Italian Grand Prix, Mugello
Qualifying, Saturday May 31 2008
REPSOL HONDA’S PEDROSA JUST 0.167s OFF POLE
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa is going well at Mugello,
the Spaniard was fastest in this morning’s free practice
session and a close second in this afternoon’s qualifying
outing, just 0.167 seconds off pole position. Team-mate Nicky
Hayden also went well today with sixth best time in qualifying,
only half a second off pole. And Italian GP wild card Tadayuki
Okada, who is giving Honda’s pneumatic-valve-spring
engine its MotoGP debut, qualified a respectable 15th for
his first GP in almost eight years.
After yesterday’s rain-lashed first day of practice
there was further rainfall this morning, so qualifying was
the first fully dry session of the weekend. Race tyre selection
will thus be a more than usually complicated affair, with
Repsol Honda engineers working closely with Michelin technicians
to choose the best tyres for tomorrow’s race. Despite
the lack of dry-track time the pace was red hot, with pole
position eight tenths faster than the previous best Mugello
pole, set by a 990cc MotoGP bike in 2006.
Tomorrow’s race will be Okada’s second ‘sprint’
event (as opposed to endurance events) since he stopped full-time
racing at the end of 2001. The former GP winner’s only
other ‘sprint’ race since then was an All-Japan
championship race at Tsukuba on May 11, in which he finished
tenth.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd fastest, 1m 48.130s
“Conditions weren’t so good this morning, the
track was dirty after all the rain, so it wasn’t easy
to work on set-up. This afternoon the track was completely
dry and better, so we were more focused in our work. We still
need to improve, so the warm-up session will be very important.
We still haven’t decided which tyres to run, and this
choice will crucial because the race is long and there are
a lot corners that require an aggressive riding style, so
we need to look for a good compromise. Starting from the front
row is very important here, so I’m happy to be there.
Tomorrow it will be a tough race with many competitive riders.”
Nicky Hayden, 6th fastest, 1m 48.666s
“We’ve basically only had one completely dry session
all weekend – so we’ve tried out a lot of tyres:
rains, intermediates and qualifiers and just a couple of race
tyres. So that’s certainly a big issue for tomorrow,
we don’t know a lot about what race tyres to run, so
we’ll definitely let Michelin help us a little there.
We made a bit of progress this afternoon and ended up on the
second row. I’m not going to fool myself though, it’s
certainly going to be a hard one tomorrow, some guys going
really quick. It’d be nice to improve in warm-up, we’ve
got some work to do to try and get closer to the front. Then
we’ll just try to get a start and go for it.”
Tadayuki Okada, 15th fastest, 1m 49.829s
“This morning we had an electrical problem which was
caused by yesterday’s crash. We couldn’t fix it
quickly, so this afternoon was my only chance to ride in the
dry. We still have to work on set-up for this track. With
more time to improve suspension set-up, traction and gearing
I think we could improve top speed by at least 5km/h. Tyre
choice is another big issue because I’ve only tested
one race tyre, so it will be difficult to choose.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“All our riders did a good job today, so my thanks to
them and the team. We have had very little dry track time,
so today it was very important to make our target the race,
so it’s not so bad having Dani and Nicky on the first
and second rows. The big question for tomorrow is the weather,
we aren’t yet sure if it will be sunshine or rain, but
either way we are in good shape. Tady made good progress today
despite an electrical problem. This afternoon he went well,
our data shows that the top-speed potential of the pneumatic-valve-spring
engine is better than the valve-spring engine.”
Qualifying Practice
1 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 1'48.130
2 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 0.167
3 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.183
4 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team + 0.245
5 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.253
6 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 0.536
7 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.775
8 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.895
9 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 0.965
10 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.015
11 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.090
12 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 1.116
13 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 1.435
14 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.471
15 T. OKADA JPN Repsol Honda Team + 1.699
16 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 1.721
17 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 2.145
18 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 2.335
19 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 2.759
Mugello - CIRCUIT DATA
Length: 5.245 m
Width: 14m
Pole position: Right
Right corners: 9
Left corners: 6
Longest straight: 1141 m
Race: 23 laps = 120.635 km
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