The rain keeps friday´s positions unaltered.
Valentino Rossi keeps the pole in MotoGP, Pedrosa second in 125, Porto sixth and Nieto ninth in 250
Little changes today at the second practice day of the Japanese Grand Prix. The rain and the cold weather have hindered the riders from improving yesterday’s times, so that the classifications remained almost unaltered. In MotoGP, Valentino Rossi will be starting from the first position of the grid, despite making the eighth fastest time today. His team-mate Nicky Hayden, who tomorrow will be taking part in his first Grand Prix ever, finished eleventh fastest today, showing a very good performance under wet conditions. However, the North American’s fastest time of today wasn’t enough to improve yesterday’s time and he will be starting from the twenty-third position of the grid.
In the 250 GP, the situation was similar to that of MotoGP this afternoon, although several riders, including the Repsol riders Toni Elias and Joan Olivé, were not able to qualify for the race due to today’s weather conditions and yesterday’s strange situation. Yesterday, only a few minutes after the start of the qualifying practice, the rain showed up hindering several riders from riding on a dry track, without having the possibility to make the necessary times to qualify for a place on the starting grid. According to the Regulations, a rider does not qualify if his time is a 107% over the best time of the qualifying practice, i.e. the pole time.
Therefore, Toni Elias and other riders would have been excluded from the race after what happened yesterday and not having been able to improve their times today. But there is also another rule stating that the Race Direction is able to readmit a rider, who, despite not having been able to qualify due to given circumstances, is considered to be fast enough to take part in the race. As a consequence both Elias and Olivé were allowed to take the start tomorrow, the first of them on the twenty-seventh and the second on the thirtieth position. Fonsi Nieto will be starting from the ninth position and Sebastian Porto from the sixth.
In the minor category, there haven’t been surprises either and the valid times are those clocked yesterday. Therefore, Pedrosa will be starting second behind De Angelis, Barberá will start from the ninth position and Pablo Nieto from the eleventh.
