Second and third row for the Repsol Honda Team riders in Mugello.
Nicky Hayden sets the fourth fastest time and Dani Pedrosa is eighth under cold weather conditions.
Some forecasts say rain, others predict a light improvement and higher temperatures for tomorrow, but the big doubt in the paddock this weekend continues to be the weather. Hoping for good weather to allow for a normal development of the races, the positions of the three starting grids were decided this afternoon. In MotoGP, Repsol rider Nicky Hayden is one of the favourites for the fight for the victory tomorrow. Hayden was second in the morning during the third free practices and fourth in the afternoon’s timed session, thus getting a place on the second row of the grid. The North American rider is less then one tenth behind the places on the front row. Team mate Dani Pedrosa who is discovering the secrets of the Mugello track on his MotoGP bike step by step, was ninth in the morning and eighth in the afternoon’s qualifying practice. He will start tomorrow from the third row of the starting grid.
In the 250cc Shuhei Aoyama continued today with his quick learning process in Mugello, and after setting the fourteenth fastest time in the morning, he managed to be ninth in the last instants of the afternoon’s timed session.
Thus he will be starting tomorrow from the third row of the grid. Team mate Sebastián Porto, who doesn’t feel comfortable on his bike yet, finished the qualifying session in a very back twentieth position, forcing him to take the start of tomorrow’s race from the fifth row of the grid.In the 125cc, Bradley Smith was not able to keep the excellent eighth position on the provisional starting grid he had taken yesterday. On the completely dry track, the young Repsol rider dropped back this afternoon, and hopes for the rain to show up tomorrow in order to be able to get a good result in Mugello.
Rider´s comments
Dani Pedrosa,
53 laps, 277’98 Km:
‘Today we improved a lot which I’m pleased about because yesterday I was quite a long way from the front, but of course tomorrow is the important day. Qualifying in eighth is not perfect for me but the lap-times are pretty close so it’s ok. This position means I will have to make a good start tomorrow so that the leaders don’t get away – that’s going to be crucial. I am getting a little more comfortable here, but this is not my favourite track and it’s very physical on this bike, I will try to adapt some more. I think the set-up for the race is quite good, but we will have to see how the tyre performance goes tomorrow. We’ll find out what we can in the warm up, but only the race will tell.’
Nicky Hayden,
53 laps, 277.98 Km:
‘We definitely closed the gap to the leaders a bit more today. We made a few pretty big changes overnight that seemed to help so thanks to the guys for working really hard. This morning I was able to drop the pace and get closer to the front, but we’ve got to take another big step with the bike tomorrow if we want to run with these Italians. We definitely improved in our weak spots, but our top speed isn’t very good today so we need to look and see if there’s anything we can do with the transmission. I’m excited for tomorrow and they say the sun’s going to shine. It’s going to be a battle and I hope to be right in the middle of the dog-fight having some fun.’
Shuhei Aoyama,
43 laps, 225.3 Km:
‘I’m happy. Everything is working out as planned so far. Every time I went onto the track I’ve been faster, and bit by bit I have learned the track. The most important is exactly that: to see a constant improvement, because we’re starting from cero. The grid position is good; I think that if I can make a good start and stick to the leading group, I’ll be able to repeat the fight for the front positions like in Le Mans, although this circuit is much more difficult.’
Sebastián Porto,
39 laps, 204.5 Km:
‘It’s the same as always, the truth is that there isn’t much more to say. We still have problems, I don’t manage to be fast with this bike, it doesn’t adapt, there’s no way. We have changed things and the bike hinders me from being fast. Above all I’m angry, because I’m the same as always and the bike is hindering me. If you analyse the times, I won here two years ago, and I’m three seconds behind the circuit record which is still mine, so if you analyse all that you get even more angry. But, well, we have to look forward as I’ve always done and try to give our very best tomorrow with what we have, to see if we can improve a bit more; and tomorrow we’ll fight as always and do it the best we can.’
Bradley Smith,
34 laps, 178.33 Km:
‘I’m not happy at all. Eight in the first qualifying, then sixteenth in the dry, I was really happy and then from out of the blue, something I didn’t expect& thirty-second. I don’t know, or a moment I was wondering whether there was something wrong with the bike because I just felt that I was on the limit and pushed so hard and nothing seemed to work, it didn’t matter whether I was going slow or fast or try to be more aggressive or trying to be smooth it just didn’t see to make any difference. So, thirty-second is my worst qualifying so far but maybe we can pull something out in the race.’
Standings
MotoGP
- S.Gibernau (Ducati) 1’48.969
- L.Capirossi (Ducati) 1’49.058
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 1’49.167
- N.Hayden (Honda) 1’49.212
- S.Nakano (Kawasaki) 1’49.328
8. D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1’49.516
250
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 1’53.787
- Y.Takahashi (Honda) 1’54.174
- R.Locatelli (Aprilia) 1’54.309
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 1’54.329
- A.Dovizioso (Honda) 1’54.380
125
- L.Pesek (Derbi) 1’58.202
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 1’58.335
- H.Faubel (Aprilia) 1’58.851
- F.Lai (Honda) 1’58.934
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 1’59.008
32. B.Smith (Honda) 2’01.547
