Repsol riders in the front row of the starting grid in the three classes.
In MotoGP Nicky Hayden is third, while Aoyama is third and Porto fifth in the 250cc. In the 125cc, Faubel -second- almost snatched the pole and Gadea is fifth.
Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, Hiroshi Aoyama and Héctor Faubel are the Repsol riders with the best positions – looking at today’s results – to enter tomorrow the fight for the victory in the different classes. In MotoGP, again good and bad result for the Repsol Honda Team riders, with a very competitive Nicky Hayden, race after race becoming stronger in the leading positions of the premier class, and a Max Biaggi followed by the set-up problems that hinder him from showing his real potential.
The morning practices were an advance of what was going to happen this afternoon during the first and only qualifying practice: Nicky Hayden got close to the fastest times set in the morning finishing fourth, with Melandri and Gibernau in the lead of the time sheets and his team-mate Max Biaggi twelfth. Gibernau was fastest in the afternoon’s qualifying practice, closely followed by Melandri and the North American Repsol rider, who secured a place on the front row of the grid finishing third. His team-mate Max, who did not feel comfortable son far on the Turkish track, was not able to get close to the fastest times of the session, finishing in a back twelfth place.
In the 250cc, Dani Pedrosa and Hiroshi Aoyama have got the necessary pace to face tomorrow’s a race, which a priori looks like if it’s going to be a grouped race. The top five riders, three of them Repsol riders -Aoyama third, Pedrosa fourth and Porto fifth-, are within only half a second while the sixth, Barberá, is more than one second behind De Angelis, who was fastest this afternoon.
Sebastián Porto, who set the fastest time yesterday, had technical problems with his Aprilia today during the morning free session and in the afternoon he was unable to find a good set-up that would allow him to be faster. Unable to improve the time set yesterday, the Repsol rider had to settle for the final fifth position – second row of the grid – and his chances for a good race depend on finding solutions this afternoon together with the technicians and doing the necessary tests during the warm-up. His team-mate Randy De Puniet isn’t having a good weekend either and if the fast Frenchman had been able to be eighth, this afternoon he wasn’t able to keep his position on the second row, dropping back to the third with the tenth fastest time.
Exciting fight for the pole between Passini, Luthi, Kallio and Repsol rider Héctor Faubel in the early afternoon on the Turkish track. Faubel, who had set the second fastest time yesterday behind Kallio, kept himself on the front row of the grid throughout the session, and launched his final attack four minutes before the end of the practice. A first fast lap moved him to the top of the sheets but Luthi reacted quickly, after an unsuccessful try of Passini and Kallio, improving Faubel’s time by more than 4 tenths.
The Repsol rider tried it again on his last lap, but a small mistake hindered him from improving his second final position. However the place on the front row of the grid puts him in an excellent starting position to fight for the victory on the Turkish track. His team-mate Sergio Gadea improved the positive performance of yesterday setting the fifth fastest time. He will be starting tomorrow from the second row of the grid. Joan Olivé, ninth fastest yesterday, dropped back to fourteenth this afternoon.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden,
3rd on the grid.
Third free practice 4th, 1’54.179, 36 laps
First qualifying practice 3rd, 1’52.976, 25 laps
‘Things are slowly coming better. The Movistar boys came out early and really jumped on the pace early and got going fast. Sure it’s nice to be on the front row for tomorrow but I’ve got a few problems with a couple of sections of the track where I’m losing a lot of time so I’m not satisfied by any means with my set-up or my riding. I’m not as clean and smooth as I need to be. We’ve got one more session to try to get things right. It’s one thing to ride at a new track and try and go for a good lap time, it’s quite another thing to see what happens in the race for the first time.’
MotoGP. Max Biaggi,
12th on the grid.
Third free practice 12th, 1’55.283, 33 laps
First qualifying practice 12th, 1’54.358, 25 laps
‘Obviously not at all satisfied with the results of the last two days. We just can’t seem to get a good balance for the machine round here at all. We’ve tried a lot of things but in the end we still don’t have a balanced bike. The front is too light and we still struggle for grip in places. The qualifying tyres only really work when the bike is set-up well. Sometimes when you put qualifiers on a bike that is not set-up properly then it becomes even harder to ride. I really need to finish the race tomorrow. The last two races have been a disaster and I’ll be fighting hard tomorrow for the points and honour in the championship.’
250. Hiroshi Aoyama,
3rd on the grid.
Second free practice 3rd, 1’58.198, 23 laps
Second qualifying practice 3rd, 1’57.198, 18 laps
‘I think that we’ve done a good job in the afternoon, although it was a big help following Dani in the last lap to clock the time. I still don’t feel really comfortable with the front end in turn 8, 9 and 10, and I loose some time there. But we got the warm-up to try to find a solution. If we do, I think that I’ll be able to do a good race, because I have a good pace.’
250. Dani Pedrosa,
4th on the grid.
Second free practice 1st, 1’57.902, 21 laps
Second qualifying practice 4th, 1’57.390, 18 laps
‘Things went better today, although I expected to improve more in the afternoon. We’ve tested several things and I was hoping to set fast lap times from the start of the session. I looked for a bit of help towards the end, like everybody did, to improve my time, but nobody wanted to go, and I finally had to push alone. We also tested another tyre which wasn’t of much help either; it skidded a bit and I lost some time. But I can’t complain, because there was no big problem. The most important is having found a good set-up and being ready for the race. I’m well prepared for the race, although it could be a bit better. I’d say that there are only three or four laps where we’re not doing really well. The first corner is rather complicated because it’s blind and it gets very narrow. It will be a long race, but I think that the first laps will be determining. The tyres don’t seem to be a problem, so it’s going to be a grouped race, with five riders fighting to be in the lead. I think that the start and the finish aren’t the same, we’ll have to take it into account, because the finish is on an ascent and the Aprilias seem to work better there.’
250. Sebastián Porto,
5th on the grid.
Second free practice 10th, 1’59.467, 14 laps
Second qualifying practice 5th, 1’57.493, 15 laps
‘I am very annoyed as we did a great job yesterday and were set to improve again, but we took a step backwards today instead of forwards. This has happened in a number of races now and it’s hard to have a good race after not doing so well on the second day. At the moment the bike is at about 80 percent, but if we can find a good set-up in the warm-up tomorrow I think we can do well. There are a number of riders with a chance of winning tomorrow so I think it will be an enjoyable race in which I will give my al, as always.’
250. Randy De Puniet
10th on the grid.
Second free practice 5th, 1’58.553, 22 laps
Second qualifying practice 10th, 1’58.437, 18 laps
‘I am not happy with how it went today and I did not have a great feeling on the bike. The main problem was with the front wheel which began to deteriorate very quickly. What’s more I committed an error on my final lap which prevented me from improving my final position. The race tomorrow will be difficult but I hope to sort out my problems in the warm-up and get a good result.’
125. Héctor Faubel,
2nd on the grid.
Second free practice 5th, 2’05.105, 18 laps
Second qualifying practice 2nd, 2’04.064, 12 laps
‘Qualifying went very well for us and I found a consistent rhythm and set my best time whilst lapping completely on my own. On my final lap I had a small scare and had to come off the gas a little so I couldn’t fight for pole. Second position is good, though, and I have high hopes for tomorrow’s race as I have adapted well to the track which I find both spectacular and challenging. I have a slight problem with the front end of the bike, but it should be fixed by tomorrow.’
Standings:
MotoGP
- S. Gibernau 1’52.334
- M. Melandri 1’52.463
- N. Hayden 1’52.976
- V. Rossi 1’53.177
- C. Edwards 1’53.219
12. M. Biaggi 1’54.358
250cc.
- A. De Angelis 1’56.930
- C. Stoner 1’57.071
- H. Aoyama 1’57.198
- D. Pedrosa 1’57.390
- S. Porto 1’57.493
10. R. De Puniet 1’58.437
125cc.
- T. Luthi 2’03.585
- H. Faubel 2’04.064
- M. Kallio 2’04.115
- M. Pasini 2’04.179
- S. Gadea 2’04.833
15. J. Olivé 2’05.993
24. J. Carchano 2’06.787
32. M. Túnez 2’08.443
