Yesterday`s intense rain made way today, to the surprise of everybody present, to a dry day with a lot of wind and even some sunshine at dusk. Therefore, after the numerous problems yesterday with the flooded track, today the riders in the three categories have been able to dispute the second and definitive classification session without too many problems. In the morning, the 125cc. and MotoGP riders had to ride carefully, since although it didn’t rain the track was still damp after overnight rain.
For the Repsol Honda Team riders there was a positive second day of practice at Indianapolis. Nicky Hayden was very competitive in the two practice sessions. In the morning Hayden gave a series of spectacular skids to the public present when the track was still not completely dry. Although he began with rain tyres by the end of the session he was using slicks. Hayden set the third best time in the morning during the final free practice session. For Dani Pedrosa, today was also a very fruitful day, since the Repsol Honda Team rider rode with his new Bridgestone tyres on dry asphalt, very welcome after yesterday´s difficult conditions. Pedrosa set the fourth best time this morning in the free practice, just a tenth behind his teammate Nicky Hayden.
In the definitive classification session in the afternoon, the two Repsol Team Honda riders had different experiences. Nicky Hayden was very competitive during the whole session, always among the fastest five, while Pedrosa, concentrating on learning and to getting used to the new Bridgestone race tyres as quick as possible, finished in tenth position. When the moment arrived to go out with the rear qualification tyre, Hayden went for broke on all his four attempts. On the first and third he was first, but both times he was overtaken by several rivals. Finally, on his fourth attempt he was third fastest behind Rossi and Stoner, but later on Lorenzo also overtook him, in the end he will be in fourth position on the starting grid. Dani Pedrosa got better as the time passed, also having four attempts with the qualification tyre; in the end he was the eighth fastest and so tomorrow he will start from third line row of the grid.
FALLS WITHOUT HARM FOR JULIÁN SIMÓN & ESTEVE RABAT
In 250cc, Julián Simón suffered a small fall this morning on corner number 6, a left-hander. Fortunately he was unhurt but the incident made him and his team lose a lot of time, and so he was quite pleased with his 10th position on the starting grid tomorrow.
In 125cc, Esteve Rabat also suffered a fall, but in his case it was quite a bit more unfortunate, since he fell in the afternoon at the beginning of the second and definitive classification session. Rabat returned to the pits where his team saw that his motorbike had been damaged at both the front as well as rear. The front was repaired, but the rear end did not work very well, and this prevented him from improving his times by much. In the end Rabat set the 21st fastest time.
The young Marc Márquez, after surprising everybody yesterday with an excellent performance in the rain, began the day by setting the sixth best time. In the afternoon, in the definitive classification session, some problems with the set up on his bike prevented him from getting a position among the first ten, at the end of the session he was in 13th place.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’41.754 sec, 49 laps, 194 Km. >> Audio
“Today was the first time that I have used Bridgestone qualifying tyres, so it was quite difficult because I was trying to study the tyres while at the same time trying to push for the best possible-grid position. The fact with qualifying tyres is that you can only be really fast once you know them very well. I was able improve my times with my third qualifier, so I think the third row is not such a bad result, considering the circumstances. As for race tyres, I wasn’t able to do too many consecutive laps because we had so little dry-track time. Therefore we still need to define some details for race-tyre choice but overall I feel quite fine. We also need to work to better understand my new machine, which is very different from the machine I had been using, especially considering the electronics. All in all, I’m confident, we are gaining important experience and improving every time I go out. I hope we will have a dry race tomorrow. If it’s going to rain like it did yesterday afternoon then we will discuss with Race Direction the best course of action.”
Nicky Hayden, 1’41.271 sec, 53 laps, 223 Km.
“That was nearly the front row but outside on the second row ain’t a bad spot. I feel this is the best race pace I’ve had in a while; a few times when I’ve qualified good this year it’s just been one lap with a qualifier. I enjoyed today, even this morning in the damp. Yesterday in the heavy rain, man, I was hydroplaning everywhere, it wasn’t any fun. I had a lot more fun today, the bike was working a lot better, we made some geometry tweaks to make it feel better and I was able to be more consistent. The bike certainly felt pretty good and the Michelin tyres felt pretty good. For the race it’s surely looking wet. It would be awesome to catch a break and get in a dry race, because I feel this is the best race package I’ve had in a while. If it’s dry we’ve got an idea on tyres. If it’s wet, my set-up yesterday wasn’t working real good. If it’s heavy, heavy rain we need to do something different. It would’ve been nice to be on the front row, we could certainly use a bit of a boost because my guys are working real hard and I’ve got a lot of support here: friends, family and fans. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, try to have a bit of fun, see how it goes. The special helmet paint is for the Indianapolis Colts. When I was a kid I played Pop Warner football and I was a Colt, that was my team. It was me, my little brother and one of my best friends. Colts have always been my favourite team. And the horseshoe, maybe I could do with a bit of good luck!”
Julián Simón, 1’46.687 secs, 42 laps, 177km. >> Audio
“This morning I fell and that complicated things concerning the tests we had planned to do. I had to test with the second bike, and even with this bike I was able to ride fast right away in the free practice. We decided to continue with it because it felt more comfortable. In the classification session we began with a more or less fast pace, and halfway through the session I set the best lap. At the end, as always, we mounted a new tyre and I improved my time a little more. But I made a mistake on curve 11 and I lost control of the rear wheel. I almost fell. On the following curve the same thing happened again, and I was no longer able to go faster. I will start 10th, although I think that tomorrow I can be in the leading group if I make a good start and maintain a good pace on the first few laps. We will fight to do this.”
Esteve Rabat, 1’53.115 secs, 33 laps, 139km. >> Audio
“The day did not begin badly but in the afternoon I fell and I broke both the front brake as well as the rear one. We were able to fix the front one, but not the rear one, so I went out with only one brake. That meant that I could not compensate the weights of the motorbike very well and the steering was constantly closing on me. I did what I was able to. Tomorrow we will have to make a big effort at the start, and to try to latch onto a group.”
Marc Márquez, 1’52.069 secs, 35 laps, 148km. >> Audio
“Today was a complicated day, since nobody had a good set up and some riders guessed right before others had found the best adjustments. To me things went fairly well, although for tomorrow we can improve quite a few things. The objective will be to do the best we can, and try to finish up among the leading ten.”
