teams before the race if they want to have the chance for a place on the podium.
In the minor class, Héctor Faubel has been again the fastest of the Repsol riders. Despite the set-up problems he’s been having throughout the weekend, Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupil clocked the tenth fastest time this afternoon, taking a place on the third row of the starting grid. Twenty-seventh yesterday during the first qualifying practice, the results this morning weren’t promising either, after setting the thirty-first fastest time. However, the Repsol rider and his technical team managed to solve the setting problems in the afternoon’s second and definitive qualifying practice, improving times and taking the tenth place on the starting grid.
Standings:
125
- Kallio (KTM) 2.13.535
- Simoncelli (Aprilia) 2.13.631
- Talmacsi (KTM) 2.14.293
- Luthi (Honda) 2.14.341
10.Faubel (Aprilia) 2.15.489
250
- Stoner (Aprilia) 2.06.196
- Pedrosa (Honda) 2.06.214
- Dovizioso (Honda) 2.06.473
- Lorenzo (Honda) 2.06.544
- Aoyama (Honda) 2.06.615
7. Puniet (Aprilia) 2.07.653
8. Porto (Aprilia) 2.07.665
MotoGP
- Gibernau (Honda) 1.59.710
- Melandri (Honda) 1.59.873
- Capirossi (Ducati) 2.00.480
- Hopkins (Suzuki) 2.00.666
- Hayden (Honda) 2.00.747
14.Biaggi (Honda) 2.01.502
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
5th, 2’00.747, 22 laps.
5th on the grid
Third free practice 10th, 2’03.772, 15 laps.
‘It definitely hasn’t been easy here. The weather has made things difficult – even in the qualifying session it was spitting with rain sometimes and then the sun comes out. The track surface has been changing so much. We’ve had a lot of Michelin tyre options and we’re not fully sorted yet. My biggest problem is the front and getting it to hold the line. We’re not in a bad position on the grid although I was hoping for a front row. I didn’t get as much as I wanted from my qualifiers or as I should have. Anyhow, I look forward to race day. It’s my favourite part of the weekend. It’s where the fun’s at.’
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
14th, 2’01.502, 23 laps.
14th on the grid.
Third free practice 12th, 2’03.957, 16 laps.
‘Fourteenth on the grid, with more than 1.7 seconds gap from the pole: how to explain my performance today especially after last race’s third place? In this circuit cornering is much more important than everywhere else and it’s exactly in the turns that my bike shows its biggest problems. It’s the same condition I had to face in Jerez. I must close the throttle ten meters before entering the turn and open it ten meters after going out. I’m losing more than one tenth in each corner: if you multiply it by the 14 turns of the track the count is right. It must be evident that the top speed doesn’t count when you have to corner and here we spend 80 % of the time banking over. It seems that the bike that made me struggle in Spain comes back here in China, surprisingly after the good race I did in Estoril. There I got the podium, a few meters from Rossi, so no one can tell that I forgot how to ride. The situation is very heavy. I must start once again from the back of the grid, with no chance to fight for the positions I deserve.’
250. Randy De Puniet
7th, 2’07.653, 17 laps.
7th on the grid.
Second free practice 10th, 2’09.045, 21 laps.
‘This practice session has been very complicated due to the conditions we’ve had to work with. I’ve given my best but the results haven’t come out as expected so I think that we’re not working on the right direction. We’ll have to keep on working this afternoon to try to improve the bike. It isn’t working badly in general terms, but I think that there’s a lot we can improve as regards the gearbox and the chassis. I’ll be starting the race from the second row of the grid and I think that if I make a good start, I’ll be able to be in the leading group to fight for the podium.’
250. Sebastián Porto
8th, 2’07.665, 15 laps.
8th on the grid.
Second free practice 6th, 2’08.048, 19 laps.
‘The weekend is being really complicated for me because the rain and the problems we’re having with the bike don’t allow us to follow a consistent working line. Now we’re going to analyse everything we’ve done so far to reject the elements that haven’t been working well. We won’t be at a 100% tomorrow, but we’ll surely be much better than today. It’s going to be a complicated race and I hope to be able to be in the front with chances to everything.’
250.Dani Pedrosa
2nd, 2’06. 214, 16 laps.
2nd on the grid.
Second free practice 1st, 2’06.847, 21 laps.
‘Things went a bit better today compared to yesterday, because the track was in better conditions. The most important was getting a place on the front row. At the beginning it seemed to be a circuit that would be favourable for the Aprilias because it has two very long straights, but in the end the disadvantage seems not to be that big. Depending on the weather tomorrow, we’re going to have more or less chances to fight for the victory; let’s hope for good weather; now we can only wait for the daybreak. The first part of the circuit is short and overtaking is difficult, but I hope to make a good start. It will be a hard race tomorrow, because the circuit is really long and we’ll have to cover 21 laps, and we’ll obviously be very careful if it starts to rain. We haven’t yet decided everything for tomorrow’s race, we’ll finish the setting this afternoon together with the team.’
125. Héctor Faubel
10th, 2’15.489, 9 laps.
10th on the grid.
Second free practice 31st, 2’27.994, 14 laps.
‘I’ve been having a lot of problems along the weekend and, due to the rain, we haven’t been able to work well. It was cloudy at daybreak again and it even started to drizzle in the morning. But we were lucky during the qualifying practice: the track was dry and I was able to improve my time. I’ve been very fast at the beginning of the session and I was even in the front, but when I got back on the track to make my fast lap I took a wrong reference and wasn’t able to improve my time. Tomorrow’s race will be very complicated because none of us has references and it will depend on the team’s work and on the set-up we’ll use for the race.’
