REPSOL HONDA SCORES DOUBLE FRONT ROW
Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya
Qualifying, Saturday June 7 2008
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden scorched
to a double front-row start at Catalunya today, setting the
second and third fastest times in this afternoon’s thrilling
qualifying session. Pedrosa was less than a tenth of a second
off pole position, with Hayden just 0.251 seconds off pole.
Both riders also set impressive times in race trim, local
hero Pedrosa ending free practice just two thousandths off
the best time and Hayden fifth, just over a tenth of a second
slower. Pedrosa, who started last month’s French GP
from pole position, had an electrical problem with his number
one bike in qualifying but was able to switch to his second
bike and challenge for pole, proving the consistent performance
of his two machines. This is Hayden’s best qualifying
performance of the year so far, following two fourth places
at Jerez and Estoril. The Spaniard and the American will now
sit down with their Michelin technicians to make their final
tyre choice for tomorrow’s race, round seven in the
2008 MotoGP World Championship.
Dani Pedrosa, second fastest, 1m 41.269s
“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, 9th fastest, 1m 43.614s
“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.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“We are all very happy, the whole team is doing a fantastic
job here, so my thanks to everyone involved, also to Michelin
for their hard work and their support. Qualifying is important
but of course our number one target is always the race. I
think we have a big chance to win tomorrow, maybe even both
riders on the podium. We are fighting hard and it is exciting.
Both riders have quite a good race pace and we are close to
making our final decisions on race tyres. Dani had an electrical
problem with his number one bike but was able to qualify well
on his second bike because both machines are basically the
same.”
Qualifying Practice
1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 1'41.186
2 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 0.083
3 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 0.251
4 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 0.385
5 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.423
6 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.634
7 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 0.867
8 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.179
9 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 1.241
10 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.394
11 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.457
12 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.462
13 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 1.622
14 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.633
15 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 2.018
16 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 2.533
17 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 3.372
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