Everything is prepared for the second Spanish event in the MotoGP World Championship. Dani Pedrosa, second, and Nicky Hayden, third, will take off tomorrow from the front row along with Casey Stoner, today’s poleman. In spite of some light rain which threatened the last part of the free training sessions, the sun and high temperatures were the protagonists of the definitive timed session.
In the quarter-litre category, Julián Simón finally finished tenth, and Marc Márquez will start tomorrow from the fourth row in the 125cc category, after finishing just over a second behind the fastest time run by Spaniard Pol Espargaró.
The top category’s timed training session was filled with excitement. Though Dani Pedrosa was first from the start, swapping the lead with Capirossi, Rossi and Edwards, an electrical fault in his Honda RC212V 2008 with forty minutes remaining forced him to leave his bike on a bend and return to the paddock. This cost him valuable minutes, important minutes for the choice of tyres for tomorrow’s race, a situation which made him get quite nervous. Pedrosa returned to the track with his spare bike and it was not long before he picked up a competitive pace again and calmed down enough to face the key part of the training session, where all riders used softer tyres in their pursuit of faster lap times.
With 26 minutes remaining, Hayden mounted his first qualifying tyre, climbing to third position and confirming that he is one of the strongest men on the Catalunya Circuit. Pedrosa followed suit soon after, and snatched his third position. After a second attempt, which placed him in fourth position, Pedrosa decided to make a few changes to the setup of his bike; a few adjustments which later proved to be efficient when in his third attempt with qualifying tyres he climbed to first position. With nine minutes left, it was Hayden who with his third set of soft tyres took first position. Finally, Pedrosa went out onto the track determined to claim the pole position which would give him a start in the lead of tomorrow’s race at home, and managed a lap time of 1’41.186 secs. However, after Casey Stoner completed his last lap pushing it to the limit, he dropped to second position, in front of Nicky Hayden.
The training session was more complicated for Julián Simón in the 250cc category, where he ran a lap time of 1’47.121 secs and will start in tenth position tomorrow, from the third row. The Repsol rider gradually improved his times as the session progressed, though he still suffers from low top speed on the straight. This difference was the cause of some mistakes which prevented him from achieving a faster lap time. The Repsol rider still had problems when leaving the bends, but is optimistic about tomorrow. The team has been working on the setup of the rear end, while the front is performing well. Hiroshi Aoyama, rider who receives technical support from Repsol, will start in eighth position, while teammate and World Championship leader Mika Kallio will do so one place behind, in ninth position.
A great performance by Marc Márquez in the quarter-litre category, running the fourteenth fastest time, just over a second behind the pole position. The Repsol rider made good use of the chassis which teammate Rabat had already tried out, and after a few initial adjustments at the end of this morning’s free training session, he was able to gradually improve his lap times, reducing yesterday’s register by two seconds. Teammate Esteve Rabat is conscious since this morning and is recovering well at the Catalunya General Hospital, where he will be kept under observation for a minimum period of 48 hours.
Dani Pedrosa 1’41.186 sec, 45 laps, 213 Km. >> Audio
“That was quite a difficult session for me because I had an electrical problem with one of my bikes, so I had to leave it at the side of the track and I took a while to get back to the pits. That cost me crucial time, so I was a bit nervous when I got back on track, it took me a while to find my rhythm again and ride some fast laps. Luckily I was fast again and we were able to get very close to scoring pole position. Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session and I’m very happy because it’s important to start from the front row at my home race. We are happy enough with our race set-up, but we have to wait and see what the weather will do. I am really looking forward to racing in front of the Spanish fans”.
Nicky Hayden 1’41.437 sec, 50 laps, 236 Km. >> Audio
“It’s nice to be up there and so close to pole position, I’m pretty happy. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It’s fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice. Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. We’ll see about tyre choice, that’s going to be the biggest mission tonight – trying to make the perfect choice. Then we’ve got to get a good start, stick our nose in there and see what happens. It’s nice to be on the front row, hopefully this can be something to get things headed back in the right direction. Thanks to my team and everyone in my corner for their support, I know I got a lot of people riding with me”.
Julián Simón, 1’47.121 secs, 41 laps, 194 Km. >> Audio
“We started in quite a poor position, but we’re very motivated, because this Grand Prix is at home and I’ve improved quite a lot since yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll have to make an enormous effort, mainly during the first partial, so that the riders I have in front don’t get away. I think it can be a good race. I’m optimistic about it and I’m going to give it my best, because I think I’m doing much better than in Mugello. I think we can be in the second pack, though we’ll try to be in the first one with Bautista, Debón, Simoncelli and Barberá. If we manage to take another small step with the bike tomorrow we can hope for a good position”.
Marc Márquez, 1’51.650 secs, 36 laps, 170 Km. >> Audio
“Yesterday Tito [Esteve Rabat] hurt himself, and I’d like to give him my regards from here. It has meant that they’ve mounted the new chassis on my bike in order to test it, and the bike was performing quite a lot better. In the afternoon we finished work on a few adjustments, and I think we found the right setup during the training session. I turned around and saw there was a fast pack approaching, and decided to wait for it, and was quite comfortable riding behind them. We’ll see tomorrow. I’ll try to get off to a good start to get as far ahead as possible. During the training sessions I theoretically finished within the points range, but the race is tomorrow and we’ll try to do our best”.
