Spanish Grand Prix, Jerez
Qualifying, Saturday March 29 2008
REPSOL HONDA’S PEDROSA IMPRESSIVE IN SECOND
PLACE, HAYDEN 0.1s OFF FRONT ROW
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden delivered
impressive qualifying performances at sun-blessed Jerez today,
Pedrosa going second quickest, Hayden just a fraction of a
second behind his team-mate in fourth. That session backed
up similarly strong showings during free practice.
Urged on by the vast and boisterous Jerez crowd, Pedrosa kept
trying to the very end, completing qualifying just behind
fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo. Pedrosa, who finished second
here last year, was delighted with his qualifying pace but
still has some fine-tuning to do on his race setup. Hayden
ended the day a tantalising 0.107 seconds off the front row.
The American is now running both his RC212Vs with the latest
chassis and will be working hard in warm-up to find that last
bit of pace to allow him to battle up front.
Dani Pedrosa, second fastest, 1m 38.789s
“I’m happy with today’s result, because
we have made a big improvement to our performance on qualifying
tyres. I didn’t really expect to be as high as second,
but I’m happy because this is a tight track, so it’s
particularly important to start from the front row. Looking
at the race, we still need to make a few improvements, working
to get the best compromise from the chassis and the tyres.
We haven’t yet made our final decision on race tyres
but the situation is quite clear for us, so everything is
fine. Tomorrow the atmosphere at Jerez will be fantastic,
with maybe more than 130,000 fans watching the race. We know
the race will be difficult because there are many fast riders
here. We will just try and get a good start and make the most
of that.”
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 39.061s
“We’ve made a bit of progress, but this afternoon
a lot of guys went quicker and we didn’t quite have
the feeling I was looking for to get the rhythm I need to
be dangerous tomorrow. Definitely need to try to step it up
in warm-up; me, the bike, everything’s going to need
more speed if we want to be up there. It’s mainly getting
the front working better over the bumps, though the bike/tyre
combination’s not so bad. Qualifying, I wasn’t
thrilled with my lap, I felt the bike had a bit more potential.
I used a different front tyre than I’ve used in the
past and maybe in these hot conditions it wasn’t ideal.
The Michelin rear qualifier was really good today and definitely
had more in it, so big thanks to Michelin. I’m looking
forward to the race. Jerez is always unbelievable experience
and I’m sure tomorrow’s going to be no different.
Man, I just want to be up there and experience it.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“Both riders are doing a great job here, moving forward
step by step by step. They have consistently improved session
by session, so the overall team situation is good. Both Dani
and Nicky have done long runs on race tyres today and seem
happy with their race tyre choice – Michelin has supplied
very good tyres here. Dani has made only small suspension
setup changes today, while Nicky now has both bikes fitted
with the new chassis and is happy. I think both riders have
a good chance tomorrow but the race will be very difficult,
there are many strong riders out there with a very high potential.
My thanks to the riders, the mechanics and everyone in the
team, they are all doing an excellent job here.”
Qualifying session results
1 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.189
2 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.789
3 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'38.954
4 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'39.061
5 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'39.064
6 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'39.122
7 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'39.286
8 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'39.334 19
9 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'39.439
10 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.484
|
