There was no better place for the Repsol Honda riders to get two poles today than at the Circuit of Motegi…
Dani Pedrosa has had a perfect weekend so far, showing that he is the fastest in the category in the four training sessions. New tyres and some modifications to his Honda RC212V mean that the young Repsol rider set some good times and managed to get a pace that makes the team optimistic. His teammate Nicky Hayden, who has got better as the weekend has gone on, also has a good pace and in the last couple of minutes went out on the track at the same time as Pedrosa to get the pole, although in the end he was beaten by Pedrosa and Rossi. This is the fourth consecutive race that the American Repsol Honda Team rider will start on the front row of the grid.
In 250cc, the big surprise today is called Shuhei Aoyama. The local hero surprised everybody with two final laps set at a blistering pace. He was on the track with Dovizioso and Lorenzo fighting for the pole and these two tried to snatch the pole from the Japanese Repsol Honda Team rider after he set the best time on his first attempt. But Aoyama gave his rivals no chance this afternoon and on his second attempt he lowered his previous time by 4 tenths. So he kept his pole position until the end of the session.
This is the first pole ever for Shuhei Aoyama in the World Motorcycling Championship. His teammate Julián Simón, who was also having a good session, has a good pace but right at the end of the second and definitive timed session found himself dropping in the classification and is 7th on the grid tomorrow. He was in fact impeded by another rider during his fianl attempt to set the fastest lap.The Briton in the Repsol Honda 125cc Team, Bradley Smith, got back onto the second row of the grid in the smallest category, he qualified in 5th position at the end of the second and definitive timed session, a position that he occupied in the Chinese GP.
In spite of making some mistakes during his final attempts to get the pole, Smith made sure of a good position and this means he can hope to be among the leaders tomorrow. His teammate Esteve Rabat, did not have a good day today. Rabat has admitted that today he was not in his best form, and so was not capable of getting a good result. His position on the grid, 15th, means that he starts on the fourth row of the grid tomorrow.
