MotoGP World Championship. China GP. Second practice session
SECOND ROW FOR DANI PEDROSA ON TOMORROW'S STARTING
GRID IN CHINA
 The
Repsol Honda Team rider is fifth after the timed session,
while teammate Nicky Hayden is tenth. Julián Simón,
fourth, will start tomorrow on the front row
In spite of the weather forecast which had predicted rain,
the sun shone again today on the Shanghai Circuit and the
bad weather held back. However, the forecast for tomorrow
is not too promising, and the teams are worried about not
having trained in wet conditions, in order to know the precise
setup to use if it does actually rain tomorrow.
In MotoGP, the third free morning training sessions followed
the same pattern as the two held yesterday, with Rossi, Pedrosa
and Stoner switching the lead of the classification. Rossi
was the fastest at the end of the morning session, followed
by Dani Pedrosa and Australian rider Stoner. In the afternoon,
in the definitive timed session, Pedrosa was again one of
the fastest of the top category, lap after lap setting a pace
which puts him among the favourites, along with Stoner and
Rossi, to win the victory tomorrow. However, during the last
half hour of the training sessions, when the qualifying tyres
came into action, things started to go wrong for the two Repsol
Honda Team riders. While Nicky Hayden took second position
with his first qualifying tyre, Dani Pedrosa's rear tyre skidded
hard, and though he avoided a fall, he lost a lot of time.
The first failed attempt by the Spanish rider.
But things were to get worse for American Repsol Honda Team
rider Hayden, who during his second attempt and when he was
riding a pole position time, suffered a light fall when the
front tyre of his Honda RC212V lost adherence. That was it
for Hayden, who thus lost his options of fighting for pole
position. In his third and last attempt with his spare bike
after a quick run to boxes, Hayden was very far from the fastest
time set by Edwards, and had to make do with a tenth fastest
register, a result which puts him back down on the fourth
row of the starting grid.
Teammate Dani Pedrosa, back on the track with his second
qualifying tyre, ran the third fastest time. While he did
a pitstop to fit his third qualifying tyre, Pedrosa fell to
ninth position, overtaken by a number of riders who were running
their fastest lap. Back on the track, the winner of the last
Spanish Grand Prix ran the fifth fastest time, securing himself
a place on the second row of tomorrow's starting grid. The
fourth and last qualifying tyre only helped the Repsol Honda
Team rider to maintain his final fifth position.
In the 250cc category, Julián Simón completed
his fastest timed session to date on his new bike. Simón,
in spite of a few technical problems at the start of this
afternoon's timed session, ran the third best time behind
Bautista and Barberá, securing himself a place on the
first row of the starting grid. The Repsol KTM Team rider
was fourth in the overall result of the two timed sessions,
as Kallio, rider with support from Repsol, ran the second
fastest time yesterday, and this was enough to keep him on
the front row -third-, though today he did not improve on
his times. Hiroshi Aoyama, KTM rider who also receives technical
support from Repsol, ran the 11th fastest time.
In the quarter-litre category, a complicated day for the
Repsol KTM Team riders. Marc Màrquez was 22nd. The
young Repsol rider could have improved his position, but during
the final moments of the timed session, when we was returning
to the track with a new tyre to improve his time, he had a
technical problem with his bike that prevented him from making
any progress. Teammate Esteve Rabat, who also had technical
problems and a setup which limited his pace, finished in 23rd
position.
Quotes
MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa >> 5th fastest, 1m 58.855s
“We improved from the morning to the afternoon session.
We were lapping at a good pace on race tyres but unfortunately
we couldn't improve as much as we usually do with qualifying
tyres, it seemed like we lacked a bit of grip. I don’t
know why, but a lot of riders crashed during this afternoon’s
qualifying session.
All things considered, starting from the second row tomorrow
is not so bad. If it’s dry we will have to improve a
little bit more our rhythm but I hope we will be able to have
a dry race because according to the latest weather forecasts
it may rain tomorrow. In that case we will only have 20 minutes
to prepare the setting for the wet.”
Nicky Hayden >> 10th fastest, 1m 59.507s
“Qualifying didn’t go to plan, really. It was
okay in the beginning, we were quite up front on race tyres.
With my first qualifier I went to first place for a second,
then with my second qualifier I just had an easy front push
in turn 11 and down I went. I had a pretty good lap going
but just didn’t get it down.
The track is so long and so big it took me forever to get
back to the pits, a little bit walking, a little bit scooter.
Then I just got out on the other bike and did one run and
didn’t get the chance to improve my time. It was a pity
because things were looking quite good on race tyres –
this morning I did over race distance and was quite happy.
This afternoon the track felt a bit greasy, there were a lot
of guys crashing. I’ve put myself in a nice hole starting
tenth, I haven’t qualified off the front two rows in
the dry since Barcelona last year. I’m going to need
an awesome start, try to pick a few guys off and move forward.”
250cc
Julián Simón >> 2’05.561 secs, 37
laps, 195 Km.
“Today things went slightly better for us. This morning
we were still having a few of the problems we had yesterday
morning, and though we were able to solve them, we didn't
manage as good a position as the one we took in the afternoon.
We did some drafting during the timed session and that helped
us get a position on the first row, so I'm happy about that.
We did our best and the team is doing a great job. As for
tomorrow, if the conditions are wet, I hope to ride fast right
from the start, adapt as quick as possible and run a good
race. I think we deserve it, because we've been working hard
this weekend.”
125cc
Esteve Rabat >> 2’14.830 secs, 23 laps, 121 Km.
“I'm not happy at all, because the bike isn't performing.
Today's training session was a disaster. There was no way
I could follow the other riders, they got away from me on
the bends. I didn't find a good setup for the bike.
I couldn't follow them on the straights either, because they
escaped ahead. I'd do some drafting and they'd still get away.
There was nothing I could do. I was close to falling on a
couple of occasions, and avoided falling with my knee. It's
a shame, because I'm not 100% and the bike isn't being of
much help. The team, as always, is doing it's best to improve
things. Let's see tomorrow during the warm-up if we can find
a proper setup for the race.”
Marc Márquez >> 2’14.796 secs,
27 laps, 143 Km.
“This morning we tried out both bikes and saw that one
was performing better than the other, so we decided to concentrate
on the one we thought was more adequate. I was feeling well,
very comfortable, and ran my time quite easily.
In the afternoon we changed a few adjustments and improved
things, but when we changed the tyre we had a problem and
were unable to improve our fastest lap. The race is tomorrow,
so we'll try to get off to a good start and find a good position.
We're quite sure about the setup of the bike, though this
afternoon we'll have a look at a couple more things. I think
I can run a good race if the bike and everything else goes
well.”
Official Results
MotoGP
1. Colin EDWARDS (YAMAHA) 1:58.139
2. Valentino ROSSI (YAMAHA) at 0.355
3. Casey STONER (DUCATI) at 0.452
4. Jorge LORENZO (YAMAHA) at 0.572
5. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) at 0.716
10. Nicky HAYDEN (REPSOL HONDA) at 1.368
250cc
1. Álvaro BAUTISTA (APRILIA) 2:04.882
2. Héctor BARBERÁ (APRILIA) at 0.435
3. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL KTM) at 0.769
4. Marco SIMONCELLI (GILERA) at 0.842
5. Mika KALLIO (KTM) at 0.938
125cc
1. Bradley SMITH (APRILIA) 2:12.364
2. Nicolás TEROL (APRILIA) at 0.028
3. Mike DI MEGLIO (DERBI) at 0.541
4. Gabor TALMACSI (APRILIA) at 0.648
5. Andrea IANNONE (APRILIA) at 0.783
21. Marc MÁRQUEZ (REPSOL KTM) at 2.432
22. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL KTM) at 2.466
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