FIM MotoGP World Championship Losail International Circuit Doha, Qatar March 19, 2011 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestones): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:54.137 2. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:54.342 3. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:54.947 4. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:54.988 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:55.095 6. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:55.223 7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:55.229 8. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:55.578 9. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:55.637 10. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:55.647 11. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:55.656 12. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:55.724 13. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:55.881 14. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:56.323 15. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:56.665 16. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:57.992 17. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), no time recorded More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner sets scorching pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix Round 1: Qatar GP Qualifying Losail International Circuit, Saturday 19 March 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Extra Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard During the hour-long qualifying session at the Losail circuit this evening it was once again Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa who dominated the session, with the Australian finishing fastest with a stunning lap to secure pole position for tomorrow’s season-opening grand prix. The outright pole position record at Losail was set in 2008 by Jorge Lorenzo, with a time of 1m 53.927s. That was on qualifying tyres in an era before single tyre supply when extra-soft compounds were made for maximum grip over just a few qualifying laps. Stoner’s pole time today was just over 0.2seconds slower but crucially was set on race tyres designed to perform over 22 laps of this circuit, giving an indication of his pace today. There are no qualifying tyres in the era of single tyre supply. Pedrosa and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo complete tomorrow’s front row of the grid, and like Stoner they too set their best times using Bridgestone’s harder option front and softer option rear slick tyres. The top four riders all dipped into the 1m 54second bracket and, impressively, the top five riders, including Marco Simoncelli and Ben Spies, all lapped faster than the existing lap record. Towards the end of the session the laptimes started tumbling as riders opted for the softer option rear slicks. After a day of the warmest weather since the test started last weekend, the track was in good condition today and a lot cleaner which was a factor in the fast pace and more riders being able to get the softer rear tyre working well. Hirohide Hamashima Director, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development “The pace we saw at the front today is very impressive so I must congratulate in particular Casey and the Repsol Honda Team. To be so close to the outright pole record using race tyres is very impressive, and I am very pleased with tyre performance today. We have seen this weekend that the extra hard front slick tyre will be the choice for almost every rider for the race, and also the hard rear tyre will be favoured for its extra durability. The circuit was cleaner today which helped tyre performance, particularly with the softer rear with which we experienced less graining today. If today’s pace is anything to go by, I am confident of setting our first new lap record of 2011 tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: FOURTH AND FIFTH ROW FOR RANDY DE PUNIET AND LORIS CAPIROSSI IN THE GRAND PRIX OF QATAR After the promising results of yesterday there is a bit of disappointment inside the box of the Pramac Racing Team. Randy De Puniet, who had finished in ninth place yesterday, had to settle for eleventh place, which earned him the fourth row in the Qatar Grand Prix scheduled for tomorrow evening at 10pm local time. The Frenchman, however, has reported a good race pace and remains confident. His teammate was not able to regain the confidence of yesterday fighting with gritted teeth and managed to locate in fifth row three positions behind the French rider. Marco Rigamonti Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “We’ll see how the track conditions will be tomorrow because even today, with the track temperature a few degrees higher, the bike had more grip and all the riders have improved significantly. The pace is certainly very good, too bad only in the last three rounds where Randy has had some complications with the front tire. However we remain very confident for tomorrow’s race.” Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing rider 11th best lap time in 1’55.656 “I am a bit ‘disappointed with qualifying today. We had a good strategy in mind having three sets of soft tires available, but at the end of the session when it was time to make the fast lap time something went wrong. During the session we have made some changes on the front to have more confidence in corners and this will allow me to be consistent in the race tomorrow. Unfortunately the last time out the front tire was not performing as in previous trials and I was limited. A minimum target point for me was the third row, but unfortunately we did not make it. Tomorrow will be very important to start well so we can stick to the leading group from the firsts laps.” Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing rider 14th best lap time in 1’56.323 “With today’s higher temperatures we have lost the feeling found yesterday. We had some complications with the tires and the front of the bike. When I come out of the corners I can not open the throttle as I want because the bike slides a bit. We will work hard to improve. Tomorrow will be important to start in the clean side of the track because where we do not usually pass there is a little bit of sand and the bike slide a bit. Anyway as always I will give my best.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Stoner and Pedrosa complete Repsol Honda 1-2 in Qualifying The first qualifying session of the 2011 Championship took place in Qatar this evening with Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa occupying the top two positions on the grid. The Repsol Honda riders spent much of the early part of the session exchanging fastest laps and were the only two riders to break into the low 1’54s. Stoner’s pole time of 1’54.137 was almost a second quicker than his own Pole Position set here in 2010. Pedrosa took second place with a time of 1’54.342 and Jorge Lorenzo completed the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race. Andrea Dovizioso qualified in 7th position after finding some traffic on track during his flying laps. However, he is confident he can fight for a podium in tomorrow night’s race. CASEY STONER 1st – 1’54.137 “We can’t ask for a much better weekend, everything has gone well and the team have made all the right steps and gradually improved the bike as the weekend progressed. Tonight I was able to achieve good, consistent lap times again on the hard tyre and this is important for the race tomorrow. As ever, we will keep our feet on the ground as we’ve had good starts to seasons in the past and then they haven’t played out as expected, we just need to keep working and ensure that we continue to progress. We’ve done all our homework and the best job possible, now I just want to get the season started”. DANI PEDROSA 2nd – 1’54.342 “The weekend has been very good for us so far, I’ve been running at the top in every session and I’m very happy to be on the front row in Losail for the first time; this is a big improvement for me. Nevertheless, we have to focus on the race, Casey is running very fast, also Lorenzo is improving very quickly, so we have to focus making no mistakes tomorrow. I don’t know yet if the race will be a fight between Casey and myself. We’ve never run at 10:00 pm, so I hope the bike works well after 125 cc and Moto2 races. I want to prepare as best as possible for tomorrow and be ready to be consistent for 22 laps. The race will be fast, I guess, so we will need to maintain a high pace. I hope I will be able to do it and fight for the victory”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 7th – 1’55.229 “I’m disappointed with the third row, I need to improve the use of the soft tyre for a better qualifying. The positive point is that we have a good pace to fight for a podium spot, this is our target tomorrow. We will work during the warm up to improve the set up to get more stability at the beginning of the braking and I hope to gain more confidence and find a good stability in the front. For the race it will be very important to have a good start and arrive at turn 1 close to the first riders. It is impossible to catch Casey, I will try to maintain contact with Dani, Lorenzo and Spies. It’s important to start the season with a good result and I will give everything in the race”. More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Crutchlow dazzles in Qatar qualifying MotoGP Rookie Cal Crutchlow lit up the Losail International Circuit in Qatar tonight with a stunning debut qualifying performance. The British rider lapped faster than nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi and a host of more experienced riders to produce the performance of the night on board the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine. Crutchlow built up his confidence and speed throughout tonight’s session, the big progress he’s made in mastering the braking technique in MotoGP evident with fast and consistent pace. He made major steps in improving front-end feel in the fast sections of the 5.38km Doha circuit and finished less than 0.5s away from the top si x, despite still riding in constant pain from the nasty left finger injury he suffered in a testing crash on Monday night. He was a massive 2.2s faster than his best pace at the two-night test earlier this week and he’s confident he can fight for a top ten finish in his MotoGP debut tomorrow night. Colin Edwards will kick off his ninth premier class campaign from 10th position, the experienced American finishing just over 0.060s behind Crutchlow. Edwards was happy with his performance on the hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre he will use in the 22-lap race tomorrow night. But he was unable to significantly improve his pace on the soft tyre on his way to clocking a best time of 1.55.647 Cal Crutchlow 8th 1.55.578 23 laps: “It feels great to have qualified eighth when you look at the ca libre and record of some of the guys behind me, but I’m not going to be getting ahead of myself. It is just a shame it is not the four-rider per row formation because that would be a second row! But to be on the third row, I’m happy enough with that. A qualifying session like that is not like Superpole in World Superbikes at all. I’m normally used to the intense pressure and being hyped up for one lap, so to have an hour where you build up pace a bit slower felt a bit strange. But I’m really happy and my fastest lap wasn’t a perfect one. I made a couple of mistakes but I think that’s because I’m having a small issue with the front-end in the fast corners. But I still managed a 55.5 and I never would have imagined doing that pace a few days ago at the test when I was doing high 57s. I’m not going to make a prediction for the race. I’d be happy to get a few points and have a strong race. It will be tough to finish where I’ve qualified but with the help of my Monster Yamaha Tec h 3 crew, it has been a really positive weekend so far.” Colin Edwards 10th 1.55.647 24 laps: “I definitely feel like I’m riding a lot better than tenth position, but that shows how competitive MotoGP is this year. As good as I’m riding, I feel like I should have been on the second row because all week I’ve been around sixth and seventh position. I just wasn’t able to lap as fast as I needed to be on the soft tyre. It looks a bit like last year in that when the Honda has a soft tyre in they can drop the lap time by a big chunk. We improve but not by a big margin and that’s something we need to work on in the future. But I’m really confident with the hard rear tyre and we’ve got the bike working great in race trim. I’m fast and consistent but I couldn’t do anything more, I’m definitely getting the most of the bike.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: ELIAS STILL SEARCHING FOR RIGHT FEELING AT LOSAIL TRACK Losail, 19 March: the qualifying session at the opening round of 2011 season concluded at 20:55 local time with Stoner the quickest MotoGP rider under the floodlights of Losail International circuit. The 16 premier class riders (Bautista suffered a broken leg femur yesterday), who will line up on the grid tomorrow at 22:00 local time for the first 22-lap round of the season, have experienced good grip conditions in the 60-minute night session with air temperature of 20 degrees. LCR Honda MotoGP rider Toni Elias could not find the right pace on soft tyres at the 5.380km track posting the 16th lap time of the day (1’57.992) on lap 20 of 23. Despite many changes on his RC212V the Spaniard is not capable to lap as he would like facing big issues on corner exit and braking. Elias: “Basically we have tried different chassis geometries and different suspension but whatever we tried we get stocked on the same lap time and this is very frustrating for me. We are struggling a lot… more than I was expecting but we still have 20 minutes tomorrow to adjust the bike. I want to thank the Team for their good job and I will continue to my best”. More, from a press release issued by Ducati Marlboro: THIRD ROW FOR ROSSI IN QATAR, HAYDEN THIRTEENTH Valentino Rossi will start on the third row of the grid tomorrow in the Grand Prix of Qatar, while his teammate, Nicky Hayden, will have to try and work his way forward from the fifth row, with an error in the final split of what would have been his best lap preventing him from improving his time. Nonetheless, the Italian rider said he is satisfied with the progress made with the setup of his GP11, and he hopes that his still-healing shoulder will permit him to maintain a good pace until the end of tomorrow’s 22-lap race, a distance that he still hasn’t completed in one run since his operation in November. Valentino Rossi (Ducati Marlboro Team) 9th, 1:55.637 “I think that without my shoulder problem, which is causing us to lose five or six tenths, we could have been on the second row today, because we were able to improve the setup by making changes that will also be important in the foreseeable future. Today I was able to ride the GP11 better, but by the time we used the soft tyre at the end of the session, my strength was gone. When I tried to do my lap time, there were some parts of the track where I just couldn’t push. Anyway, we got an okay time and we still have some things we can try in the warm-up. As for the race I think that as long as my shoulder lasts, we’ll be able to have a pace that’s relatively competitive, apart from the two Hondas. We’ll see how it goes from a physical point of view in the second half of the race, after eleven or twelve laps in a row riding on the limit.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th, 1:55.881 “It was pretty much the same way that it has been all weekend. I just clearly wasn’t fast enough. We tried something toward the start of the session that was very similar to last year’s setup, but it didn’t work. I got back on my other bike and had one decent lap going, but I made a mistake in the last corner. Most of the weekend I’ve been able to go just as fast on used hard tyres, but that wasn’t the case tonight, even though the temperature is warmer. I thought my best lap might get me out of trouble a little bit, because it was the first time since we got rid of qualifying tyres that I got into the 55s around here, but it wasn’t nearly good enough this year. We’ve known since the tests in Malaysia that everybody has made a big step. It’s been a frustrating weekend, and it won’t be easy tomorrow starting from way back, but we’re not ready to go home yet.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Lorenzo Steals the Front Row for Qatar Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo reminded everyone why he’s the reigning World Champion this evening in the first qualifying session of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. The blisteringly quick session saw the fastest riders breaking further and further into the 1’54s as the clock counted down. With just a handful of minutes to go the Mallorcan put the hammer down, delivering a 1’54.947 on his 23rd lap to secure a front row start with third place on the grid. Lorenzo’s team mate Spies was also sending out a clear message on the time sheets. The Texan gradually worked his way down the 1.55s and was threatening to follow his team mate into the 1.54s until a small mistake costing a tenth of a second resulted in a best time of 1’55.095, just 0.148 of a second off the front row. As a result he will start mid second row in fifth for the opening race of the season under the floodlights tomorrow night. Jorge Lorenzo Position 3rd – Time 1’54.947 – Laps 26 There were some really impressive lap times out there tonight in the session. We are still quite far behind the front but our goal is to finish on the podium and that is in my mind for tomorrow. My race pace is pretty good; I think I can keep running 1’55.7s or maybe 1’55.8s. We will finalise our set up in warm up and try to achieve that tomorrow. Ben Spies Position 5th – Time 1’55.095 – Laps 26 It was actually better to be fifth than fourth for grid position although I’d have liked to be on the front row! It wasn’t a perfect session, I didn’t nail a perfect lap time but you rarely do. I don’t think we were too far off the maximum, maybe there were two tenths left in the bike and that’s it. It’s not so bad though, we have a good package to battle for the podium tomorrow. I did the best I could so not a bad start to the year. Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager A very hot qualifying session, we’re happy to be near the front with both riders. Jorge is top three but very close in the times with fourth, fifth and sixth so it will be a tough race tomorrow. He feels ok with the bike and lap times were good. We’re going to focus on tomorrow now, it’s going to be a long hard race! Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director We will start the race in good positions with both riders, the race pace of both of them was very good so we are ready to go out there. Ben is quite satisfied with his bike set up, he made a small mistake and lost at least one tenth on his fast lap but he said the bike was working well with a used tyre so we have confidence for tomorrow. We will confirm the last details in warm up to be as good as possible for the race. Crutchlow dazzles in Qatar qualifying MotoGP Rookie Cal Crutchlow lit up the Losail International Circuit in Qatar tonight with a stunning debut qualifying performance. The British rider lapped faster than nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi and a host of more experienced riders to produce the performance of the night on board the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine. Crutchlow built up his confidence and speed throughout tonight’s session, the big progress he’s made in mastering the braking technique in MotoGP evident with fast and consistent pace. He made major steps in improving front-end feel in the fast sections of the 5.38km Doha circuit and finished less than 0.5s away from the top six, despite still riding in constant pain from the nasty left finger injury he suffered in a testing crash on Monday night. He was a massive 2.2s faster than his best pace at the two-night test earlier this week and he’s confident he can fight for a top ten finish in his MotoGP debut tomorrow night. Colin Edwards will kick off his ninth premier class campaign from 10th position, the experienced American finishing just over 0.060s behind Crutchlow. Edwards was happy with his performance on the hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre he will use in the 22-lap race tomorrow night. But he was unable to significantly improve his pace on the soft tyre on his way to clocking a best time of 1.55.647 Cal Crutchlow Position 8th – Time 1’55.578 – Laps 23 “It feels great to have qualified eighth when you look at the calibre and record of some of the guys behind me, but I’m not going to be getting ahead of myself. It is just a shame it is not the four-rider per row formation because that would be a second row! But to be on the third row, I’m happy enough with that. A qualifying session like that is not like Superpole in World Superbikes at all. I’m normally used to the intense pressure and being hyped up for one lap, so to have an hour where you build up pace a bit slower felt a bit strange. But I’m really happy and my fastest lap wasn’t a perfect one. I made a couple of mistakes but I think that’s because I’m having a small issue with the front-end in the fast corners. But I still managed a 55.5 and I never would have imagined doing that pace a few days ago at the test when I was doing high 57s. I’m not going to make a prediction for the race. I’d be happy to get a few points and have a strong race. It will be tough to finish where I’ve qualified but with the help of my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew, it has been a really positive weekend so far.” Colin Edwards Position 10th – Time 1’55.647 – Laps 24 “I definitely feel like I’m riding a lot better than tenth position, but that shows how competitive MotoGP is this year. As good as I’m riding, I feel like I should have been on the second row because all week I’ve been around sixth and seventh position. I just wasn’t able to lap as fast as I needed to be on the soft tyre. It looks a bit like last year in that when the Honda has a soft tyre in they can drop the lap time by a big chunk. We improve but not by a big margin and that’s something we need to work on in the future. But I’m really confident with the hard rear tyre and we’ve got the bike working great in race trim. I’m fast and consistent but I couldn’t do anything more, I’m definitely getting the most of the bike.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: Grand Prix of Qatar at Losail: Final Qualifying Weather: Dry Temperature: 22 degrees ambient, 24 degrees track 17, 18, 19, 20 March 2011 HONDAS TAKE TOP TWO SPOTS IN QATAR QUALIFYING The 2011 MotoGP World Championship will begin with Honda riders on the first two spots of the grid following a dominant performance in final qualifying under the desert lights of the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) continued the strong form he’s shown throughout winter testing and this inaugural race weekend by taking the season’s first MotoGP pole in the one hour session, held late on Saturday evening. Stoner, who was fastest in all three free practice sessions, lapped the 5.380k circuit in 1m, 54.137s.. The lap was fastest of all by a comfortable .205s as Stoner continues to showcase his ability to adapt the machine which he first rode at the end of last season. Though the lap wasn’t the fastest qualifying mark ever, it was the fastest of the control tyre era and not far from the outright mark set in the last year of qualifying tyres. The pole was the 23rd of Stoner’s MotoGP career, his 27th overall, and his second in the MotoGP class aboard a Honda. His first came at this track in 2006 in only his second MotoGP race. Second on the grid is Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V), the Spaniard who’s been the only rider to keep Stoner honest this week. Pedrosa was second to Stoner in all three practice sessions and led Friday’s final 45-minute practice until Stoner went faster in the closing stages. Still, the two Repsol Honda riders have been so consistently fast that many of their rivals have admitted that beating them in Sunday’s curtain-raiser will be difficult. Stoner and Pedrosa had a thrilling back and forth battle in the closing stages of the session that went to Stoner, though Pedrosa is quite strong and the speed of the two riders has them in a class by themselves. Second year MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) will start his second season from the fourth spot on the grid after coming within .041s of his first front row start. The Italian, who has full factory machinery, wasn’t confident ahead of qualifying based on Friday’s practice, but after adjustments by the team to the race set-up, he was able to pick up the pace. His only concern was fuel consumption on a track with a very long straightaway and a number of hard accelerating corner exits. The third member of the Repsol Honda team, Andrea Dovizioso, wanted to join his team-mates on the front row before ultimately qualifying on the row three pole. The problem was with his qualifying tyre, which he didn’t make the most of, though on race rubber he was confident of being able to challenge for a podium. The one area that needed improvement was stability under braking, which he planned to address in tomorrow night’s “morning” warm-up. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) made his MotoGP debut here last year by qualifying tenth fastest, two spots higher than today’s mark. He wasn’t happy with that position, but believes his race set-up will suit the nighttime race. Aoyama was on his way to improving his grid spot before hitting traffic that denied him the chance. Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP) had a difficult evening in his first MotoGP qualifying session in more than a year. The 2010 Moto2 World Champion has struggled to find rear tyre grip throughout the pre-season and those struggles continued here this weekend. Complicating matters is that the Losail circuit is set in the desert, with gusting winds often blowing fine sand onto the racing surface, which was uncommonly cool this evening. The top three riders in Moto2 were a mixture of young and more young, and vastly superior to the remainder of the 39-rider field. Earning his first ever pole position was Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing-Kalex), the son of former 250cc World Championship runner-up Helmut Bradl. Bradl was fast here last year, but was involved in a collision on the first lap of the first ever Moto2 race when he and Alex de Angelis high-sided in turn three after de Angelis had machine problems. Bradl said he wanted to put that incident behind him and concentrate on this race, which he’ll begin with a slight advantage over Marc Marquez following his lap of 2m, 01.68s. Marquez (Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol-Suter), the 125cc World Champion, was impressive in his Moto2 debut. The young Spaniard made Bradl work for his pole position, while showing that he’d instantly adapted to the larger, Honda-powered four-stroke. The grid position wasn’t that surprising since Marquez has been fast from the start of Moto2 testing. The protégé of Emilio Alzamora was on provisional pole when Bradl stole it from him in the last five minutes. Still, second in his first Moto2 race is heady stuff. Swiss rider Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) finished .621s behind Marquez to complete the new front row makeup. Starting with this race, the grids of all grand prix classes are three across, which MotoGP has been for some time. It was the gap behind him that was more noteworthy. Luthi had over a second on fourth fastest Yuki Takahashi. MotoGP Rider Quotes: Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda: 1st 1m, 54.137s: “We can’t ask for a much better weekend, everything has gone well and the team have made all the right steps and gradually improved the bike as the weekend progressed. Tonight I was able to achieve good, consistent lap times again on the hard tyre and this is important for the race tomorrow. As ever, we will keep our feet on the ground as we’ve had good starts to seasons in the past and then they haven’t played out as expected, we just need to keep working and ensure that we continue to progress. We’ve done all our homework and the best job possible, now I just want to get the season started.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd 1m, 54.342s “The weekend has been very good for us so far, I’ve been running at the top in every session and I’m very happy to be on the front row in Losail for the first time; this is a big improvement for me. Nevertheless, we have to focus on the race, Casey is running very fast, also Lorenzo is improving very quickly, so we have to focus making no mistakes tomorrow. I don’t know yet if the race will be a fight between Casey and myself. We’ve never run at 10:00 pm, so I hope the bike works well after 125 cc and Moto2 races. I want to prepare as best as possible for tomorrow and be ready to be consistent for 22 laps. The race will be fast, I guess, so we will need to maintain a high pace. I hope I will be able to do it and fight for the victory.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 4th – 1m, 54.988s “Today went well and I’m happy because after practice yesterday I never thought about the fourth time. In this round we have made some small changes and we went a lot better in race trim. Then on the “dry” lap I have been strong and I came within .041s of the front row. I’m still a bit concerned about fuel consumption, but we will still talk about it before the race. In any case, starting from the front is already quite an advantage and that will allow me to consume less fuel. Of course the two who have gone ahead are very strong and will dispute the race between themselves, but I will fight for a position of prestige.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda:, 7th 1m, 55.229s “I’m disappointed with the third row, I need to improve the use of the soft tyre for a better qualifying. The positive point is that we have a good pace to fight for a podium spot, this is our target tomorrow. We will work during the warm up to improve the set up to get more stability at the beginning of the braking and I hope to gain more confidence and find a good stability in the front. For the race it will be very important to have a good start and arrive at turn 1 close to the first riders. It is impossible to catch Casey, I will try to maintain contact with Dani, Lorenzo and Spies. It’s important to start the season with a good result and I will give everything in the race.” Hiroshi Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 12th – 1m, 55.724s “The position that I have won on the grid is not fantastic, but in race trim I feel OK. Of course I would favor starting further ahead, but I’m still pretty confident. Unfortunately in the last minute the track was very busy and I could not improve. In any case we are confident for the race and I feel prepared to make a good result.” Toni Elias, LCR Honda MotoGP: 16th – 1m, 57.992s: “Basically we have tried different chassis geometries and different suspension but whatever we tried we get stuck on the same lap time and this is very frustrating for me. We are struggling a lot, more than I was expecting, but we still have 20 minutes tomorrow to adjust the bike. I want to thank the team for their good job and I will continue to do my best.” Moto2 Rider Quotes. Stefan Bradl, Viessmann Kiefer Racing – Kalex: 1st – 2m, 0.168s “We found a good set-up in the last test in Jerez and we can continue like this in the beginning of the free practice, so I’m very happy about this. We are really consistent, we are really competitive at the beginning of the practice, also at the end and with the used tyres now in the warm-up, so everything is working quite well at the moment, so, yeah, just make a good start for tomorrow and we will see. Anyway, I think it will be very hard for tomorrow, because the gap is not too big any more, so we have to concentrate. But still the bike is doing a job, I enjoy riding, so I’m looking forward for tomorrow.” Marc Marquez, Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol Suter: 2nd – 2m, 0.375s “The truth is we are really happy. I feel more and more comfortable on the bike, mainly thanks to my mechanics, who are doing an incredible job. To start from the first row in our first Moto2 Grand Prix is a very good result and I will do my best tomorrow. We still have to see how the bike works in race conditions and with a full tank, but I hope I will be able to have a good start. In Moto2 the start is a bit more complicated, but I hope everything goes well. We are gathering experience and that’s the most important thing.” Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock, Moto2 Suter: 3rd – 2m, 0.996s “The basic problem is that I was saving my tyres yesterday, as I didn’t have a big amount. I didn’t know that more tyres were going to be flown in or I would have pushed harder. My lap times compared to yesterday were better, but I was sliding a lot and need to find a solution for the race.”