The Repsol Honda Team`s good performance in yesterday`s first free practice session before the British GP continued today on this the second day. The sun played an important role, no rain at all, working to the benefit of the Repsol riders in the top category of motorbike racing. Dani Pedrosa will start on the first row tomorrow after setting the secound best time, and his teammate Andrea Dovizioso will be on the second row, after finishing fifth today.
In the second free practice for the MotoGP riders this morning the two Repsol Honda Team riders showed what they were capable of, Dani Pedrosa once again setting the best time and Andrea Dovizioso fnishing with the 7th fastest time.
In the afternoon, the definitive qualification session started with the two riders working on the set up for tomorrow`s race. The softest compound tyres that Bridgestone had taken to the track in the UK, and in the Repsol Honda Team`s pits, were not used until the second half of the session.
The first to try and get a front row start for tomorrow was the Repsol Honda Team`s Italian rider, and he did so when there were 25 minutes left. At that moment Dovizioso occupied 7th position and his teammate Pedrosa, who went out with the softest compound 4 minutes later, did so when he was in 3rd position.
Dovizioso moved up to 4th in the overall, but eventually fell back to 5th by the end of the session, getting a very positive second row start for the race. Dani was always among the leading three and had an interesting duel with the Italian Valentino Rossi for the pole position. In spite of qualifying first with just a minute and a half left in the end Rossi managed to finish in pole position with an advantage of one tenth of a second. So in the end, pole for Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa second and Jorge Lorenzo third.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’28.211 secs, 62 laps, 249 km >> Audio
“We did a good job in both sessions today and I’m happy to qualify on the front row because, in reality, that’s more important than taking pole position. On my last run at the end of the qualifying session I found some traffic on the circuit which caused me to lose my concentration and rhythm slightly, so I think I could have gone a little quicker. But still, the middle of the front row is OK. Our dry set-up is nearly there so we’ll aim to make just a few little improvements before the race. The weather is looking changeable for tomorrow, though at least we’ve had some practice time in the wet yesterday. If it’s raining I’d like to improve my riding and my pace a bit but the weather is out of our control so we’ll have to see. It’s the last MotoGP race at Donington tomorrow and of course I’d like a good result to sign off with – pref erably a win”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’28.778 secs, 65 laps, 261 km >> Audio
“Starting from the second row is not a bad place to be and gives us a chance to get away at the head of the field so I’m satisfied with that. A fast start tomorrow should give us a good opportunity to have a strong race. Having said that, I really like this track and I was hoping to be in a slightly better situation going into tomorrow both in terms of grid position and race pace. We still need to improve our speed and consistency and there is some work to do to take us closer to the frontrunners and be fully competitive. We need to improve on the entry to the corner and also to work on traction, so we’ll look at the data we collected today and I’m confident my team can help me to make these improvements. It could rain tomorrow too, so we’ll come in ready for anything”.
