In spite of the weather forecast which had predicted rain, the sun shone again today on the Shanghai Circuit and the bad weather held back. However, the forecast for tomorrow is not too promising, and the teams are worried about not having trained in wet conditions, in order to know the precise setup to use if it does actually rain tomorrow.
In MotoGP, the third free morning training sessions followed the same pattern as the two held yesterday, with Rossi, Pedrosa and Stoner switching the lead of the classification. Rossi was the fastest at the end of the morning session, followed by Dani Pedrosa and Australian rider Stoner. In the afternoon, in the definitive timed session, Pedrosa was again one of the fastest of the top category, lap after lap setting a pace which puts him among the favourites, along with Stoner and Rossi, to win the victory tomorrow. However, during the last half hour of the training sessions, when the qualifying tyres came into action, things started to go wrong for the two Repsol Honda Team riders. While Nicky Hayden took second position with his first qualifying tyre, Dani Pedrosa’s rear tyre skidded hard, and though he avoided a fall, he lost a lot of time. The first failed attempt by the Spanish rider.
But things were to get worse for American Repsol Honda Team rider Hayden, who during his second attempt and when he was riding a pole position time, suffered a light fall when the front tyre of his Honda RC212V lost adherence. That was it for Hayden, who thus lost his options of fighting for pole position. In his third and last attempt with his spare bike after a quick run to boxes, Hayden was very far from the fastest time set by Edwards, and had to make do with a tenth fastest register, a result which puts him back down on the fourth row of the starting grid.
Teammate Dani Pedrosa, back on the track with his second qualifying tyre, ran the third fastest time. While he did a pitstop to fit his third qualifying tyre, Pedrosa fell to ninth position, overtaken by a number of riders who were running their fastest lap. Back on the track, the winner of the last Spanish Grand Prix ran the fifth fastest time, securing himself a place on the second row of tomorrow’s starting grid. The fourth and last qualifying tyre only helped the Repsol Honda Team rider to maintain his final fifth position.
In the 250cc category, Julián Simón completed his fastest timed session to date on his new bike. Simón, in spite of a few technical problems at the start of this afternoon’s timed session, ran the third best time behind Bautista and Barberá, securing himself a place on the first row of the starting grid. The Repsol KTM Team rider was fourth in the overall result of the two timed sessions, as Kallio, rider with support from Repsol, ran the second fastest time yesterday, and this was enough to keep him on the front row -third-, though today he did not improve on his times. Hiroshi Aoyama, KTM rider who also receives technical support from Repsol, ran the 11th fastest time.
In the quarter-litre category, a complicated day for the Repsol KTM Team riders. Marc Màrquez was 22nd. The young Repsol rider could have improved his position, but during the final moments of the timed session, when we was returning to the track with a new tyre to improve his time, he had a technical problem with his bike that prevented him from making any progress. Teammate Esteve Rabat, who also had technical problems and a setup which limited his pace, finished in 23rd position.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’58.855 sec, 44 laps, 232 Km. >> Audio
“We improved from the morning to the afternoon session. We were lapping at a good pace on race tyres but unfortunately we couldn’t improve as much as we usually do with qualifying tyres, it seemed like we lacked a bit of grip. I don’t know why, but a lot of riders crashed during this afternoon’s qualifying session. All things considered, starting from the second row tomorrow is not so bad. If it’s dry for the race we need to improve our rhythm a bit. I hope we will be able to have a dry race because according to the latest weather forecasts it may rain tomorrow. In that case we will only have 20 minutes to prepare our settings for the wet”.
Nicky Hayden, 1’59.507 sec, 41 laps, 217 Km. >> Audio
“Qualifying didn’t go to plan, really. It was okay in the beginning, we were quite up front on race tyres. With my first qualifier I went to first place for a second, then with my second qualifier I just had an easy front push in turn 11 and down I went. I had a pretty good lap going but just didn’t get it down. The track is so long and so big it took me forever to get back to the pits, a little bit walking, a little bit scooter. Then I just got out on the other bike and did one run and didn’t get the chance to improve my time. It was a pity because things were looking quite good on race tyres – this morning I did over race distance and was quite happy. This afternoon the track felt a bit greasy, there were a lot of guys crashing. I’ve put myself in a nice hole starting tenth, I haven’t qualified off the front two rows in the dry since Barcelona last year. I’m going to need an awesome start, try to pick a few guys off and move forward”.
Julián Simón, 2’05.561 sec, 37 laps, 195 Km. >> Audio
“Today things went slightly better for us. This morning we were still having a few of the problems we had yesterday morning, and though we were able to solve them, we didn’t manage as good a position as the one we took in the afternoon. We did some drafting during the timed session and that helped us get a position on the first row, so I’m happy about that. We did our best and the team is doing a great job. As for tomorrow, if the conditions are wet, I hope to ride fast right from the start, adapt as quick as possible and run a good race. I think we deserve it, because we’ve been working hard this weekend”.
Esteve Rabat, 2’14.830 sec, 23 laps, 121 Km. >> Audio
“I’m not happy at all, because the bike isn’t performing. Today’s training session was a disaster. There was no way I could follow the other riders, they got away from me on the bends. I didn’t find a good setup for the bike. I couldn’t follow them on the straights either, because they escaped ahead. I’d do some drafting and they’d still get away. There was nothing I could do. I was close to falling on a couple of occasions, and avoided falling with my knee. It’s a shame, because I’m not 100% and the bike isn’t being of much help. The team, as always, is doing it’s best to improve things. Let’s see tomorrow during the warm-up if we can find a proper setup for the race”.
Marc Márquez, 2’14.796 sec, 27 laps, 143 Km. >> Audio
“This morning we tried out both bikes and saw that one was performing better than the other, so we decided to concentrate on the one we thought was more adequate. I was feeling well, very comfortable, and ran my time quite easily. In the afternoon we changed a few adjustments and improved things, but when we changed the tyre we had a problem and were unable to improve our fastest lap. The race is tomorrow, so we’ll try to get off to a good start and find a good position. We’re quite sure about the setup of the bike, though this afternoon we’ll have a look at a couple more things. I think I can run a good race if the bike and everything else goes well”.
