FIM MotoGP World Championship Catalunya, Spain June 7, 2008 Final Qualifying Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:41.186 2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:41.269 3. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:41.437 4. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:41.571 5. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:41.609 6. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:41.820 7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:42.053 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:42.365 9. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:42.427 10. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:42.580 11. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:42.643 12. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:42.648 13. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:42.808 14. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:42.819 15. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:43.204 16. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:43.719 17. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:44.558 18. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, no times record More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA SCORES DOUBLE FRONT ROW Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya Qualifying, Saturday June 7 2008 Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden scorched to a double front-row start at Catalunya today, setting the second and third fastest times in this afternoon’s thrilling qualifying session. Pedrosa was less than a tenth of a second off pole position, with Hayden just 0.251 seconds off pole. Both riders also set impressive times in race trim, local hero Pedrosa ending free practice just two thousandths off the best time and Hayden fifth, just over a tenth of a second slower. Pedrosa, who started last month’s French GP from pole position, had an electrical problem with his number one bike in qualifying but was able to switch to his second bike and challenge for pole, proving the consistent performance of his two machines. This is Hayden’s best qualifying performance of the year so far, following two fourth places at Jerez and Estoril. The Spaniard and the American will now sit down with their Michelin technicians to make their final tyre choice for tomorrow’s race, round seven in the 2008 MotoGP World Championship. Dani Pedrosa, second fastest, 1m 41.269s “That was quite a difficult session for me because I had an electrical problem with one of my bikes, so I had to leave it at the side of the track and I took a while to get back to the pits. That cost me crucial time, so I was a bit nervous when I got back on track, it took me a while to find my rhythm again and ride some fast laps. Luckily I was fast again and we were able to get very close to scoring pole position. Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session and I’m very happy because it’s important to start from the front row at my home race. We are happy enough with our race set-up, but we have to wait and see what the weather will do. I am really looking forward to racing in front of the Spanish fans.” Nicky Hayden, 9th fastest, 1m 43.614s “It’s nice to be up there and so close to pole position, I’m pretty happy. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It’s fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice. Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. We’ll see about tyre choice, that’s going to be the biggest mission tonight trying to make the perfect choice. Then we’ve got to get a good start, stick our nose in there and see what happens. It’s nice to be on the front row, hopefully this can be something to get things headed back in the right direction. Thanks to my team and everyone in my corner for their support, I know I got a lot of people riding with me.” Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager “We are all very happy, the whole team is doing a fantastic job here, so my thanks to everyone involved, also to Michelin for their hard work and their support. Qualifying is important but of course our number one target is always the race. I think we have a big chance to win tomorrow, maybe even both riders on the podium. We are fighting hard and it is exciting. Both riders have quite a good race pace and we are close to making our final decisions on race tyres. Dani had an electrical problem with his number one bike but was able to qualify well on his second bike because both machines are basically the same.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: DIFFICULT QUALIFYING SESSION LEAVES ROSSI ON THIRD ROW IN CATALUNYA Valentino Rossi is faced with an uphill task in tomorrow’s Catalan Grand Prix, after struggling with set-up issues throughout today’s practices and qualifying in ninth position. Today’s session was in stark contrast to this time last year, when the Fiat Yamaha Team rider put his M1 on pole position for this same race. The Italian and his crew have been working at the maximum throughout all four sessions so far in order to find the right set-up for their Bridgestone-Yamaha package, but Rossi is still lacking speed on the entrance to the corners. He was unable to improve much this afternoon even when using a qualifying tyre and will have to launch his attack tomorrow from the outside of the third row, whilst his championship rivals Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa fill the front two spots. The team will now look to make further changes overnight and then use tomorrow’s warm-up session to maximum effect in order to try to find a setting which can enable Rossi to fight his way through the pack and play a part in tomorrow’s 25-lap race. In contrast to the busy scenes on the number 46 side of the garage, the opposite side of the box was completely quiet today following Jorge Lorenzo’s accident yesterday, which has forced the 21-year-old to spend the remainder of his home Grand Prix weekend resting in hospital. It was a more positive day in the Tech 3 Yamaha box however, as Colin Edwards and James Toseland qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Valentino Rossi Position: 9 Time: 1’42.427 Laps: 25 “This was quite a bad qualifying session for us! We had a lot of problems and now, unfortunately, we will have to start from the third row, our worst qualifying result so far this season. Tomorrow for sure will be a very hard race for us. We’ve tried to improve the setting but we haven’t been able to fix our problems, the main one of which is that we are not fast enough on the entry to the corners. Now we need to work all afternoon to try to find a solution and then see what we can do tomorrow. 25 laps is going to be quite difficult but we will try to come up with a plan and then I will try to recover as many positions as possible at the start and through the first few corners. If we can make a few small improvements and improve the feeling then we can try to do something tomorrow, we’ll just have to wait and see.” Davide Brivio Team manager “We will have a difficult start tomorrow; 9th on the grid is not what we hoped for but we have been in worse positions so now our task is to analyse the data we have from today’s practice and learn what we can from this information. We’ve tried many different things over these two days and unfortunately, so far, we haven’t been able to find the right set-up for our package at this track. So now we need to study everything carefully, come up with some good ideas and then put everything together in a different way. If we can improve the bike then we know that Valentino will be able to try and fight, so this is our task!” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: Saturday, 7th June 2008 Montmelo, Catalunya LORENZO RECOVERING WELL IN BARCELONA Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo is recovering well in hospital following his crash yesterday afternoon in practice for the Grand Prix of Catalunya. The Spanish rookie passed the night in Barcelona’s Institut Dexues under the watchful eye of Dr. Xavier Mir, after hitting his head and injuring his right hand in the fall. Lorenzo will remain at the hospital for at least another 24 hours for more rest and observation and further information will be available tomorrow. “I am pleased to say that Jorge’s condition is improving well,” said Dr. Mir this afternoon. “He passed a good night and has had a good rest. We cannot say anything in more detail until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but I am pleased to say that he has recovered his memory 100%. Tomorrow we will make another neurological examination and also another examination of his right hand, when we will decide whether a skin graft will be necessary on his fourth and fifth fingers.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: With his first pole position since the race at Misano in 2007, World Champion Casey Stoner broke his nine-month top spot drought in qualifying for the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya. The Australian did so with a new record time of 1´41.186, preventing a home pole for Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa. Last year´s racewinner, Stoner had a spectacular last lap of the Barcelona circuit where he cut his teeth in the Spanish championship, putting behind him any grip problems experienced early on Friday. The 22 year-old had been fastest in the previous two practice sessions. For Pedrosa, another front row and leadership of the BMW M Award will not come as too much of a disappointment, with his other immediate title rivals either down the order or out of action. A bike problem early on left him without time to test his race tyres, and using his second machine. The Repsol Honda representation on the front row will be two-strong tomorrow afternoon, Nicky Hayden taking off from the first line of attack for the first time in 2007. He put his cards on the table late on in the session, with only extremely impressive runs from Stoner and Pedrosa ousting him from the top spot. On the front row last year, Randy de Puniet was using a different machine and tyres to those of 2007, taking his Michelin-shod LCR Honda to the head of the second line. The Frenchman is still suffering from a finger injury picked up in Mugello, but showed that he has some serious pace despite the pain. Tech 3 Yamaha´s Colin Edwards and James Toseland completed the top six, astonishingly all within the pole position record set by Valentino Rossi last season. Edwards in particular is very confident for the race, having worked for distance over the past two days. Andrea Dovizioso had a lot of work to do in order to correct a rear end problem from Friday, but appeared to have got to the root of the issue as he took seventh spot. The third row also includes Rizla Suzuki´s Chris Vermeulen and Fiat Yamaha´s World Championship-leading rider Valentino Rossi, who lost his chance of pole when he caught his wheel on the grass late on. There was a final five minute crash for Marco Melandri in the hour-long session, and also some usage of the newly-asphalted chicane run-off section by Loris Capirossi. Meanwhile, an update from the Institut Dexeus in Barcelona confirmed Jorge Lorenzo, who crashed in yesterday’s practice, is recovering well in hospital after hitting his head and injuring his right hand. He will remain under observation for the next 24 hours whilst resting up and missing his home race. Alvaro Bautista completed the lower cylinder category sweep of Spanish polemen with his third qualifying blitz of 2008, maintaining a 100% record of front rows thus far this season. Whilst some way off Jorge Lorenzo´s astonishing pole position record from last year nearly half a second slower than his countryman´s time- Bautista´s hot lap of 1´45.636 was enough to snatch the top spot after the chequered flag had been waved. The Mapfre Aspar rider will line up alongside two fellow home riders on the front row, regular first line starters Alex Debon and Hector Barbera. Joining them will be the winner of the most recent race in Mugello, Marco Simoncelli. Extra intrigue comes from the presence of Barbera and Simoncelli alongside each other, bearing in mind their final lap incident less than a week ago. The two shared a handshake in parc ferme, but there will surely be no love lost between the duo as they set their sights on victory in Barcelona. Polaris World´s Mattia Pasini was off the front line for only the second time this season, heading row two. The title contender is accompanied by Hector Faubel in his best 250cc qualifying session, with Yuki Takahashi and Hiroshi Aoyama adding a Japanese flavour to proceedings. Aoyama crashed out late on in the session, whilst his Red Bull KTM teammate and current World Championship leader Mika Kallio could only qualify eleventh. 16 year-old Pol Espargaro took a career-first pole position in qualifying for the 125cc Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya, following up his provisional top spot from Friday afternoon. The Spaniard, who has broken records the last two years at his home track as the youngest points scorer and podium finisher in Grand Prix history, is a hot favourite for victory tomorrow after three consecutive top four finishes. Espargaro´s pole position time was 1´50.557, cutting over half a second from his Friday marker. The Belson Derbi teenager had another crack at lowering the time late on in the session, but found American rider Stevie Bonsey in his path. Subsequent gestures suggested frustration and preoccupation for Espargaro, but with his time remaining unbeaten that proved unneccesary. Over a tenth of a second slower, Mike di Meglio also confirmed his previous position of second on the grid. The Frenchman is also riding with a Spanish connection; Ajo Motorsport manufacturer Derbi are based near the Barcelona circuit. Jack&Jones WRB´s Nico Terol and Blusens Aprilia´s Scott Redding complete the front row, with both having a high level of experience at the Circuit de Catalunya. For Terol it is his home race, whilst rookie Redding is a veteran of the Spanish national championship. World Championship leader Simone Corsi heads row two, ahead of home rider Sergio Gadea and Gabor Talmacsi -riders for the Spanish Bancaja Aspar team. Once again pushing to the limit in search of pole position, Bradley Smith had a nasty crash with four minutes to go in the session. Hanging off his bike in order to prevent a highside on the fast chicane, when Smith eventually bailed out the speed of the bike rebounded it awkwardly off the safety barrier, and into the oncoming Polaris World rider. If fit to compete, the 17 year-old will start from the back of the second row. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: HOPKINS BATTLES BRAVELY ON DURING CATALUNYA QUALIFYING Kawasaki’s John Hopkins bravely qualified in 14th position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Catalunya, after riding with an injured back sustained in a turn two highside during Friday’s practice. Hopkins was determined to make up for the loss of valuable track time to set up his Ninja ZX-RR around the Catalunya circuit, after crashing heavily seven laps into yesterday afternoon’s practice. The battered and bruised Anglo-American rode through the pain barrier during today’s sessions, busying himself with finding a good race pace, whilst suffering with severe discomfort from the painful back injury. The 25-year-old used this morning’s practice to identify the best tyre combination for the race and although he was hoping for a better grid position during qualifying, Hopkins remains determined to put the recent setbacks he has encountered behind him. The Kawasaki pilot will work together with his crew overnight to make further improvements to the set-up of his machine, and he will receive further treatment on his injury in preparation for tomorrow’s 25-lap race. Teammate Anthony West had a difficult qualifying session around the 4.727km circuit, finishing in 17th position on the grid. The 26-year-old Australian’s second qualifying run came to a premature end when an electrical problem brought his Ninja ZX-RR to a halt on the back part of the circuit. West rushed back to the Kawasaki pit box, with the aim of completing his final two qualifying runs aboard his spare machine, but the session was brought to a close before he was able to exit pit lane. John Hopkins #21 – 14th – 1’42.819 “It’s been difficult to ride today because I’ve never had a back injury before and I’m in quite a lot of pain. I’m finding it hard to breathe properly in places, particularly on left-hand turns, and when riding at this level with the strains put on the body at the speeds we’re traveling, it’s tough going. However, we have a good race pace despite the lost track time and we have to stay focused. Overnight we’re going to look at some areas to improve the set-up as we’re suffering with some lack of grip, particularly at the apex of the turns, and I think with a few adjustments we can improve our lap time. I’d have liked to have qualified a bit higher up the grid, but tomorrow I’m going to go out and give it my all.” Anthony West #13 – 17th – 1’44.558 “We made some improvements to the front-end of the machine yesterday, so practice today was all about finding a better set-up in the rear. We made a few changes but unfortunately it didn’t really bring the results we were hoping for, and I’m still suffering with grip troubles. During my second qualifying run we encountered a problem with the machine, and we ran out of time to go back out on track, which was also very frustrating. Tomorrow we have to make the best of what we have and try to get a good result in the race.” Fiorenzo Fanali HopkinsÂ’ Crew Chief “We lost a little bit of time yesterday due to John’s crash in practice, so today we focused on the sections of the circuit where he was suffering with a lack of rear grip. We made some improvements to this before running through several tyre combinations to finalise a choice for the race. We have some areas where we know we can make improvements in set-up for tomorrow, particularly to help John drive out of the turns. We have a good race pace and although we didn’t qualify where we would have liked on the grid, I am confident that the package will be strong. John is carrying an injury and he is obviously in a lot of discomfort but he always tries incredibly hard and gives us his maximum, so we can only be very thankful to him for that.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER TAKES SUPERB FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON, DIFFICULT DAY FOR MELANDRI Casey Stoner picked up his first pole position of the season at Barcelona with a perfect lap on his third and final qualifying tyre. The Australian had shown good form on his first two Bridgestone qualifiers before an outstanding demonstration of skill and determination saw him smash the previous pole record by over six tenths of a second. Stoner is expecting a close and combative race tomorrow, which could be affected by the weather. After a mixed bag so far this weekend uncertain forecasts make for an unpredictable race day, but the current World Champion is confident of his chances after finding a different set-up on each of his Desmosedici GP8 machines, both of which proved competitive today. It was a much more difficult day for Marco Melandri, who crashed at the end of the afternoon qualifying practice when pushing to improve his grid position. Thankfully the Italian escaped any major injury. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) Pole Position: 1’41.186 “If I’m honest I really didn’t expect to be on pole today, it’s a big surprise! Practice has been going well and we’ve been getting gradually better on race tyres. The guys have worked really hard and come up with two different set-ups that I’m happy with on two different machines. At the moment we’re torn between which one we’re going to use in the race but that’s a nice problem to have! When we put the final qualifying tyre in I thought we were going to be lucky to be on the front row but I was able to keep it smooth – the lap itself didn’t actually feel all that fast but the time was great and in general we couldn’t have asked for more from the session. Over the past four races we’ve been able to iron some things out, work out why we weren’t as fast as we perhaps could have been at the start of the season and things are getting continually better. This pole position shows that we’re going in the right direction so hopefully that trend can continue through to the race tomorrow.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 16th fastest: 1’43.719 “It’s been another really difficult day. We haven’t managed to find a solution to our problems here and so tomorrow we’ll be starting from the back again. On my last run on a qualifying tyre I tried to give my maximum to improve my position but I was braking so hard that the front locked and I crashed, fortunately without injuring myself. We have to stay strong and keep working.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner stuns with impressive pole in Catalunya Round 7: Catalunya Qualifying Circuit de Catalunya – Saturday 7 June 2008 Ducati Corse’s Casey Stoner has taken an impressive pole position in this afternoon’s qualifying session at the Circuit de Catalunya ahead of Sunday’s 25-lap Catalunya GP. Reigning MotoGP champion Stoner put in a storming lap right at the end of the session, breaking the existing pole position record by seven-tenths-of-a-second. The Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden make up the front row for tomorrow’s race. It is Stoner’s first pole of the season, and the second consecutive pole position for a rider on Bridgestone tyres after Valentino Rossi’s result in Mugello last weekend. It is also the first time that a Bridgestone-shod rider has taken pole position in Catalunya. Three additional Bridgestone-shod riders qualified inside the top ten this afternoon with Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen in eighth place, Rossi for Fiat Yamaha in ninth, and Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis in tenth. Performance on race tyres in the first part of qualifying gives Bridgestone more reason for confidence ahead of the race, although durability over race distance remains the most crucial element for tomorrow afternoon. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development How would you summarise this afternoon’s qualifying hour? “Firstly, congratulations to Ducati and Casey for an excellent qualifying lap right at the end of the session. It is really great to see them back on pole position. Our other riders fared less well and could not fight for positions on the front two rows, which I am not satisfied with. Our qualifying tyres today were not as good as those of our rivals, as we can see from the timesheets, and it was clearly Casey that made the difference. We have to work harder with all six of our teams to understand how we can improve the situation. Nevertheless we have a second consecutive pole position on Bridgestone tyres, which is something positive that we can take away from this afternoon.” Is the situation better with race tyres? “Our race tyre performance looks quite encouraging, and I think we are in reasonable shape based on the results we have seen so far. This morning’s session was slightly interrupted by a small rain shower, and the track temperatures were quite low. With low grip levels, some riders used slightly softer specification tyres than yesterday but we were still able to look more closely at durability. This afternoon’s qualifying session has been more useful because the track was warmer, as it will likely be for the race, and we could see some competitive lap times on race tyres. Mid-range performance has been encouraging but it will be the consistency over the full race distance that will determine the end result tomorrow afternoon. It will be a long, tough race for everyone.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Qualifying Session Results Pos. Rider Team Qualifying Time (pos) Gap to Pole P1 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m41.186s Pole P8 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m42.365s +1.179s P9 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m42.427s +1.241s P10 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m42.580s +1.394s P11 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m42.643s +1.457s P12 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m42.648s +1.462s P13 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m42.808s +1.622s P14 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m42.819s +1.633s P15 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m43.204s +2.018s P16 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m43.719s +2.533s P17 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m44.558s +3.372s Weather: Dry Air 24°C, Track 37°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Michelin: MICHELIN MEN PACK FRONT TWO ROWS Six of the fastest seven riders in this afternoon’s Catalan Grand Prix qualifying session were Michelin men. Local star Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) was quickest of the company’s fast half dozen, his best lap just 0.083 seconds off pole position. American Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) completed the front row in third place, a mere 0.168 seconds slower than his teammate. The second row is an all-Michelin affair with Randy de Puniet (Honda LCR RC212V-Michelin), Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) and James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin). Texas Tornado Edwards spoke for all the Michelin men when he said: “more traction is more satisfaction”. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) was the sixth rider using Michelin tires, the Italian rookie seventh fastest to lead the third row. “We are satisfied with qualifying, it went quite well for our riders,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “It is very important to be at the front end of the grid at this track so you can get into the first chicane in front. Our riders also have a good pace on race tires, with two good days of practice they’ve all been able to do a lot of laps, so I think everyone is pretty close to making their tire choice for tomorrow. Our riders will be choosing in the medium to medium-hard range of their tire allocations. It’s important to have good edge grip and consistency here for all the long corners. “The track was quite slippery yesterday and it was slippery again this morning but finally this afternoon it picked up some grip, so we think it will be fine for the race. As usual this year we will have to keep a close eye on the weather because it looks like things could change tomorrow.” Pedrosa’s qualifying performance was especially convincing considering that he had a problem with one of his bikes, which put him on his number-two machine for his qualifying runs. “Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session,” said the Spaniard. “We are happy enough with our race set-up, but we have to wait and see what the weather will do.” Michelin’s other Spanish hope Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) won’t race tomorrow. He was one of six fallers yesterday and suffered concussion in his tumble, thus ruling himself out of tomorrow’s race, the seventh of this year’s 16 MotoGP races. More, from a press release issued by Honda: PEDROSA AND HAYDEN SHOW RAPID FRONT ROW FORM Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) and team-mate Nicky Hayden qualified second and third behind Casey Stoner (Ducati) for a dual front row start that signals Dani’s domestic intent and marks a welcome return to form for the Kentucky Kid. This was a pulsating hour of hard riding for grid advantage and no one pushed harder than Dani. The Spanish superstar fell yesterday and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V), who ended today fourth fastest, hit the ground twice yesterday, Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) once today. There was no lack of effort. There was no Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) either. Dani’s Spanish rival crashed heavily yesterday and will take no further part in this weekend’s activities. His team-mate Valentino Rossi appeared to be short of qualifying speed today. He will start from ninth on the grid in tomorrow’s showdown but the Italian may well have a better race pace. Stoner was much more comfortable than Dani early in this session. The Australian reigning World Champion sat on provisional pole with a 1m 42.710s lap with 40 minutes of the stint remaining while Dani had to mount his number two machine when a problem with his number one bike surfaced. De Puniet showed his mettle after a disappointing Mugello last weekend with a 1m 42.861s effort to go second and at the halfway stage he was the highest-placed Honda rider with the next best man Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) an encouraging sixth. Then, as appears customary now, super-adhesive qualifying rubber appeared sooner in the session rather than later; James Toseland (Yamaha) taking pole with a 1m 42.361s time before the flying de Puniet relieved the rookie Englishman of the top slot. Another revitalized runner was De Angelis. No doubt buoyed by his fighting fourth place last weekend, the San Marinese charger slotted himself into third just before Colin Edwards (Yamaha) relegated de Puniet to second. Nicky was now fourth fastest and edging himself up the order with a newfound purpose. With 18 minutes left on the clock all six Honda men were in the top ten. But as the extra pace on qualifying rubber began to tell, those who have not yet got the measure of how best to use the prodigious grip it provides, were never going to remain at the sharp end of the grid. Sure enough, Edwards blew apart the old outright lap record with a 1m 41.609s lap before Dani showed everyone the way around this 4.727km track with a blisteringly fast 1m 41.561s lap. Then Nicky who held fifth scorched to a 1m 41.558s time to recapture the combative form that made him 2006 World Champion. While the resurgent Nicky looked more like his old self, former Honda man Marco Melandri who transferred to Ducati for this season was in an unenviable position right at the wrong end of the timesheet before tumbling off his machine in what is turning out to be a nightmare season for the talented Italian, a frequent podium-finisher in 2007 and Grand Prix winner in seasons past. While Nicky waited to see if he could net his first pole since Portugal last year Dani was on a charge and the Catalan man’s 1m 41.269s lap looked as if it might be enough to take him to his second pole of the season. But as the clock drew down its final seconds Stoner sped to a 1m 41.186s time to deprive Dani of a home pole. Dani said: “That was quite a difficult session for me because I had an electrical problem with one of my bikes. That cost me crucial time, so I was a bit nervous when I got back on track, it took me a while to find my rhythm again and ride some fast laps. Luckily I was fast again and we were able to get very close to scoring pole position. Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session and I’m very happy because it’s important to start from the front row at my home race.” Nicky said: “It’s nice to be up there and so close to pole position. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It’s fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice. Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. We’ll see about tyre choice, that’s going to be the biggest mission tonight trying to make the perfect choice. Then we’ve got to get a good start, stick our nose in there and see what happens. It’s nice to be on the front row, hopefully this can be something to get things headed back in the right direction.” Fourth fastest De Puniet said: “I’m very happy because it’s my best result so far this year in qualifying and I also had a very good feeling on race tyres as I lapped consistently fast. My crew made a perfect set-up job on the bike after yesterday’s problems and now I feel more comfortable. They adjusted the chassis set-up and we found good rear grip. We still have to fix some points but now the overall package works pretty well.” Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) qualified seventh fastest and said: “We did much better today and I was able to lap in the low 1m 43 second bracket which allows me to stay with the leaders. I think tomorrow we’ll have a good race as the small troubles I had with the front-end of the bike have been reduced. I think the people who will be competitive in the race will be Pedrosa, Rossi and Stoner up front. On the other hand some other riders who did well in qualifying today may not be so competitive in the race.” Alex De Angelis ended up tenth and said: “Qualifying was a little unlucky for me today because I crashed on my out lap when I had just fitted a qualifying tyre, so I missed the chance to improve my time. The tyre was still not up to temperature so I probably should have stayed calmer and not pushed so hard. Luckily the crash wasn’t at high speed and I’ve avoided injury. Anyway my race pace is good and I’m sure I can have a good race tomorrow.” His team-mate Nakano was 11th. He said: “The general feeling with the bike is good, although I’m losing some important tenths in the final two corners. The positive thing looking to tomorrow is there isn’t a big difference between my time on qualifiers and race tyres, which are really working well. I know it will be a tough race tomorrow because there are so many riders in just a couple of tenths but that means if we can stay in the fast group then a good result is within our grasp.” 250cc This session was the preserve of Alvaro Bautista who took his third pole of the year ahead of Alex Debon, third fastest man Hector Barbera (all Aprilia) and fourth quickest qualifier Marco Simoncelli (Gilera). Bautista was always in charge of the session, only Debon, who ended up 0.131 seconds shy of pole, looking like he had the measure of the Spaniard. Yuki Takahashi (JiR Scot Honda RS250RW) finished the three-quarter hour session a creditable seventh on the grid with a time just over a second short of Bautista’s effort. Ratthapark Wilairot (Stop And Go Racing RS250RW) will start from 17th spot. Takahashi said: “During the morning we worked on the final tuning of the bike to make a good race package but also a good qualifying package, too. I tried to ride around alone on the track to find a proper rhythm for the race, but I made a mistake entering a bumpy corner and I lost grip on the front and crashed. I was hoping for the front row this afternoon, but during my flying lap a lot of traffic slowed me down and this is why we’re on the second row. But I’m ready and relaxed for tomorrow’s race.” Wilairot said: “The bike is very good and I’m riding very well. I had a slight problem with rear wheel chatter when I changed tyres but we fixed that. My problem today was that I could not find a fast rider to slipstream to get a good lap time. But I have to be pleased with my lap time set while riding alone on the track.” 125cc Local man Pol Espargaro riding a Spanish Derbi machine clinched his first ever pole position with a 1m 50.557s lap ahead of series points leader Mike Di Meglio and Nicloas Terol. British rider Scott Redding (all Aprilia) took his second front row start in his rookie year with fourth on the grid. Louis Rossi (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) managed 36th on the grid, 3.6 seconds off the pole time. He said: “I’m disappointed because we had an excellent start to the weekend. Yesterday we were 4 seconds off pole position and this morning only 2.7 seconds, and I knew I still had room to improve. Unfortunately I fell during the last qualifying session. For the race tomorrow I’ll have to make a good start. Provided I can keep up with a good pack, I should get a decent result because I know I can ride faster than I did today. What’s for sure is that I’ll not slacken off at all during the race.” Honda rider quotes. GP Catalunya June 7. MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd 1m 41.269s. “That was quite a difficult session for me because I had an electrical problem with one of my bikes, so I had to leave it by the track and I took a while to get back to the pits. That cost me crucial time, so I was a bit nervous when I got back on track, it took me a while to find my rhythm again and ride some fast laps. Luckily I was fast again and we were able to get very close to scoring pole position. Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session and I’m very happy because it’s important to start from the front row at my home race. We are happy enough with our race set-up, but we have to wait and see what the weather will do. I’m I really looking forward to racing in front of the Spanish fans.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd 1m 41.437s. “It’s nice to be up there and so close to pole position, I’m pretty happy. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It’s fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice. Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. We’ll see about tyre choice, that’s going to be the biggest mission tonight trying to make the perfect choice. Then we’ve got to get a good start, stick our nose in there and see what happens. It’s nice to be on the front row, hopefully this can be something to get things headed back in the right direction. Thanks to my team and everyone in my corner for their support, I know I got a lot of people riding with me.” Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 4th 1m 41.571s. “I am very happy because it’s my best result so far this year in qualifying and I also had a very good feeling on race tyres as I lapped consistently fast. My crew made a perfect set-up job on the bike after yesterday’s problems and now I feel more comfortable. I can easily handle the front-end in the braking setting my pace lap by lap. They adjusted the chassis set-up and we found acceptable rear grip. We still have to fix some points but now the overall package works pretty well. My hands still ache but it’s not a big problem. We will see after the race.” Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 1m 42.053s. “We did much better today and I was able to constantly lap with the pace in the low 1m 43s bracket which allows me to stay with the leaders. This is why I think that tomorrow we will have a good race as the small troubles I had with the front-end of the bike have been reduced. I think the people who will be competitive in the race will be Pedrosa, Rossi and Stoner up front. On the other hand some other riders who did well in qualifying today may not be so competitive in the race. Tomorrow the tyre choice is important according to the temperature and the overall weather conditions. In fact, what has been apparent over the last two days is how the conditions can change the grip levels so much. I’m very satisfied with our performance even on qualifying tyres and at least I can now say that I’ve made a step forward. In tomorrow morning warm-up we may make some small adjustments to make further improvements.” Alex De Angelis, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 10th – 1m 42.580s “Qualifying was a little unlucky for me today because I crashed on my out lap when I had just fitted a qualifying tyre, so I missed the chance to improve my time. The tyre was still not up to temperature so I probably should have stayed calmer and not pushed so hard. Luckily the crash wasn’t at high speed and I’ve avoided injury. Anyway my race pace is good and I’m sure I can have a good race tomorrow.” Shinya Nakano, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 11th 1m 42.643s. “Considering the progress we made at Mugello, I was expecting a better result today. Here at Montmelò we haven’t showed the same kind of progression as a week ago in Italy. In any case the general feeling with the bike is good, although I am losing some important tenths in the final two corners. The positive thing looking to tomorrow is that there isn’t a big difference between my time on qualifiers and race tyres, which are really working well. I know it will be a tough race tomorrow because there are so many riders in just a couple of tenths but that means if we can stay in the fast group then a good result is within our grasp.” 250cc: Yukio Takahashi, JiR Scot Honda: 7th 1m 46.668s. “During the morning we worked on the final tuning of the bike to make a good race package but also a good qualifying package, too. I tried to ride around alone on the track to find a proper rhythm for the race, but I made a mistake entering a bumpy corner and I lost grip on the front and crashed. I was hoping for the front row this afternoon, but during my flying lap a lot of traffic slowed me down and this is why we’re on the second row. But I’m ready and relaxed for tomorrow’s race.” Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT SAG: 14th 1m 47.510s. “The bike is very good and I’m riding very well. I had a slight problem with rear wheel chatter when I changed tyres but we fixed that. My problem today was that I could not find a fast rider to slipstream to get a good lap time. But I have to be pleased with my lap time set while alone on the track. ” 125cc: Louis Rossi, FFM Honda: 36th 1m 54.190s. “I am disappointed because we had an excellent start to the weekend. Yesterday we were 4 seconds off pole position and this morning only 2.7 seconds, and I knew I still had room to improve. Unfortunately I fell during the last qualifying session. I didn’t get any injuries but I had to carry on with my second bike which has different settings. For the race tomorrow I’ll have to make a good start. Provided I can keep up with a good pack, I should get a decent result because I know I can ride faster than I did today. What’s for sure is that I will not slacken at all during the race.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Difficult qualifying session leaves Rossi on the third row in Catalunya Valentino Rossi is faced with an uphill task in tomorrow’s Catalan Grand Prix, after struggling with set-up issues throughout today’s practices and qualifying in ninth position. Today’s session was in stark contrast to this time last year, when the Fiat Yamaha Team rider put his M1 on pole position for this same race. The Italian and his crew have been working at the maximum throughout all four sessions so far in order to find the right set-up for their Bridgestone-Yamaha package, but Rossi is still lacking speed on the entrance to the corners. He was unable to improve much this afternoon even when using a qualifying tyre and will have to launch his attack tomorrow from the outside of the third row, whilst his championship rivals Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa fill the front two spots. The team will now look to make further changes overnight and then use tomorrow’s warm-up session to maximum effect in order to try to find a setting which can enable Rossi to fight his way through the pack and play a part in tomorrow’s 25-lap race. In contrast to the busy scenes on the number 46 side of the garage, the opposite side of the box was completely quiet today following Jorge Lorenzo’s accident yesterday, which has forced the 21-year-old to spend the remainder of his home Grand Prix weekend resting in hospital. It was a more positive day in the Tech 3 Yamaha box however, as Colin Edwards and James Toseland qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Valentino Rossi 9th 1’42.420; “This was quite a bad qualifying session for us! We had a lot of problems and now, unfortunately, we will have to start from the third row, our worst qualifying result so far this season. Tomorrow for sure will be a very hard race for us. We’ve tried to improve the setting but we haven’t been able to fix our problems, the main one of which is that we are not fast enough on the entry to the corners. Now we need to work all afternoon to try to find a solution and then see what we can do tomorrow. 25 laps is going to be quite difficult but we will try to come up with a plan and then I will try to recover as many positions as possible at the start and through the first few corners. If we can make a few small improvements and improve the feeling then we can try to do something tomorrow, we’ll just have to wait and see.” Davide Brivio Team Manager; “We will have a difficult start tomorrow; 9th on the grid is not what we hoped for but we have been in worse positions so now our task is to analyse the data we have from today’s practice and learn what we can from this information. We’ve tried many different things over these two days and unfortunately, so far, we haven’t been able to find the right set-up for our package at this track. So now we need to study everything carefully, come up with some good ideas and then put everything together in a different way. If we can improve the bike then we know that Valentino will be able to try and fight, so this is our task!” Meanwhile Jorge Lorenzo is recovering well in hospital following his crash yesterday afternoon. The Spanish rookie passed the night in Barcelona’s Institut Dexues under the watchful eye of Dr. Xavier Mir, after hitting his head and injuring his right hand in the fall. Lorenzo will remain at the hospital for at least another 24 hours for more rest and observation and further information will be available tomorrow. Dr. Xavier Mir; “I am pleased to say that Jorge’s condition is improving well.He passed a good night and has had a good rest. We cannot say anything in more detail until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but I am pleased to say that he has recovered his memory 100%. Tomorrow we will make another neurological examination and also another examination of his right hand, when we will decide whether a skin graft will be necessary on his fourth and fifth fingers.” Both Yamaha Tech3 riders on second row Colin Edwards and James Toseland will start tomorrow’s 25-lap Catalunya GP from next to each other on the second row of the grid after both led this afternoon’s qualifying session. Edwards was just 0.2s off the front row but still maintained his impressive qualifying record in 2008 to register a seventh straight top five position on the grid. Toseland, who has adapted to the technical Catalunya circuit amazingly fast, was just one place and 0.211s back in sixth with his best qualifying performance since the Estoril round in Portugal. The Tech 3 Yamaha duo are happy to have qualified together on the second row having posted competitive lap times all weekend on race tyres. Both are confident their fast pace on race tyres will help them play a leading role in tomorrow’s race. Edwards and Toseland have been able to run a constant pace in the 1.43 bracket, and believe they can fine-tune their YZR-M1 settings in the warm-up session to further boost their chances of a positive result. Colin Edwards 5th 1’41.609; “I had three qualifying tyres and obviously I was trying my hardest for a front row but I’ll take fifth because I’m really happy with my race set-up. With all the extra grip from the qualifiers I feel like we can go much faster but it never really happened. I did a 41.7 on my first tyre and my last tyre was a 1.41.7, so I hit a bit of a wall. I’m fifth and I’m not disappointed with that at all. Once you get off the second row you dread the alarm clock going off in the morning, so I’m happy to be on the second row. Today is all for glitz and glamour but tomorrow is the real show and my times on race tyres look pretty good, so if we can repeat that tomorrow we’ll be in the hunt. This weekend I’ve been tinkering with the bike quite a lot, more than we have all season so far. Yesterday we had a good setting but we needed more rear grip. We have found that today so thanks to my guys at Tech 3 because as usual they did a great job. We are working in the right direction although we had to tweak the front a bit. When you get more rear grip you create some other issues and we had to play with the front a bit. We’ve got it better but we’ll try something in the warm-up. We know the direction to go with Michelin but the key will be getting a good start. I really need to focus on that and be as hard and aggressive as I can in the first four laps. That’s when the guy’s tyres will start to go off and hopefully I’ll be able to go with the leading bunch.” James Toseland 6th 1’41.820; “I’m chuffed to bits to be on the second row and I’ll be honest but I did put it on the line a bit. But you have to do that because to give yourself a chance you don’t want to be any further back than the second row and thankfully that’s where I am. When there is a tight first corner like here it can spread people out early on so a good start will be crucial. That first corner looks a bit tricky but hopefully I’ll get through it cleanly. I tried a lot of changes on the bike today and they all moved me in the right direction, so thanks to Tech 3 for that. Now we’ve got a decent base setting I don’t have to make big changes and it is just a case of tweaking things. With the extra grip we’ve found from the rear I sacrificed a bit on the front, but we made a change today that helped with stability for the faster corners. The difference between the second and third row is massive and I’m happy to be back in the top six. You really need experience on the qualifiers and I’m gradually building up my speed and confidence with them and Michelin is doing a great job. Qualifying is amazingly competitive so I’m happy with sixth. These guys will not allow you to blink and I must have blinked on that lap otherwise I would have been higher up the grid. Everybody is so close it will be crucial to get that good start. I think I can definitely run the pace at the front and I am looking forward to it.”