The sun is out in Le Mans, high temperatures accompany it and the MotoGP show is getting ready to shine again this weekend. After the qualifying session was held this afternoon, everything is ready for a new and frenetic MotoGP World Championship race, following a thrilling qualifying session in which the main candidates for the premier class title continued to set the difference.
Dani Pedrosa, who topped the timesheets two minutes before the end, will start from the right-hand side of the front row of the starting grid, which will be headed by Valentino Rossi. Andrea Dovizioso will start from the third row, after clocking up the seventh best time.
In the free practice held in this morning, Pedrosa already showed signs of improvement compared to yesterday, setting the fourth best time at the end of the session, one position in front of his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. Both riders continued to work focusing on tomorrow’s race, trying to get the best setup to keep up a fast race pace.
In the afternoon, in the qualifying session, both Repsol Honda Team riders continued to work on the setup of their machines until, twenty minutes before the end, they went out on the track with the softest compound rear tyres and the clear intention of taking a spot in the front row of the starting grid. Pedrosa reached the top of the timesheets in the last few minutes, but Rossi and Lorenzo finally beat him by barely a tenth. Andrea Dovizioso, with adjustments that in the afternoon did not work as expected, finished seventh and first in the third row of the starting grid.
Dani Pedrosa, 3rd 1m 33.573s +0.165s >> Audio
“At the end of the session we could put in a good final lap which has put us on the front row, and this is very important because the lap times are very close here. For the race we need to find some tenths of a second per lap in order to be able to keep a high pace, and at this track you have to be very focused because the race is long and it’s really important to be consistent and not to make any mistakes. Anyway I think we are in a good position. Now we will sit down with the team and work on the improvements to up our race pace. We’ve had good weather so far this weekend and it looks like it will continue tomorrow so we’ve been lucky this time. From the front row I hope to make a good start and give myself the best chance in the race”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 7th 1m 34.204s +0.796s >> Audio
“I cannot be happy to start from the third row because this has the potential to make the race more complicated. So it will it be important to make a good start and stay with the front group – that’s the plan now. Our race pace is not so bad but we need to improve it a little more. Compared to this morning the feeling with the front was not quite as good and I think this was because of some set-up changes that we made, and also the gap to the front riders was a bit bigger this afternoon. Anyway we have some ideas of what we can improve and I’m ready to give it my best in the race”.
