FIM Moto2 World Championship Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana August 27 Qualifying Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Marc MARQUEZ, Spain (SUTER), 1:44.038 2. Simone CORSI, Italy (FTR), 1:44.039 3. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (SUTER), 1:44.158 4. Bradley SMITH, Great Britain (TECH 3), 1:44.344 5. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:44.623 6. Mattia PASINI, Italy (FTR), 1:44.732 7. Pol ESPARGARO, Spain (FTR), 1:44.785 8. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:44.794 9. Esteve RABAT, Spain (FTR), 1:44.859 10. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (MOTOBI), 1:44.864 11. Scott REDDING, Great Britain (SUTER), 1:44.865 12. Jules CLUZEL, France (SUTER), 1:45.043 13. Michele PIRRO, Italy (MORIWAKI), 1:45.047 14. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:45.060 15. Julian SIMON, Spain (SUTER), 1:45.062 16. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Germany (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:45.094 17. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:45.136 18. Mika KALLIO, Finland (SUTER), 1:45.160 19. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (SUTER), 1:45.173 20. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (MORIWAKI), 1:45.184 21. Jordi TORRES, Spain (SUTER), 1:45.369 22. Stefan BRADL, Germany (KALEX), 1:45.371 23. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (KALEX), 1:45.448 24. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (TECH 3), 1:45.496 25. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (TECH 3), 1:45.534 26. Claudio CORTI, Italy (SUTER), 1:45.682 27. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (FTR), 1:45.889 28. Carmelo MORALES, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:46.059 29. Kenny NOYES, USA (FTR), 1:46.086 30. Anthony WEST, Australia (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:46.160 31. Martin CARDENAS, Colombia (FTR), 1:46.175, crash 32. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (PONS KALEX), 1:46.247 33. Jake GAGNE, USA (FTR), 1:46.594 34. Valentin DEBISE, France (FTR), 1:46.953 35. J.D. BEACH, USA (FTR), 1:47.219 36. Mashel AL NAIMI, Qatar (MORIWAKI), 1:47.343 37. Robertino PIETRI, Venezuela (SUTER), 1:47.439 38. Santiago HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:48.170 39. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (SUTER), no time recorded * * Have qualified for the race having achieved a time within 107 % of the fastest rider in a free practice session. More, from a press release issued by JiR Moto2 Team: GP of Indianapolis, qualifying, De Angelis 10th Today saw a day of qualifying practice on the Indy circuit, where Alex De Angelis at the end of the session managed to grab tenth place on the grid. The new Tarmac has proved to be tricky for most teams, shuffling the cards in the deck and rewarding those who were able to adapt better to the slippery circuit. The result was a fun round of qualifying for the audience with frequent changes of positions and a pretty tight ranking. The JiR rider ran in the qualifying session to find an effective set up for his MotoBI, managing to grab the fifth place before being overtaken in last minutes until settling on the fourth row. For Alex a 1’44.864 lap resulted in a 0.826 second gap from the pole-man Marc Marquez, which is not such a big gap considering the length of the American track. Team and rider are expecting a strong effort to aim at a good result similar to that obtained in the last races. Gianluca Montiron, Team Principal All riders have encountered difficulties in adapting to the resurfaced circuit, this factor has reshuffled the riders in the field. We are among those who have suffered most from the situation. Alex was able at the end to grab the tenth place, tomorrow we will have the warm-up to make a difference considering that in these two days our rider has been unable to perform consistently. This race is a very important event for the championship and can make a difference; this could lead to a turning point, whereas the next race will be at Misano circuit where we have tested recently. Alex De Angelis, Rider It is clear that I’m not very happy because in the last few races we were used to better positions, if we look at yesterday and this morning I have to say that we made a great step and this indicates that we found the good direction. Now together with our technicians we will look at the telemetry to understand where we have improved and what still can be done to make a further improvement in view of the warm-up and the race tomorrow. We realized that the front needs some change to help us better handle the curves and make a tighter line: this is very important with this type of new asphalt as the outside line is dirty and slippery. For tomorrow the goal is to improve the tenth position and stay close to the leaders because those who play an important place in the championship are within reach. More, from a press release issued by Tech 3 Racing: Xavier Siméon gains back confidence in Indianapolis qualifying Xavier Siméon finished today’s qualifying session for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in 24th position. The young Moto2 rider from Belgium was not happy with his position to start tomorrow’s race, but is very happy he found his confidence back with his Mistral 610 bike, which he has lost due to the difficulties he had to complain about in Brno two weeks ago. Siméon is hoping for a good start into the 12th race of the 2011 Moto2 world championship and is lookin g to extend his points in the championship standings with another Top 15 result tomorrow. Xavier Siméon, 24th position, 1’45.496, 22 laps: “žThe qualifying was not so bad, even though the position could have been a bit better. Yesterday was my first time on this track and it is difficult to learn it with its slippery surface. But lap by lap and session after session I was able to improve my time. The position of the qualifying is far from perfect, but I know we have a good rhythm and I think we can fight for a Top 15 tomorrow. We were trying to safe the tyres a bit as this asphalt does not really help them. I think we found a good set up. At the beginning of the qualifying I was very consistent in my lap times and already one second faster than this morning. I feel so much better than in Brno. I found my confidence back that I lost in Brno and I think we have a very good package for this circuit.” More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team: Cardús and Al Naimi keep improving and celebrate best qualifying of the season On the second day of practice for the Indianapolis Grand Prix, QMMF Racing Team riders Ricky Cardús and Mishal Al-Naimi kept improving steadily and finished the day with their best qualifying performance of the season so far. 23-year-old Cardús took 14th place on the starting grid, with a gap of just one second to Marc Márquez on pole position. For 27-year-old Al-Naimi, the position on the grid was not as important as the fact that he finally overcame the difficulties with his bike and that he was a strong part of the contest rather than trailing the field like on previous occasions. “The last minutes of qualifying were amazing. Many riders improved dramatically, and it was difficult for Ricky to keep up with the rapidly dropping lap times. But his 14th place on the grid is still encouraging and we are in a position to have a good race and to achieve the result we are looking for”, said team coordinator Luis Solano. “Mishal is having his best race weekend of the season, because he improved in every session and he finally left other riders behind him. That will boost his motivation, and I am sure he will ride a good race as well!” Mashel Al-Naimi 36th in 1.47,343 “I am happy because we worked very well within the team and I managed to improve my lap time every time I went out, session by session. My bike works better on this track than at previous races and it is the first time that I have been able to stay ahead of some other riders, which gives me a good feeling for tomorrow. I hope I can ride in the race the way I did in qualifying. The problem is that we don’t know which will be the right tyres for the race. Both the soft and the hard tyres are finished quickly, on the front and the rear. Maybe we will race with the softer compound because with the hard one, I am sliding too much!” Ricky Cardús 14th in 1.45,060 “On one side, I am satisfied because we scored our best qualifying result this season so far. On the other side, I am not completely happy because I wanted to achieve even more. Now I am 14th, and all I can hope for is a good start and to be able to hang on and battle with the group in front of me. It will be a hard race, especially since the tyres will be dead after 12 or 13 laps. That worries us a bit, but it is almost the same for everybody. Depending from the set-up, the tyres last seven laps on some bikes and 15 on others. Let’s hope I’ll be one of those riders that can do 15 laps without getting into trouble!” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3 Racing: Smith targets rostrum return in Indianapolis Bradley Smith is optimistic he can fight for a fourth Moto2 podium finish of this year’s World Championship campaign after he came tantalisingly close to claiming a place on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s 26-lap race at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Tech 3 Racing Team rider was full of confidence going into this afternoon’s hot and humid qualifying session after he’d finished sixth quickest in Free Practice. The British rider has worked hard throughout the weekend to gain maximum grip, with the new surface on the infield section of the 2.62 miles circuit slippery and lacking in traction in the first two prac tice sessions. Smith’s efforts paid off as he delivered another excellent performance on the Mistral 610 machine and he clocked a best time of 1.44.344 to finish fourth fastest. Smith’s best pace was only 0.186s away from recording only his second front row start in the ultra-competitive Moto2 class as he looks to add to the top three finishes he secured at Silverstone, Assen and Mugello earlier in the season. Mike di Meglio will start from 25th position on the grid, even though he was less than half-a-second away from the top 12. The French rider suffered a crash during the session as he struggled with front-end grip on the new tarmac. Bradley Smith: 4th 1.44.344 19 laps: “The target was to be on the second row at least and we’ve achieved that, so I’m really happy. With the new surface not offering a great deal of grip, there is only a narrow racing line and if you stray off that it can get very slippery. So it was important to be at the front and not too far down the grid where you’ll need to make a few overtakes. Overtaking won’t be easy at all if you have to go off line and I think everyone is going to struggle with the tyre life because with the new surface everything seems to be ripping up. The Tech 3 Racing Team has been working perfectly again and in every session we have been competitive. Now the objective is to focus on a good start tomorrow and fight for the podium. The last two races haven’t turned out how we expected, so I am extra motivated and determined to get a good result tomorrow.” Mike di Meglio: 25th 1.45.534 17 laps: “The weekend started quite good, but after we changed some settings for the qu alifying it did not work out and that is very strange and I am disappointed, so we have to look into the problem again tomorrow morning. It has been a very difficult weekend and even though I managed to improve my time a lot, we had a lot of trouble with the front tyre. I crashed because we needed to change the tyre already after 10 laps. I hope we can find a solution for the wear problem otherwise it is going to be a very difficult race. I cannot push at the limit, as it is quite dangerous and very difficult. I am tired of being around 24th position all of the time, so hopefully I can battle hard and get into the points.” More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: HEAVY TRAFFIC FRUSTRATES MARC VDS RACING TEAM Heavy traffic in the decisive final stages of today’s Moto2 qualifying session at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway prevented Scott Redding and Mika Kallio from capitalising on their fantastic practice performances. British rider Redding was confident of challenging for pole position after he dominated practice in hot and humid conditions at the iconic American motorsport venue. Redding was the one and only rider to break into the 1.44 bracket in free practice and after the third and final session this morning, the 18-year-old was an impressive 0.340s faster than his closest rival. But he was unable to continue that sparkling form in qualifying as each time he tried to push for a fast lap time, he encountered slower riders cruising close to the racing line. Redding had to settle for a frustrating 11th position on the grid with a best time of 1.44.865 leaving him less than 0.2s away from the second row. Redding’s confidence with his Suter MMXI machine though has soared this weekend, with major improvements made to the front-end performance allowing him to show more of his usual aggression in the corners. Unfortunately for the Marc VDS Racing Team, Kallio experienced similar problems to his teammate. The Finnish rider had finished practice in a promising ninth position and he looked certain to be able to compete for at least a place on the third row. But the 28-year-old also came across heavy traffic when he sought to improve his lap time of 1.45.160. And pushing hard on his final lap to climb up the order, a small mistake at Turn 15 saw Kallio suffer a slow speed crash that left him 18th on the grid. Scott Redding #45 – 1.44.865- 15 laps – 11th position “To say 11th on the grid is below what I was expecting would be an understatement when you consider how brilliantly practice was. We’ve continually improved the bike and I’ve felt as confident as I have for a long time, yet we’re not even starting inside the top 10. Finishing more than 0.3s ahead of everybody else in practice showed how competitive we are but the end of the session was crazy again. There are so many guys just riding around slowly and waiting for a tow that I just couldn’t get in one clear lap. It is really frustrating because we’ve done all that hard work to get in a position to be challenging for the front row and it is all for nothing. The good thing is that I’ve shown in practice that I’ve got the speed to fight for the podium here again. The Suter MMXI has been working awesome all weekend, so I’ll just push as hard as I can from the start and try and get to the front as soon as possible.” Mika Kallio #36 – 1.45.160 – 17 laps – 18th position “Qualifying was very frustrating because for the whole session I was confident of being in the top 10. But it all went wrong right at the end. I am really angry because there was so much traffic it was impossible to find clear track. Each time I tried to push there was somebody in the way blocking me. On the last lap I found some space and in the first three splits my time was going to be good enough to put me on the third row. But I made small mistake at Turn 15. I ran off line by about a foot, but that put me on the dirty part of the track where there is no grip at all and I crashed, so I missed that lap too. It is disappointing to know we should be much higher but looking back to Brno when I got points after starting 30th, I am optimistic with a good start that I can still get a positive result.” Pete Benson – Scott Redding Crew Chief “Considering Scott was so fast in practice and looking really confident on the bike, we have to be disappointed to be starting 11th on the grid. Without doubt that is a bit of a false position because he just couldn’t get the lap in at the end that he was hoping for and that’s a pity. For some reason Scott loves this track and it was obvious yesterday when he clicked with it immediately again. We’ve made some changes to the bike that hopefully will set us up for a strong finish to the year. We’ve changed the bike balance a little bit and it is unfortunate it has taken us this long into the season to figure it out, but Scott feels much more confident with the front-end and that’s what he’s been missing. The new surface was really slippery yesterday but immediately he was fast, so that was a good sign that he was a lot happier with the bike. I think if he can get a decent start then he’s still in with a great chance of running at the front, which is where we deserve to be based on our speed in practice.”