Second pole in a row for Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP.
After the success in China, were the Repsol rider took his first pole and victory in MotoGP, Pedrosa managed to set another pole today. Nicky Hayden, with a heavy cold, is tenth
Dani Pedrosa has been flying low again, this time over the French track of Le Mans. After the successful weekend at the Shanghai circuit, were the Repsol rider took his first pole and victory in the class, Dani has shown his quality once again today at the French track, where the weather finally respected the timed practices allowing them to be staged under dry conditions.
Dani Pedrosa, who had been ninth fastest yesterday and has scored three victories in his last three visits to Le Mans – 125cc in 2003 and 250cc in 2004 and 2005, kept himself in intermediate positions throughout the qualifying session until, with twenty minutes to go, the young Repsol rider started with his rise to the leading positions. Being faster than his rivals was no easy task, considering that, in the first of his two fast laps, a slower rider made him loose some tenths. But Pedrosa had a second try left and he made good use of it clocking a better time than Japanese rider Nakano – who had been on pole so far – some 2 tenths faster. Team mate Nicky Hayden, quite weakened due to a heavy cold, was not able to be better than tenth today, thus having to take the start tomorrow from the fourth row of the grid, his worst starting position since the beginning of the 2006 Wold Championship.
In the 250cc, positive performance of Japanese rider Shuhei Aoyama, who was able to set the third fastest time in the second qualifying session this afternoon, on his second day at the French track. However, Shuhei will start tomorrow from the second row of the grid with the fifth fastest time because Barberá and De Angelis were faster than the Japanese rider of the Repsol Honda Team 250cc yesterday. Sebastián Porto, seventh on Friday, dropped back to tenth today, after not being able to improve the time set yesterday and being passed by three riders.
The riders of the minor class had to overcome a lot of weather complications this morning. The rain did not stop throughout the session causing more than fifteen crashes, some of them even crashed twice. This was the case of young Repsol rider Bradley Smith, who crashed during the free session while lapping on second position, being forced to get back to his garage. He was back on the track only a few minutes later but a further crash finally ruined the morning practices of the young Repsol rider who had to settle for nineteenth. In the afternoon and recovered from the morning incident, Smith was not able to improve the position he had taken yesterday – twenty-second – and fell back to twenty-fifth, seventh row of tomorrow’s starting grid.
Rider´s comments
Dani Pedrosa,
50 laps, 209 Km.
‘Of course I am happy to be on pole again, but the important day is tomorrow! Today the practice was difficult because it was very windy, but it was dry, so that was good. At the beginning of the session I didn’t make the most of the practice time – I made some mistakes and I had some traffic. I was not riding so well on race tyres and at the start of the session I didn’t really do a good job. But then, at the end, I focused on the job and I got in to a better rhythm. We found a good race tyre so I’m happy about that and the set-up for the bike tomorrow for the race, if it’s dry, can be good. I’ll be hoping to make a great start and have a good race – we’ll have to wait to see what the weather does.’
Nicky Hayden,
53 laps, 221’54 Km.
‘Sure I’m not happy about starting tenth. Things felt pretty good this morning in full wet conditions – we felt pretty strong. But in the dry we’re definitely struggling to get some traction and in these long corners I’m losing a lot of time. We’ll just have to put our heads together tonight and come up with a better combination for tomorrow and do the best we can. We’ve got a few ideas for how we can improve things and I believe in the people around me here in the Repsol Honda Team – it’s important to have good guys in my corner. Also, thanks to Doctor Costa and his crew for taking good care of me, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel a bit better.’
Shuhei Aoyama,
46 laps, 192’28 Km.
‘Today I really can say that I’m very happy, although I do no forget that there’s still the race tomorrow, which is what really counts. We’ve made good practice sessions with the team and we have the right set-up for the race, so tomorrow can be a good day for us. I’ve made up my mind and I’m going to take the start and the first laps with a certain ease, but then I’m decided to fight for the leading positions. The bike, the team and me are ready to make a good race tomorrow.’
Sebastián Porto,
43 laps, 179’74 Km.
‘Well, it hasn’t been bad. We haven’t been able to improve the lap time set yesterday but the wind hindered us a lot today. The truth is that it made things really complicated for us today. The bike is quite small and the fairing doesn’t really cover me, so I think that today we’ve had trouble with that. Now we have to work and see if we can change the fairing for the future because I think that one of the main reasons for not having been able to be more in the front today has to deal with that, with having a fairing that does not manage to protect me from the wind. We’ve had a progression, the pace for tomorrow is good and the race is something different. We are all together so let’s hope for a good race.’
Bradley Smith,
27 laps, 112’86 Km.
‘It was bad but it was good. To be in second position in the morning was a big step forward for us even though it was wet. However, my feeling with the bike was completely different before in the wet. The bike seemed good, I was able to push. I was pushing hard on what could have been a provisional pole lap and then for no apparent reason I just lost the rear tyre and crashed. But it gave me a lot of confidence for the afternoon; I did a faster lap than I had done on Friday morning. I tried to go out on my own and I put in a quick lap two laps before the end. I ended-up twenty-fifth which is a lot better than China, a row forward, but still it’s not where I want to be. We just have to make sure we get a good start tomorrow, it’s a long way to the first corner and it’s quite narrow so I’ll try to go through the inside and see what we can do from there.’
Standings
MotoGP
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1’33.990
- S.Nakano (Kawasaki) 1’34.201
- J. Hopkins (Suzuki) 1’34.636
- R. de Puniet (Kawasaki) 1’34.780
- M.Melandri (Honda) 1’34.795
10. N.Hayden (Honda) 1’34.988
250
- A.Dovizioso (Honda) 1’39.733
- A. de Angelis (Aprilia) 1’39.797
- H.Barberá (Aprilia) 1’39.827
- Y,Takahashi (Honda) 1’39.974
- S.Aoyama (Honda) 1’40.009
10. S.Porto (Honda) 1’40.708
125
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 1’44.515
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 1’44.764
- L.Pesek (Derbi) 1’44.834
- G.Talmacsi (Honda) 1’44.974
- L.Zanetti (Aprilia) 1’45.344
25. B.Smith (Honda) 1’47.396
