German Grand Prix, Sachsenring
Qualifying, Saturday July 12 2008
REPSOL REPSOL HONDA’S PEDROSA 2nd FASTEST AT
THE ’RING
Repsol Honda rider and World Championship leader Dani Pedrosa
had a good day at the Sachsenring today, topping this morning’s
free practice session aboard his RC212V and qualifying a promising
second fastest in this afternoon’s qualifier. Team-mate
Nicky Hayden was also impressive this morning, running third
fastest, but wasn’t quite able to repeat the performance
in qualifying, coming out eighth.
The morning session started on a wet track following an earlier
downpour but by the end of the hour Pedrosa and Hayden were
both running fast on race tyres, the only riders to improve
on their Friday pace. Pedrosa, who scored his seventh front-row
start of the year today, still has some further fine-tuning
to do before the race as he works to defend his championship
points lead. Hayden meanwhile is confident of his race pace
and will be focusing all his attention on getting a flying
start from the third row to get him into the first corner
in a front-running position.
Dani Pedrosa, second fastest, 1m 21.420s
“Today went quite well for us, so I’m happy with
my second position on the grid. I didn’t expect to achieve
this result because we were using up the qualifying tyres
in the last section of the track. Starting from the front
row is especially important at this track because it’s
so tight, especially the first section. All in all, it was
a good session. We improved the chassis set-up so the bike
is giving me a better feeling. We have met the first target
of starting from the front row, so I am quite confident for
tomorrow, but we still need to make some more adjustments
to further improve our race pace. Once again the big question
is the weather, the forecast still says there’s a chance
of rain tomorrow, so we will have to see what happens.”
Nicky Hayden, eighth fastest, 1m 21.876s
“This morning we made a bit of an improvement and I
was able to improve my lap time even though the track wasn’t
so good, so I was quite excited, I thought we had a good chance
in qualifying. At the start of qualifying I was going decent
on some pretty used tyres that by the end had race distance
on them, so I felt pretty good. But the qualifiers didn’t
go as we wanted. We had an issue with a front wheel sensor
when I went out on my third qualifier, so we had to come in
and change the sensor, which lost us some time and some rhythm.
Basically we didn’t get it done. On qualifiers my T1
and T2 times were really good but T3 and T4 weren’t
so good. It seems like maybe we were a little soft on the
front suspension or we’ve improved the rear so much
that maybe it’s overworking the front tyre. Looking
at tomorrow, I’ve gotten some good starts this year,
we’re right in the middle of the third row, so I’m
sure there’s going to be plenty of drama, plenty of
action. I feel like we’ve got a decent pace, so the
race should be okay.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“Dani did a good job today, second is a good result
here. It’s important to get a good start because overtaking
isn’t easy at this track. His target is still victory.
Nicky’s race pace was good but he was a little unlucky
on his final attack this afternoon, so he will need a good
start from the third row. His pace on race tyres is quite
good, so I think it is still possible for him to target the
podium.”
QUALIFIFYING PRACTICE
1 Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1'21.067
2 Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team) 1'21.420
3 Colin EDWARDS (Tech 3 Yamaha) 1'21.519
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO (JiR Team Scot MotoGP) 1'21.656
5 Jorge LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha Team) 1'21.795
6 Randy DE PUNIET (LCR Honda MotoGP) 1'21.821
7 Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team) 1'21.845
8 Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda Team) 1'21.876
9 Shinya NAKANO (San Carlo Honda Gresini) 1'21.920
10 Alex DE ANGELIS (San Carlo Honda Gresini) 1'21.977
11 James TOSELAND (Tech 3 Yamaha) 1'22.126
12 Toni ELIAS (Alice Team) 1'22.256 28 28 1.189
13 Loris CAPIROSSI (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) 1'22.542
14 Chris VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) 1'22.601
15 Sylvain GUINTOLI (Alice Team) 1'22.938
16 Marco MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1'23.131
17 Anthony WEST (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1'23.158
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 171
2 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 167
3 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 142
4 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 114
5 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha 98
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP 79
7 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team 70
8 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha 60
9 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 57
10 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 57
11 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 51
12 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team 33
13 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team 32
14 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 32
15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 25
16 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team 24
17 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 22
18 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team 16
19 Ben SPIES USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2
20 Tadayuki OKADA JPN Repsol Honda Team 2
Constructor Points
1 YAMAHA 180
2 HONDA 151
3 DUCATI 122
4 SUZUKI 71
5 KAWASAKI 41
Team Points
1 FIAT YAMAHA TEAM 266
2 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 208
3 DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM 146
4 TECH 3 YAMAHA 135
5 RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP 101
6 SAN CARLO HONDA GRESI 74
7 JIR TEAM SCOT MOTOGP 68
8 KAWASAKI RACING TEAM 48
9 ALICE TEAM 47
10 LCR HONDA MOTOGP 22
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