Rain had been forecast for the whole day and today the rain was not late arriving. The riders completed their second day of training for the British GP in constant rain, for short periods lighter but at other times much heavier.
With a very slippery asphalt and low temperatures there were many falls today on the British track. Among the victims, the two young Repsol KTM 125cc riders, Marc Márquez and Esteve Rabat ended up sliding across the asphalt, but luckily neither was injured.
The riders in the top category suffered a disadvantage today – with respect to those in the lower categories – as this afternoon they had to gamble everything on getting a good position on the starting grid. Although the morning was very positive for the two riders in the Repsol Honda Team, with Dani Pedrosa setting the second best time in the rain and Nicky Hayden the third best. In the afternoon the rain was lighter and that allowed the MotoGP riders to lower the times they set in the morning by a considerable amount in the definitive timed session.
Although both Hayden as well as Pedrosa improved on their times from the morning by almost 4 seconds, the American has had to finally make do with the fourth best time – second row of the starting grid – and the Spaniard with ninth place – third row. Tomorrow, both riders in the Repsol Honda Team predict a difficult race, whether the race is declared wet or not.
In the 250cc category, Julian Simón made sure of a second row start on the grid yesterday as he set the seventh best time. With the wet track the Repsol rider concentrated today on completing the work that will let him feel more comfortable on his KTM 250 FRR, and therefore find a good pace for the race. Today in the rain, Julian Simón was one of the fastest on the track, and ten minutes from the end of the session, when he was the second fastest he decided to end his training in case rain began since he knew what his starting position will be, and he considered the conditions too dangerous to continue trying to improve his time. In the end, the best times were those of Mika Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama, riders with Repsol technical support – who finished in first and second position in the rain.
In 125cc, the grid positions were also made with the best times set yesterday, since in the rain it was impossible to improve any times. So, Marc Márquez has got his best ever World Championship qualification, and will start from the second row tomorrow after having set the eighth fastest time yesterday. Esteve Rabat, who ended up setting the thirteenth best time yesterday, will start from the fourth row. On the track things did not go so well today, since the rain that fell during the whole day made the track a difficult place to ride a motorbike at speed. Both had two falls, one in the free session in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
Rabat fell twice braking at the end of the straight when he lost grip on the front wheel. His teammate Márquez fell on curves 8 (in the morning) and 2 (in the afternoon), when opening the throttle but then the rear wheel of his motorcycle suddenly skidded. Luckily, neither of the falls had serious consequences for the Repsol riders and the two are confident that the weather will get better tomorrow and so they will be able to put in a good performance.
Dani Pedrosa, >> Audio
1’40.350 sec, 48 laps, 193 Km.
‘The race won’t be easy tomorrow because I’ve got to start from the third row of the grid. This is a tight, one-line racetrack where overtaking can be quite difficult. But the main unknown is the weather. If it’s dry we already have some fairly clear ideas about machine set-up and tyre choice from yesterday’s two dry sessions. Today the bike felt fine in the wet but some of the riders were going very fast with an impressive rhythm. So we will wait and see what the morning warm-up session brings. If I could choose, I would much prefer a dry race. As far as my physical condition goes, my back and hand are still hurting from yesterday’s crash, though I do feel a bit better today.’
Nicky Hayden, >> Audio
1’39.270 sec, 48 laps, 193 Km.
‘I had hoped to be on the front row. Fourth here isn’t so bad and we will be okay so long as we can get some stuff sorted out for the race. If it’s wet tomorrow we’re lucky it rained because we’re using a completely different engine and today was the first time I rode it in the rain. It took some adjusting to, just a few laps to get comfortable on it. The engine is a little bit aggressive but I was able to control it okay. We certainly need more time to understand it some more but all in all it’s not too bad. We knew this weekend we were going to be a little bit in the dark because we don’t know what this bike is going to do on tyres over race distance and we could’ve done with some more time on fuel consumption. This morning things felt good in the wet, but when things dried out this afternoon we were struggling to go fast, that’s where we’ve got to work with Michelin to improve. The track’s slippery, but it’s cold too and that can make as much different as the surface. The race will be fun nonetheless, see what happens when that light goes out…’
Julián Simón, >> Audio
1’33.063 secs, 35 laps, 141 Km.
‘Today, in both the morning as well as in the afternoon we rode in the wet, so the times from yesterday are those that count for the starting grid. We concentrated on riding and making a series of laps to gauge the conditions and to see how things went. I felt quite comfortable and I saw that I was getting good sensations from the motorbike. Moreover this morning I felt comfortable and what is more I had a lot of fun. Thinking about tomorrow we are going to see if the weather is fine, and if it does not rain we can enjoy a good race. If it rains, the big secret is to stay calm, since this is a circuit where you can slide around a lot, with little grip in the wet, so we will have to keep an eye out to see if it is called a wet race. I will start eager to do well, but knowing that the race is long and that most important thing is to finish’.
Esteve Rabat, >> Audio
1’38.355 secs, 28 laps, 113 Km.
‘Today was a very difficult day, with a lot of rain and many falls, so we hope that tomorrow things go better. Things did not go too well for us today, because we had a lot of problems getting the feel of the motorbike and this did not give us a lot of confidence. We will try to set up the motorbike in case in the end the race is in the rain. Although if it rains again we would have to finish fixing some things in the warm up. I hope that it is dry and I get a good start, get a good pace and then catch the leading group’.
Marc Márquez, >> Audio
1’38.044 secs, 20 laps, 80 Km.
‘This was a complicated day, since it has been raining a lot and I was able to confirm that this track is very slippery. In the morning I still had not got a lot of pace, I made a pit stop and when I left, the tyres were still a little cold and I fell. Luckily the fall was gentle. In the afternoon I was faster and on each lap I was improving my times, but I made a mistake on the downhill slope and I lost the back end. Luckily, the fall was insignificant. Tomorrow I will start in eighth place and I hope that it is dry and so be able to put in a good performance.’
