MotoGP World Championship. French GP. Second practice session
DANI PEDROSA REASSERTS HIMSELF AS THE FASTEST DURING
THE TIMED TRAINING SESSIONS AT THE FRENCH GRAND PRIX
Tenth pole position for the Repsol Honda Team rider in MotoGP.
Teammate Nicky Hayden, sixth, secured himself a place on the
second row of the grid. Simón, seventh in the 250cc
category.
This afternoon Dani Pedrosa once again showed, on the legendary
Le Mans track, that he was the fastest in the top category
and a firm contender for tomorrow's victory, given the race
is held under normal conditions. And when we say normal, it
is due to the constant threat of rain that has been forecasted
as very possible for tomorrow Sunday. In fact, this afternoon
and just a few minutes after the MotoGP timed session ended,
the rain hit the French track during the 250cc training sessions.
This morning, in the third free training session, Pedrosa
was not the fastest at the end of the hour-long training sessions,
but showed once again that he is in top form on the French
track, running the third fastest time behind American Colin
Edwards and Italian Valentino Rossi. Teammate Nicky Hayden,
with more problems than expected in Le Mans, finished in a
low twelfth position.
In the afternoon and in the definitive MotoGP timed session,
both Repsol Honda Team riders gave a fine performance. Dani
Pedrosa fought a tough battle with Valentino Rossi, Colin
Edwards and Casey Stoner for the definitive pole position.
These four riders exchanged positions at the head of the classification
during the last half hour, when the qualifying tyres came
into play. Both Pedrosa and Hayden went out with the first
soft tyre 26 minutes away from the end, with Pedrosa running
his fastest lap in his first attempt, and Hayden was eleventh.
With the second tyre -19 minutes from the end of the session-,
Pedrosa, who had been overtaken by a number of riders while
we did a pitstop to change his tyres, ran the second fastest
lap time and teammate Nicky Hayden eighth. With the ever-present
threat of rain at that moment, Pedrosa and Hayden went onto
the track with the third classification tyre with 11 minutes
left, Dani running the second fastest time and Nicky, eleventh.
In his fourth and last attempt, Dani snatched pole position
by a hair's breadth from a competitive Edwards, and Hayden
earned himself a place on the second row of the starting grid
with a sixth fastest lap time.
In the quarter-litre category, Julián Simón
will start tomorrow from the second row, after he finished
the timed training sessions in seventh position. The Repsol
rider was unable to improve on yesterday's lap time after
a session marked by rain, which started soon after they went
out onto the track. Simón was the fastest in this morning's
free training session, but five laps into the timed session,
the riders who like him were already on the track returned
to their box to wait for the rain to stop and for the French
track to dry out. When there were twenty minutes left Simón
returned to the track, but was unable to improve his time.
Mika Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama, riders who receive technical
support from Repsol, finished in sixth and tenth position,
respectively.
In the 125cc category, third row on the starting grid for
Esteve Rabat, who will kick off tomorrow in ninth position.
The Repsol rider ran a good round of training sessions, though
a fall during the free session, and the inability to improve
on his times took off the shine of his performance today.
Rabat was one of the fastest this morning on a track that
was still wet due to the rain fallen last night. However,
right after changing his tyres, he suffered a fall on the
first bend of the French track, which prevented him from running
again during that session. In the timed session, the Repsol
rider was unable to equal the lap times he ran yesterday,
though he ran the tenth fastest lap time in the session.
Teammate Marc Márquez was still making progress step
by step, and tomorrow will start from the fifth row, after
running the 20th fastest time today. The Repsol rider gave
a surprising performance during this morning's free session
in spite of the complicated conditions on the French track,
drying out as the laps wore on. Márquez finished tenth,
just over a second and a half under the fastest lap time.
In the afternoon, the Repsol rider continued to run good lap
times, though any further improvement seemd impossible when
halfway through the session he decided to change a few adjustments,
which did not offer the expected performance.
Quotes
MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa >> Pole position, 1m 32.647s
“I’m very satisfied with today’s result.
It’s my first pole position of the season and that’s
especially good at this track because it’s very important
to have a good grid position here. Today we made some small
chassis adjustments, fine-tuning the machine.
This afternoon I wasn’t able to get the maximum out
of my first two Michelin qualifying tyres, so we made some
more changes to the chassis settings and that allowed me to
make a big step forward with my third qualifier. I didn’t
expect to get pole with my fourth qualifying tyre but I did,
so we’re very happy. As far as race pace goes, I’m
quite satisfied but there are a lot of strong riders going
very fast here and the lap times are all very close, so I
hope we can make another step forward for tomorrow. The other
question mark is the weather. It’s been very changeable
and we still don’t know what to expect for the race.”
Nicky Hayden >> 6th fastest, 1m 33.286s
“It definitely hasn’t been an easy day or an easy
weekend. We haven’t really found a direction even though
we’ve been trying a lot of things. This afternoon I
think we made a bit of progress and got a better feeling as
time went on, so I was able to put one down later on and get
a respectable grid position.
But I really need to come up with something for tomorrow if
I don’t want to watch them guys completely disappear
in the race. It’s going to be hard. Getting into the
corners has been the issue, then when we get the front better
we hurt the rear, so it’s been a constant compromise
all weekend. We’ve been making a little bit bigger changes
than we would usually make during a race weekend but sometimes
that has to be done. We’ll definitely try another little
something in warm-up. We’ve got a lot of work to do
tonight, but these boys aren’t scared of a little hard
work.”
250cc
Julián Simón >> 1’39.051 secs, 43
laps, 180 Km.
“The weather gave us a hard time, because it started
raining a bit at the beginning of the timed sessions, and
that gave us some problems. We lost some time and slowed down
the pace too, and it was a bit tough trying to improve under
those conditions.
We obviously tried, we used a softer tyre, but we were unable
to improve, just equal what we'd already scored. I'm happy
about how today went, because I felt more comfortable on the
bike than yesterday. This morning I ran quite fast and comfortably,
I did a good session. I'm motivated about tomorrow. I'm starting
on the second row and hope to finish as far up as possible.
We need a slightly higher top speed with respect to the Aprilias,
but we know what the situation is and are aware that with
hard work, we can do a good race.”
125cc
Esteve Rabat >> 1’44.344 secs, 30 laps, 126 Km.
“I was having a good time in this morning's traning
session, though the track was slightly delicate, because at
the start it was wet. I wasn't doing bad, but when I did a
pitstop and returned to the track, I had a fall and was unable
to pick the bike up again.
This afternoon I couldn't manage to ride fast, I found it
hard. Tomorrow we'll have to confirm the improvements we made
yesterday and today, because I think we've taken a step ahead,
but this needs to proven on the bike. Tomorrow we'll try to
get off to a good start and go for the leading pack once and
for all, because I'm really looking forward to it.”
Marc Márquez >> 1’45.250 secs,
35 laps, 146 Km.
“This morning was complicated, because the track was
half dry and half wet, so we didn't know what tyre to mount,
but it went well and I finished tenth.
The bike performed well during the timed session, but when
we stopped to change the tyres, we tried to improve something
which in the end made things worse. In the warm-up we'll finish
adjusting the bike, and I think the race will go well. I'm
starting in quite a good position and that's good, because
the final part of the Le Mans straightaway is slightly complicated.
I hope to get off to a good start and get as far ahead as
possible.”
Official Results
MotoGP
1. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) 1:32.647
2. Colin EDWARDS (YAMAHA) at 0.127
3. Casey STONER (DUCATI) at 0.347
4. Valentino ROSSI (YAMAHA) at 0.510
5. Jorge LORENZO (YAMAHA) at 0.622
6. Nicky HAYDEN (REPSOL HONDA) at 0.639
250cc
1. Alex DEBON (APRILIA) 1:38.478
2. Álvaro BAUTISTA (APRILIA) at 0.018
3. Marco SIMONCELLI (GILERA) at 0.089
4. Thomas LUTHI (APRILIA) at 0.170
5. Mika KALLIO (KTM) at 0.312
7. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL KTM) at 0.664
125cc
1. Bradley SMITH (APRILIA) 1:43.540
2. Sandro CORTESE (APRILIA) at 0.271
3. Nicolás TEROL (APRILIA) at 0.576
4. Simone CORSI (APRILIA) at 0.583
5. Gabor TALMACSI (APRILIA) at 0.670
10. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL KTM) at 1.139
19. Marc MÁRQUEZ (REPSOL KTM) at 1.710
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