REPSOL HONDA MEN 2nd & 4th AT ESTORIL
Repsol Honda Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril
Qualifying, Saturday April 12 2008
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden were once
again in storming form in qualifying, taking second and fourth
places on the Estoril grid, just as they did at Jerez two
weeks ago.
World Championship leader and Jerez winner Pedrosa ended
this afternoon’s session just two tenths of a second
off pole and is confident of a strong performance in tomorrow’s
race. Nicky Hayden was a tantalising seven hundredths of a
second off his first front-row start of the year and may have
made the front row if he hadn’t been baulked on one
of his qualifying runs. The biggest question on both riders’
minds is the Estoril weather which is proving to be as unpredictable
as ever.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd fastest, 1m 35.948s
“Our target was always to start from the front row and
we achieved it. We are happy with today’s qualifying
result, especially because it’s very important to start
from the front row at this track and because qualifying isn’t
our strong point at the moment. Our race pace was good today,
but we still want to try and improve the bike a little bit
more, working on the chassis settings. Also, we haven’t
chosen which tyres we will use tomorrow because the weather
conditions are so changeable here, so we will have wait a
bit more. The big question is what the weather will do tomorrow
afternoon. I’m looking forward to the race. It will
be very important to make a good start, then we will see what
we can do from there. I expect it to be very close at the
front tomorrow because there’s a lot of riders going
fast here, for sure it’s going to be tough.”
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 36.266s
“We’re right there, but just missing that last
little bit. Everything went relatively smooth today, though
I definitely thought we were capable of being on the front
row – bike, tyres, even the rider – but we just
didn’t get it done. Race pace I don’t think we’re
a long way off but definitely we could do with a bit more.
The Michelin tyres are working good, the bike’s good,
we just need to get it better in the slow changes of direction.
My ideal time had me third. On one of my fast laps I had to
follow Toseland, when he wasn’t on a fast lap, through
turn five and into six, which kinda ruined that lap. At the
time I was pretty fired up about it. He was man enough to
come and apologise, but at the time I didn’t want to
hear sorry. It happens though, I’m sure I’ve got
in somebody’s way, and I can get over it, it’s
no big thing. It should be a good race, so long as no one’s
sandbagging too much this week. Be nice to be on the podium,
see what the weather does and see if we can get it done.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“Both riders did a good job today, the team and Michelin
too, always targeting the race. Their race setting job is
almost finished, and both have a good pace on race tyres.
Dani has been doing small setting changes and Nicky seems
quite happy also. The only question now is the weather. If
conditions are okay then I think it will be a good race –
there are many riders here with a high potential, so it will
be a big challenge but, of course, we are aiming to get the
win.”
Qualifying session results
1 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'35.715
2 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'35.948
3 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'36.199
4 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'36.266
5 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'36.289
6 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'36.790
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA 1'36.998
8 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'37.223
9 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'37.253
10 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'37.346
11 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'37.664
12 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'37.786
13 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'37.843
14 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team DUCATI 1'38.561 21 22 2.846
15 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'38.775
16 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'38.823
17 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'39.115
18 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team DUCATI 1'39.355
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