2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Misano, Italy September 1, 2007 Qualifying Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:33.918 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:34.094 3. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:34.469 4. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:34.506 5. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:34.536 6. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:34.580 7. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, 1:34.628 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:34.717 9. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:34.768 10. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:34.939 11. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:35.202 12. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:35.236 13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:35.283 14. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.389 15. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:35.632 16. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:35.865 17. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:35.897 18. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, 1:36.605 19. Alex HOFMANN (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.659 More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI MAKES WELCOME FRONT ROW RETURN IN FRONT OF HOME FANS AT MISANO Valentino Rossi returned to the front row of the MotoGP grid today for the first time in three races, qualifying in second position for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. The local favourite missed out on pole by 0.176 seconds to Casey Stoner, with Nicky Hayden taking the third spot. Fiat Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards meanwhile did not enjoy such a successful session and qualified ninth, on the outside of row three. After the atrocious weather yesterday caused the afternoon practice sessions to be cancelled, an extra hour was added to this morning’s free practice to give the riders as much time as possible to get the hang of the new circuit. Yesterday’s storms seemed to have run their course and the ensuing calm brought out an army of yellow-clad Rossi fans, over 1000 of which had made the pilgrimage on foot in the early hours of this morning from nearby Tavullia, where Rossi grew up. After two hours of hard work on tyres and set-up Rossi was second behind Stoner, with Edwards in fifth. This afternoon’s qualifying session was played out under perfect sunshine with temperatures sitting comfortably in the low twenties. With ten minutes to go Rossi’s first attempt with a qualifying tyre moved him momentarily to the top of the time sheets, before he was deposed by Stoner just seconds later. Edwards also moved into the top flight on his first run before he was nudged down the order as more riders put in fast laps. The last two minutes of the session saw a flurry of quick times and Rossi’s second flying lap shot him into pole, although Edwards was unable to better his position. Unfortunately for Rossi, Stoner eventually nudged him into second, promising a mouth-watering head-to-head between the pair when the lights go out for tomorrow’s 28-lap race. Valentino Rossi Position: 2nd Time: 1’34.094 Laps: 29 “The atmosphere today was unbelievable, there are so many fans and so much yellow around the circuit; it was really important for me to make a good result like this. I rode at the maximum today and I’m very happy with the result. It’s been a long time without a front-row start, since Donington, and it’s a big relief to be back here again. I like this track a lot so far, it’s technical and has some really good parts, it’s not too tight and it’s possible to have fun. There are some bumps but it’s not disastrous and it seems to suit our bike well. Our Michelin tyres are working well here and I can ride the bike how I want to again. It was also very good with the qualifying tyre. Casey is very fast once again and we know that it’s going to be very hard tomorrow, but starting from the front is going to make things much easier and now I am looking forward to a fun race.” Colin Edwards Position: 9th Time: 1’34.768 Laps: 28 “This morning wasn’t too bad. We made some changes to the bike and got it going pretty well this morning; it wasn’t easy but we were going reasonably well and I was feeling pretty happy. We planned this afternoon to make a few tweaks to suit the track as it warmed up and at the beginning we stuck in a hard race tyre and went from there. Unfortunately though things didn’t go exactly to plan; the bike felt quite different and I felt like I couldn’t really get out of my own way! So then we changed back towards this morning’s setting and that felt a lot better. With the qualifying tyre I dropped nearly a second but unfortunately it really wasn’t enough today and I felt like I had some side-grip issues that meant I was lacking a bit of confidence to get in deep. If I had just listened to my wife today – braked a little deeper and got on the gas a little earlier – then I guess I would have found the missing three tenths!” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “It’s great that Valentino is back on the front row again, especially at this track where we expect it will be quite hard to pass. It’s very important for him that he’s starting at the front. He did a great job with his team and worked very well during the limited dry track time we have had, and now we will just work to make the final adjustments to make sure he is in the best shape possible for tomorrow’s race. Colin had good potential today but unfortunately it didn’t work out and he has to start from the third row. It’s a pity because there aren’t many places to pass here so it could be a tough race for him. Anyway we will try to put the best package together for him so he can try to make up the ground tomorrow. We’re looking forward to an exciting race!” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Hopkins grabs second row start in Misano John Hopkins will start from the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix as he powered his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to the fifth quickest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session at Misano. Hopkins (1’34.536, 26 laps) was on a flying last lap and looked likely to claim another front-row start, but a small mistake in the final section cost him valuable tenths of a second. Hopkins and his crew had worked tirelessly all day including two gearbox changes during this morning’s two-hour practice session to get the optimum set-up for the GSV-R in readiness for Sunday’s 28-lap race, and will continue to make more important changes throughout this evening and into tomorrow morning’s warm-up session. Chris Vermeulen (1’34.717, 30 laps) displayed podium race pace during this afternoon’s qualifying session as he recorded some consistently fast laps on his Rizla Suzuki. Unfortunately he was held up by a slower rider on his final Bridgestone qualifying tyre and only finished in eighth place, giving him a tough starting position in the middle of the third row, immediately behind his team-mate Hopkins on the grid. In stark contrast to yesterday’s torrential rain, today’s sessions were held in dry and sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 23°C. Championship Leader Casey Stoner will start from pole position in tomorrow’s race on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati. The main event is round 13 of the MotoGP World Championship and racing gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). John Hopkins: “We managed to cram a lot of work in to one day today. Unfortunately with the two hours back-to-back we didn’t really have a lot of opportunities to make many big set-up changes, which we would probably have done if the time had been spaced out more. We did make a few alterations and we changed two gearboxes during this morning’s session! I think we have made the most of the time we’ve had and my crew has done a great job. This afternoon we worked with Bridgestone to get the best tyre solution out of my allocation for tomorrow’s race and we still have a couple of things to try in the warm-up in the morning. On the qualifiers I turned my brain off for a bit and went wide and lost some time, but as a whole the bike felt really good and so did the Bridgestone tyres. We’ve made a few good starts from the second row so we’ve just got to do that, hang it out at the front and go for that podium!” Chris Vermeulen: “It was the first dry time out on the track today and it was all new for everybody. We had a longer session this morning to make up for yesterday and the team did a great job on the bike to get it ready. Bridgestone has also done an awesome job in getting the tyres right for here without any data whatsoever – they are working really well. This afternoon we made some changes with the gearbox and suspension and it felt a lot better. I was more comfortable with the circuit and I feel that my race tyre times are very consistent and quite easy to do. On the qualifiers it was going well but a rider in front didn’t see me and slowed me up a bit. Third row is not ideal especially as it will be quite hard to pass around here, so I’ll have to sharpen up my elbows and go for it from the off and hopefully get a good result.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s been an interesting and quite unusual MotoGP weekend so far in Misano, and the team and riders have responded very well indeed. I have to all commend the crew. John’s guys managed to get through an enormous amount of work this morning, including two gearbox changes! That is an unusual thing to achieve, but they got the bikes turned around incredibly quickly. “This afternoon’s qualifying session resulted in high anticipation for the race but also some disappointment especially for Chris as his qualifying position was not where he deserved to be. He’s really flying on the race tyres! John rescued things at the end to put together a great lap, which all things being equal should have been a front row start, but a mistake and a near crash put paid to that. Middle of the second row is not too bad and I’m sure he’ll get a good start and be right up there battling. The track looks like it will be very difficult to pass on, but both our guys are pumped up and ready to deliver in full tomorrow!” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: KAWASAKI PROVING A STRONG TEAM AT MISANO Randy de Puniet and Anthony West will start tomorrow’s MotoGP race from fourth and tenth on the grid respectively after today’s qualifying practice at the Misano World Circuit After a spectacular downpour yesterday, which caused extensive flooding at the track, two vital practice sessions were cancelled. Consequently, this morning’s practice was extended to two hours, enabling the riders to learn the track, which hasn’t seen premier class motorcycle racing since 1993, and teams to perfect race set up. Both Kawasaki pilots put in blistering performances, with West finishing third fastest, behind Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, and team mate, de Puniet, coming home seventh after they put a new specification, 800cc engine through its paces in their Ninja ZX-RRs. This afternoon’s qualifying was held in superb, sunny conditions with an air temperature of 23°C and track temperature of 42°C. Frenchman, de Puniet, was on spectacular form, sitting on provisional pole for roughly half the allocated hour as he pushed his Ninja ever faster, competing with Stoner, Rossi and Nicky Hayden for the lead. His second row start in tomorrow’s race will give him a strong advantage as the speeds at the 4.180km circuit rise and his bike and Bridgestone tyres seem more than able to cope with its complex twisty sections, as well as its hair-raising straights. Ahead of John Hopkins and Dani Pedrosa, de Puniet’s time was only 0.588 seconds off Stoner’s pole and, with the grid’s top nine riders separated by under a second, it looks as if tomorrow’s 28 lap race is going to be a good one. Meanwhile, West also put in a strong effort aboard his ZX-RR, having likewise found an effective race set up in the morning. He proved the extra practice on qualifying tyres he had after the Brno round had been fruitful as he continued to explore the limits of the sticky rubber and found himself pushing harder than he’s done previously. His top ten starting position, just 0.171 seconds off Colin Edwards and a mere 1.021 seconds off pole, means he’ll commence tomorrow’s race with more confidence and that, coupled with his usual fire to succeed, should mean we see the 26-year-old Australian at his best. Certainly, after winning a World Supersport round here earlier this year, he’ll be aiming to be in the running for a great result. Randy De Puniet #14 – 4th – Best Lap 1’34.506 “Fourth is not so bad but I think I could have been on the front row, all things considered. On the last lap, I made a small mistake in turn three, and lost some tenths, and that’s why I’m on the second row. However, in practice I was going very fast on race tyres so I feel like we’ve got an exceptional set up for tomorrow. The bike and the Bridgestones are working brilliantly and I think we’re in with a strong chance of doing well.” Anthony West #13 – 10th – Best Lap 1’34.939 “I didn’t manage to go as fast as I’d have liked, and it’s not as good as the third position this morning, but I feel there’s definitely some improvement after Brno. This morning, everything went smoothly, no problems, but this afternoon I didn’t manage quite the same times with the race tyres. I think maybe the rise in temperature made them work differently. Things were a lot better with the qualifying tyres this time round though, and the bike ran a lot smoother, but I still wasn’t as quick as I’d like. No worries for the race though: I think we should be okay. I reckon I’ll be able to fight far better, I usually do in the race itself, so I think I can improve on tenth.” Christophe Bourguignon de Puniet Crew Chief “It’s been a pretty satisfying day. It’s never easy when we haven’t got long on the track and we need to find the best set up and best tyres in such a short space of time. This is especially true this weekend, as this is our first visit to Misano. But all the crew have been working really hard and I’m very pleased with their teamwork and with what Randy did this afternoon. We need to finalise some adjustments on the bike but I think it’s all looking pretty good. Very strong More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER GRABS FOURTH POLE IN A ROW FOR DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM, CAPIROSSI IN 13TH Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner stormed to his fourth consecutive pole position this afternoon at Misano, bettering his nearest rival, Valentino Rossi, by 0.176 seconds. It was the Australian’s fifth pole on his Desmosedici GP7. Team-mate Loris Capirossi had a more difficult day at the revamped venue on Italy’s Adriatic coast, ending the session in 13th position. Stoner, who currently leads the World Championship by 60 points after ruling the last two MotoGP events, is once again in superb form. He was third fastest in yesterday’s only session, run in treacherous wet conditions before torrential rain forced the cancellation of the afternoon outing, and was comfortably fastest in this morning’s special two-hour session, run in the dry. His dominant pace on both race tyres and qualifiers is impressive, considering that riders have had only three hours of dry track time at a circuit that’s new to MotoGP, requiring riders and their technicians to start from zero on bike set-up and tyre choice. Capirossi and his crew are working hard at improving their engine and chassis settings at this technically challenging circuit and hope to make further progress in tomorrow morning’s warm-up session. CASEY STONER, pole position, 1m 33.918s “We haven’t turned all my poles so far this year into wins. I’d like to think we could do that tomorrow but I think it’s going to be a very hard race – nobody’s really got the ideal setting because we’ve all had only a small amount of time and experience on this track. Also, yesterday’s rain forced the cancellation of the afternoon session, with an extra hour added on to this morning’s session, so everything’s been a bit messed up. Anyway, we are pretty happy with the settings we have at the moment – we were fast this morning when we did race distance on our softest compound race tyres and everything is looking pretty good for the race. But we’ll just have to wait and see, because I’m not really sure about everyone else’s situation.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 13th fastest, 1m 35.283s “It’s not been a very positive day for us, we’ve really struggled to find a good set-up. I’m having a lot of problems with turning – the bike doesn’t turn the way I want it to turn and when I force it the front tucks and I risk crashing. This is a big problem at this track because there are a lot of corners that turn back on themselves. We are also working on the engine because it feels very aggressive but it’s difficult to set up. We haven’t had so much time on this track and that doesn’t help either. Tyres are not a problem, we have a good front and a good rear. We’ve chosen hard compounds. Anyway, we will use morning warm-up as another test session, even if it’s quite short. We will try some other changes and we’ll see what happens. If we can better my pace by four or five tenths I can hope to have a good race.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner takes fourth consecutive pole with Misano masterpiece Round 13 San Marino and Riviera di Rimini – Qualifying Misano World Circuit, Misano, Italy Saturday 1 September 2007 Bridgestone-shod rider Casey Stoner has claimed his fourth consecutive MotoGP pole position and his fifth of the season at the new-look Misano World Circuit in Italy today. Stoner’s success represents the sixth pole position on Bridgestone tyres in 2007, equal to the total number of Bridgestone-shod poles recorded last season. The last rider to enjoy a run of four unbroken pole positions in the same season was today’s second-placed man Valentino Rossi with five consecutive poles back in 2002, the same year that the first ever MotoGP pole on Bridgestone tyres was scored by Jeremy McWilliams. A total of five riders on Bridgestone tyres made it to the top ten for tomorrow afternoon’s grid with Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and Suzuki’s John Hopkins continuing their fine qualifying form in fourth and fifth places respectively. Australians Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) and Ant West (Kawasaki) finished the session in eighth and tenth. After Friday’s deluge forced the cancellation of two free practice sessions, an extended two-hour practice was held this morning to allow riders, teams and tyre manufacturers to learn the nuances of this new-look Misano track. As teams honed the set-up of their machines around the 4.18km clockwise circuit, Bridgestone was able to carry out the first evaluations of its dry weather tyres for tomorrow’s 28-lap San Marino and Riviera di Rimini grand prix. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development A good qualifying session for Bridgestone-shod riders with Casey Stoner on pole and De Puniet and Hopkins on the second row, did the qualifying tyres perform as expected? “The results of qualifying were very good with Casey taking another pole position. It is the sixth pole position on our tyres this season which means that we have now equalled the number of poles from last season. Randy and John have both been consistently strong in qualifying this season and today was no exception. A second row start for them will hopefully be of benefit to them here where overtaking could be tricky.” Specifically, what tyres have been tested today? “We have been running mainly with a variety of compounds within our medium specification range today and the results have been quite pleasing. In dry conditions, the circuit is not as slippery as we expected it to be which means that the asphalt has been less aggressive on the tyres. The lack of dry running yesterday, though, has not given us the chance to complete an unbroken long run today, so performance of the tyres over the 28 lap race distance remains a slightly unknown factor. We are nevertheless happy with the results from today and hope to enjoy a competitive race with our five teams tomorrow.” Bridgestone Qualifying Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Best Lap Time Gap P1 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m33.918s Fastest P4 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m34.506s +0.588s P5 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m34.536s +0.618s P8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m34.717s +0.799s P10 Anthony West Kawasaki 1m34.939s +1.021s P12 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m35.236s +1.318s P13 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m35.283s +1.365s P15 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 1m35.632s +1.714s P17 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 1m35.897s +1.979s P19 Alex Hofmann Pramac d’Antin 1m36.659s +2.741s Weather: Dry track – Air 23° C, Track 42°C, Humidity 46% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: Good weather finally arrives for KONICA MINOLTA Honda at Misano The KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team finally saw the sun shine today in time for the extended practice session and the qualifying hour for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix. Team rider Shinya Nakano spent the extended morning session acquainting himself with the 2.6mile circuit in sunnier conditions, making important changes to the set-up of his Honda RC212V before tomorrow’s 28-lap race. Tomorrow’s San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix is the 13th round of the 18-round 2007 MotoGP championship. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Today we have found that Shinya has not enough grip in some areas and is lacking traction in some corners. We think this is maybe due to the weather conditions we have experienced at Misano and I think things will improve tomorrow as the grip level increases and more rubber is laid down on the track. For Shinya it has been necessary to learn the characteristics of our updated machine, but he improved this afternoon and I hope that we can improve again in the warm-up. We have to approach the race and be aggressive, but I think we are in a better shape for this Grand Prix than at Brno, because we are still learning the characteristics of the track. As always the first corner of the race tomorrow will be important to determine if Shinya can overtake other riders and then get into a good rhythm.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (76 laps 1′ 35.389″) “Today was much drier! Yesterday we had such terrible weather, so thankfully the conditions were much better today. This morning our problem was that we couldn’t get a good feeling from the bike. Maybe it was due to the track conditions and also the settings. We improved a little bit this afternoon, but we are still looking for more braking stability and rear traction overall. Having had some time on the track, I enjoy it a lot, but it’s harder to learn than some tracks, thanks to the combination of low and high-speed corners. We may try a different front setting tomorrow to get more confidence under braking. I will need a good start tomorrow as at Misano it’s not easy to overtake as it is a high-speed but narrow track.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Thanks to the storm, it was possible only to make a few laps in the wet conditions yesterday morning. This was pretty much for nothing as it wasn’t enough time even for Shinya to really get to know the track. Thankfully it was sunny this morning but the temperature was not so high and for this reason we used a softer tyre and spent time working on our machine setting. It was a long, hard practice as we had two hours to work on the RC212V. We had to make a lot of changes, and finally things were coming better. This afternoon the temperature was higher so we could use a race tyre and we improved by more than two seconds. Misano is a narrow track and in some areas it’s not so easy to find the best line through the corners. To help we made some transmission changes to see what effect they had on the three consecutive corners in the third sector of the lap. We are still around 0.5 to 0.6 away from a mid-lap time, but we hope that tomorrow morning we can make small adjustments so we can get into the top ten. We will also be choosing our race tyre after seeing what the conditions are likely to be.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Stoner the spoiler at Misano for fourth consecutive pole Cinzano GP San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini – Saturday 1st September Report Day 2 As he has done on so many occasions this season, Casey Stoner played the spoiler in today’s qualifying session for the Cinzano GP San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, snatching what seemed to be surefire pole for local favourite Valentino Rossi. With Rossi having left it late to clock his fastest lap of the Misano circuit, something special was required of the 21 year-old Australian if he was to start his fourth consecutive race from pole. The Ducati rider duly obliged by putting down his 1’33.918 lap to become the only man to go round the new track in under 1’34. Few would have believed that even Stoner could knock Rossi off the top of the tree, and the Italian seemed to be one of the most convinced that he would be starting tomorrow’s race from the head of the grid. The Yamaha factory rider pumped his fist in elation as he completed his hot lap, saluting the thousands of supporters to his cause in attendance today, Rossi then completed his in lap at a leisurely pace, watching his rival on the circuit’s big screen in disbelief as Stoner subsequently answered his challenge. The current series leader and the former five-time MotoGP World Champion will be joined on tomorrow’s front row by the reigning title holder, as Nicky Hayden put himself on the front row for the second consecutive race. The American gave a late surge onboard his Honda RC212V to establish a prime spot amongst the frontrunners at a tight circuit. With a lack of practice time due to the cancellation of yesterday’s sessions, qualifying tyres were only really used in the final 15 minutes of the afternoon. The rest of the hour was dedicated to race settings, during which Randy de Puniet led the way for a large portion of the proceedings. The Frenchman was also one of the first to put on qualifying rubber, and eventually finished just six hundredths of a second away from a front row start. John Hopkins and Dani Pedrosa completed a top six made up of five different factories and evenly split between Bridgestone and Michelin. Spanish veteran Carlos Checa, Chris Vermeulen and Colin Edwards will start from the third line of attack, in what is sure to be an exciting return to Misano in front of an expectant crowd. A huge highside in the early stages of the marathon second MotoGP free practice session left Marco Melandri once again taking a trip to the Clinica Mobile, although the Italian returned to the track later on in the outing. Melandri had a hard collision with the tarmac as he was thrown into the air by his Honda RC212V, which itself would have finished its trajectory in the crowd had it not been for some well placed barriers. After examination in the on-site facitlities, the Gresini Honda rider returned to the track and qualified 12th in the afternoon session. 250cc Pole position number eight of the season went to reigning 250cc World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, a promising sign for the rider who has won from every one of his previous seven top spot starts this year. The factory Aprilia rider has the chance to become the Spaniard with the most wins ever in the quarter litre class tomorrow, continuing his quest to retain his crown. His closest challenger both this season and last, Andrea Dovizioso was less than two tenths of a second off Lorenzo’s 1’38.395 lap. 30 points behind, what is effectively the Honda rider’s home race is an opportunity to make up ground that Dovizioso may not be able to afford to waste. Team Toth Aprilia man Hector Barbera and KTM’s Hector Barbera complete a front row consisting of three different factories, separated by less than half a second. The entire 250cc second row is made up of newcomers to the class, with Mika Kallio, Alvaro Bautista, Thomas Luthi and Julian Simon lining up behind the front four at Misano. 125cc Lukas Pesek took his first pole position in over a year in the sole 125cc qualifying session at Misano, edging out World Championship leader Hector Faubel by the narrowest of margins. The Czech rider clocked a time of 1’43.370 for his first top spot start since the 2006 German Grand Prix, just three thousandths of a second quicker than his Spanish rival. Thehot lap came right at the death of the session, with the Derbi racer bumping himself up from a provisional third on the grid. Lining up alongside the duo will be local rider Mattia Pasini, who himself was only eleven thousandths of a second off pole. The Italian was born and bred in Rimini, one of the riders with the closest connection to the Misano circuit. Gabor Talmacsi completes the front row as he continues his title challenge, and is determined to get back onto the podium after missing out in the epic Czech Republic battle. He currently lies ten points behind team-mate Faubel. Simone Corsi starts from the head of the second row, ahead of Tomoyoshi Koyama in a fastest six that is packed with race winners. The second line of attack is completed by Esteve Rabat and Sandro Cortese. More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Honda: MELANDRI ESCAPES ANOTHER SCARE AT MISANO Another heavy fall for Marco Melandri put a cloud over an otherwise sunny second day of practice at Misano, with the Italian coming off his Honda RC212V this morning. Melandri, quickest in the wet yesterday, ran wide in turn ten and was thrown over the handlebars when his rear wheel spun up on the astroturf. After being checked over in the Clinica Mobile, the Honda Gresini man returned to the track for the final 30 minutes of an extended two-hour session. After working well on the set-up of his bike he was able to improve his race pace in the afternoon but did not get the best out of a qualifying tyre and will start tomorrow’s race from the fourth row. It was also a tough day for Toni Elias, who completed only his fourth day back on the bike after his crash at Assen. The frequent direction changes and hard acceleration of Misano have put the Spaniard’s physical condition to the test and he will start from the fifth row tomorrow. MARCO MELANDRI (12th, 1’35″236): “I’m really pleased to have got back on track after such a heavy crash this morning. It was my mistake – I ran wide onto the rumble strip and then the artificial grass. The bike went flying over the tyre wall but fortunatley I got away sliding with a hard whack on the lower back and pelvis – not my neck. The x-ray showed there were no breaks so I tried to get back on track as soon as possible. My race pace isn’t bad but I couldn’t find a good feeling with the quaifying tyre. Tomorrow I will do my best but I know that it will be a demanding race.” TONI ELIAS (15th, 1’35″632): “My physcial condition has improved compared to Brno but this weekend I’m actually in more pain. I’m really struggling with my leg because there are so many direction changes, a lot of braking and you can never rest. Tomorrow in the race I’ll have to try and be economical with my strength. My objective is to improve my result from Brno”. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: HAYDEN ON FRONT ROW, PEDROSA SIXTH IN MISANO QUALIFYING Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa will start from third and sixth places in Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix after an intense day of practice and qualifying at the Misano circuit today. Hayden once again displayed his sizzling pace on qualifying rubber to secure his second front row start in successive races. In the dying seconds of the afternoon’s one-hour session the World Champion went to the top of the timesheets on his second run on Michelin qualifying tyres, before being nudged back to third by pole position man Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi who took second. Hayden will be working hard with his crew this evening to further improve his race set-up, with the 26-year-old American aiming for his fourth podium finish from five races to bolster his rapidly-improving season. Pedrosa finished the one-hour qualifying session just 0.111s adrift of his team-mate and will line up directly behind Hayden for tomorrow’s 28-lap race. The Spaniard is still looking to improve the stability of his RC212V machine over Misano’s bumpy surface and will use tomorrow’s 25-minute warm-up session to finalise race settings and tyre choice. After yesterday’s monsoon conditions at the 4.180km (2.596-mile) Italian circuit, the weather returned to normal today with bright sunshine and 23-degree temperatures greeting the teams. The MotoGP riders were on track for three hours today, with an extra hour of practice added to the morning session following yesterday afternoon’s two cancelled practice sessions. Round 13 of the 18-race MotoGP world championship takes place at 14.00hrs local time. Nicky Hayden 3rd 1m 34.469s “I’m happy we squeezed onto the front row, which obviously is really important around here because it’s a tight track. Tomorrow’s race is going to be a bit of an unknown for us and there are a couple of race tyre options I haven’t even tried yet. I quite like the track and I got up to speed pretty quickly this morning, though when it came to doing 1m 35s and 1m 34s laps I haven’t been able to make that next step. We struggled a bit in the afternoon with the first qualifying tyre and so on the second one I knew that, man, I had to reach down and take a few chances to pull something out. I had a lot of chatter on that lap but the qualifying Michelin tyres were really good. I know those guys have been working hard and it hasn’t been easy on them this season so I appreciate the effort they’ve put in. Hopefully my crew can tweak on the machine settings tonight and we can get things a little bit better. There are parts of the track where I’m ok and a few where it’s not so good but I’ve got a lot of faith in my boys and hopefully we can be up there at the front fighting tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be a good show the atmosphere here is unbelievable and I need to be a part of it.” Dani Pedrosa 6th 1m 34.580s “Well the second row is not so bad, though I have to say I was expecting even more from this qualifying session. We haven’t found the ideal race set-up and tyre choice yet and this means tomorrow’s warm-up is going to be crucial to give us a chance for the race. At the moment my pace and rhythm on race tyres is not really where it needs to be. The track is very bumpy in parts and this is giving us some stability issues which as yet we haven’t been able to overcome. We’ll look at the data from today and try to come up with a solution quickly in the warm-up. Starting from 6th on the grid is not perfect because the first part of the lap here is very tight and twisty, which means overtaking and making up places in the first laps will be difficult. Still, we’ll give it our best shot. This is an important race as we go into the last part of the season, so I’m determined to fight for the best result here.” Makoto Tanaka – Team Manager “Nicky did a very good job to get on the front row in qualifying today. His situation on race tyres is a little less certain though and we need to work with the information we gathered today and make a few more improvements for the race. We had an extended practice this morning because of yesterday’s rain, though actually it would be helpful if we had another hour of practice – still, the situation is the same for everyone. Dani has had some difficulty settling into a good rhythm at this circuit and the machine balance front to rear is not perfect the situation is not just tyres. The second row is a reasonable place to start though and he’ll be looking for a quick getaway tomorrow. The warm-up in the morning will be very important for us.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: HAYDEN ON FRONT ROW IN TIGHTLY FOUGHT SESSION After yesterday’s washout following torrential rain, today’s one hour of MotoGP qualifying took place in bright sunshine at the new look Misano track. Championship points leader Casey Stoner (Ducati) took his fifth pole position of the season so far with former world champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) alongside him as second fastest man and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) completing the front row. With the track at 42-degrees and with an ambient temperature of 23-degrees, the newly laid surface was ‘green’ after the Friday deluge, with what little rubber had been laid washed away in the torrent – two and a half inches of rain fell and turn eight was under four feet of water. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) endured a massive crash in the extended two-hour morning free practice after the cancellation of the scheduled Friday free training. The Italian lost control of his RC212V and the somersaulting machine leapt the crash barrier and nearly cleared the catch-fencing in the incident. Melandri was back on track for the final 20-minutes of that session then qualified a brave 12th this afternoon. Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) topped the timesheet early in this session before Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) and then Stoner went top. Stoner put in a time of 1m 35.39s that would be an early benchmark. The early order was Stoner, De Puniet, Checa, Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), the super-resilient Melandri, and then Rossi. Then de Puniet signaled his intent with a 1m 35.254s lap to go pole with 43 minutes to go. As rubber began to get laid down on the racing line, the times started to tumble, and Rossi hoisted himself to fourth in the mid-session order. Melandri and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) were eighth and ninth at this stage. With twenty minutes to go de Puniet still held on to the top spot but as the pace got hotter it was his Kawasaki team-mate Anthony West who sped to the head of the grid to displace the Frenchman. John Hopkins (Suzuki) got into the action going second fastest and his team-mate Chris Vermeulen grabbed fourth place. The Repsol men Pedrosa and Hayden lay 11th and 12th as the session entered the final ten minutes. By the time qualifying rubber had been fitted they would enter the reckoning for the first two rows of the grid, but Dani could only manage the sixth fastest time at the close. Less then one second covered the top ten men as Vermeulen tore round the 4.18km circuit with a 1m 34.813s time to go pole with nine minutes remaining. Nicky Hayden was now flying on his Honda V4 and managed third fastest time behind Vermeulen and de Puniet with Rossi lurking in fourth. But Stoner was on a charge and the Aussie pulled a 1m 34.540s lap out of the bag to put his name at the front of the order with seven minutes left on the clock. He had even more speed left to exploit and would be the only rider to dip below the 1m 34 second barrier at the flag. De Puniet had more left to give and elevated himself to second with five minutes left. Vermeulen too was not yet finished and the Aussie managed third fastest as three minutes remained. The action was now frantic with nearly all riders out on sticky qualifying rubber trying to shave crucial fractions off their times. With just two minute left on the clock Hayden looked as if he had the measure of the track when he went pole with a 1m 34.469s lap. But Rossi swiftly bettered the American’s time with a 1m 34.094s effort. Then with six seconds remaining Stoner bested them all with a 1m 33.918s time that could not be beaten. Hayden, on the front row for the second time this season as third fastest qualifier, said: “I’m happy we squeezed onto the front row, which obviously is going to be really important around here because it’s a tight track. Tomorrow’s race is going to be a bit of an unknown for us and there are a couple of tyres I haven’t even tried yet. I quite like the track and I’m sure it’s going to be a good show – the atmosphere here is unbelievable – and I need to be a part of it.” Dani Pedrosa, sixth on row two, said: “Well the second row is not so bad, though I have to say I was expecting more from this qualifying session. We haven’t found the ideal race set-up and tyre choice yet and this means tomorrow’s warm-up is going to be crucial to give us a chance for the race. At the moment my pace and rhythm on race tyres is not really where it needs to be. The track is very bumpy in parts and this is giving us some stability issues, which as yet we haven’t been able to overcome. This is an important race as we go into the last part of the season, so I’m determined to fight for the best result here.” Carlos Checa, heading row three as seventh fastest man, said: “Overall I’m happy despite the problems I had on a qualifying tyre. I had no engine braking or traction control because of a faulty front wheel speed sensor, the front wheel was locking up on the brakes. It’s a pity because on a qualifying tyre on my second lap I finished only 0.2 seconds off the front row. In the morning we did a lot of good work on the set up on race tyres and I’m happy with the lap times even though the track is very bumpy in some areas. Now there is no time left and so we’ll have to see what happens tomorrow.” Melandri, 12th fastest, said: “It’s like a dream to be back on track after the terrible accident this morning. I made a mistake when the track conditions were not very good. The bike went onto the kerb and then the artificial grass. The bike flew over the tyre wall and I was lucky to slide. My race rhythm is not so bad but I didn’t find a good feeling with the qualifying tyres here.” Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) qualified 14th and said: “Today was much drier! Yesterday we had such terrible weather, so thankfully the conditions were much better today. This morning our problem was that we couldn’t get a good feeling from the bike. Maybe it was due to the track conditions and also the settings. We improved a little bit this afternoon, but we are still looking for more braking stability and rear traction overall.” Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V), still not fully fit after breaking his leg as Assen in June, managed 15th, and said: “My physical condition is better than at Brno but this weekend I’m struggling more than at the last GP. My leg is very bad because of the frequent changes of direction here and from the hard braking. Tomorrow I’ll try and spare some energy in order to finish the race with a better result than at Brno.” Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) qualified 18th. He said: “We’re getting better. It’s hard to make leaps and bounds at a race weekend, but we had one test day after Brno, and that helped. For the race, things are looking better. We were faster than Elias the whole session, and I think we’ll be right there with Nakano and Tamada. Overtaking will be difficult here, especially without a speed advantage, but if we get a good start I’m hoping for a good result. I think we can get more out of the bike, set-up wise.” Series points leader Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) grabbed pole in the 250cc class with a 1m 38.395s lap, his rival Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) chasing him all the way to line up alongside him on the grid as second fastest man with a time of 1m 38.558s. Hector Barbera (Aprilia) qualified third fastest with Hiro Aoyama (KTM) completing the front row. Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW) qualified eighth fastest with his team-mate Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) 11th on the grid. Dovizioso said: “I don’t especially like this track. It’s a bit bumpy in places and also a bit dangerous, particularly where Marco had his crash. But the bike is running really well – at its optimum for the race. I have the chance of fighting for the win with Lorenzo tomorrow.” Simon said: “These were some tough training sessions but I think we’re at a good level. I like the circuit a lot and I feel comfortable riding here. We still have some work to do on the set-up, work we will have to do in the warm-up tomorrow morning. I am on the second row and I have a good pace to stay in the chasing group. I just hope we make the right tyre choice.” In the 125cc class Lukas Pesek (Derbi) notched his first pole of the season with Hector Faubel second fastest, Mattia Pasini third on the grid and Gabor Talmacsi (all Aprilia) completing the front row as fourth fastest qualifier. Honda teamsters Esteve Rabat (Repsol Honda RS125R) and Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda RS125R) managed seventh and ninth while Mike di Meglio (Scot Honda RS125R) qualified 11th. Rabat said: “Qualifying was not so bad. I like the track and it’s my first time on row two since Qatar. I set my best lap time alone and that has given me great confidence. I have tried to set a fast time before when alone but have never been as quick as this. The track was cold and dirty this morning but in qualifying it was much better.” Smith said: “In the wet yesterday the track was better than a wet Donington Park but I still took it easy hoping for better in the afternoon, but it didn’t happen. This morning the track was not at its best but in qualifying it was good, it felt like a completely different track. Every lap I found something – but we only had one and a quarter hours track time. Ninth is not so bad, and if we can sort out a few bits on the suspension and I stop making small mistakes we’ll have a good race.” Honda rider quotes GP San Marino – qualifying. MotoGP. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd. “I’m happy we squeezed onto the front row, which obviously is going to be really important around here because it’s a tight track. Tomorrow’s race is going to be a bit of an unknown for us and there are a couple of tyres I haven’t even tried yet. I quite like the track and I got up to speed pretty quickly this morning, though when it came to doing 1m 35s and 1m 34s laps I haven’t been able to make that next step. We struggled a bit in the afternoon with the first qualifying tyre and so on the second one I knew that, man, I had to reach down and take a few chances to pull something out. I had a lot of chatter on that lap but the qualifying Michelin tyres were really good. I know those guys have been working hard and it hasn’t been easy on them so I appreciate the effort they’ve put in. Hopefully my crew can tweak on the machine settings tonight and we can get things a little bit better. There are parts of the track where I’m ok and a few where it’s not so good – but I’ve got a lot of faith in my boys and hopefully we can be up there at the front fighting tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be a good show – the atmosphere here is unbelievable – and I need to be a part of it.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 6th.”Well the second row is not so bad, though I have to say I was expecting even more from this qualifying session. We haven’t found the ideal race set-up and tyre choice yet and this means tomorrow’s warm-up is going to be crucial to give us a chance for the race. At the moment my pace and rhythm on race tyres is not really where it needs to be. The track is very bumpy in parts and this is giving us some stability issues which as yet we haven’t been able to overcome. We’ll look at the data from today and try to come up with a solution quickly in the warm-up. Starting from 6th on the grid is not perfect because the first part of the lap here is very tight and twisty, which means overtaking and making up places in the first laps will be difficult. Still, we’ll give it our best shot. This is an important race as we go into the last part of the season, so I’m determined to fight for the best result here.” Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 7th. “Overall I’m happy considering the problem on my first qualifying tyre when I had no engine braking or traction control because of a faulty front wheel speed sensor. The rear wheel was just locking-up on the brakes. It’s a pity because on my second qualifying run I finished only 0.2s off the front row. In the morning we did a lot of good work on the set-up with race tyres and I’m happy with the lap times even though the track is very bumpy in some areas. But now there is no time left so we will see what happens tomorrow, it will be an interesting race this track.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 12th.”Its like a dream to be able to be back on track after the terrible accident of this morning I made a mistake this morning when the track conditions were not very good. The bike went onto the kerb and then the artificial grass. The bike flew over the tyre wall and I was lucky to slide I had a big bang on lumber region but saving my neck after the x-ray that excluded any fractures I could get back on track for the last 20-minutes. My race rhythm is not so bad but I didn’t find a good feeling with the qualifying tyres here not so much time in total to prepare the bike but anyway I will do my best in the race even if I now demanding.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 14th. “Today was much drier! Yesterday we had such terrible weather, so thankfully the conditions were much better today. This morning our problem was that we couldn’t get a good feeling from the bike. Maybe it was due to the track conditions and also the settings. We improved a little bit this afternoon, but we are still looking for more braking stability and rear traction overall. Having had some time on the track, I enjoy it a lot, but it’s harder to learn than some tracks, thanks to the combination of low and high-speed corners. We may try a different front setting tomorrow to get more confidence under braking. I will need a good start tomorrow as at Misano it’s not easy to overtake as it is a high-speed but narrow track.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda:15th.”My physical condition is better than at Brno but this weekend I’m struggling more than at the last GP. My leg is very bad because of the frequent changes of direction here at Misano and from the strong braking. Tomorrow I will try and spare some energy in order to finish the race and with a better result than at Brno.” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 18th.”I think we’re close on race tyres, and there’ll be some guys to race with, but I was only three tenths faster on qualifying tyres. Until three races back, every time we used a qualifier it’d chatter off the race track. In Germany was the first time it didn’t, and we picked up a second and a half. Today the thing was hopping off the race-track again – not chattering, just hitting some bumps and taking off. With this track, it needs to accelerate out of the slow corners onto the straightaway. We’re struggling to get from point A to point B as fast as we need to, and there’s nothing within the team we can do to help that. But we’re getting better. It’s hard to make leaps and bounds at a race weekend, but we had one test day after Brno, and that helped. For the race, things are looking better. We were faster than Elias the whole session, and I think we’ll be right there with Nakano and Tamada. Overtaking will be difficult here, especially without a speed advantage, but if we get a good start I’m hoping for a good result. I think we can get some more out of the bike, set-up wise.” Chuck Aksland: Team Manager – Team Roberts.”I don’t think our qualifying position is as good as it deserves to be. Kurtis was running strongly on race tyres, and with the qualifier he was only four tenths off at the half-way point. Then he ran into some chatter problems, more from the bumps than anything, and lost more time. But on race tyres he was competitive with a group of the satellite-team Honda riders, and he could have a good race with them tomorrow. There’s a definite pattern of improvement, and Kurtis is working hard to get the best out of what we have.” 250cc: Andrea Dovizioso, Kopron Scot Honda: 2nd.”I don’t like this track too much its bumpy and a little bit dangerous, particularly at the place where Marco (Melandri) crashed The bike is really very good, its optimum for the race. I have the possibility to fight for the win with Lorenzo tomorrow.” Julian Simon, Repsol Honda: 8th. “These were some tough training sessions but I think we have got a good level. I like the circuit a lot and I feel comfortable riding here. We still have some work to do on the set up, work we will have to do in the warm up tomorrow morning. I am on the second row and I have a good pace to stay in the chasing group. As always, I am going to do my best and so try and get a good result here. I just hope we make the right tyre choice.” Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 11th.”This morning things did not go too well, but my sensations were not too bad. In the afternoon, in the timed session, I got better sensations but on the last few laps when I was attacking to get my grid position I made a mistake thinking that I still had another lap to try and set a better time, but I lost time on the previous lap and in the end I was not able to do it.” Yukio Takahashi, Kopron Scot Honda: 12th.”I was alone in the free practice and thought my lap times were quite good until I cm into the box and found several riders were faster than me. In the qualifying session In the group I was with in qualifying session it was a little dangerous at the hairpin corner, one rider pushing too hard ran across the front of me and at the same time another ran up the inside on braking. The bike does not have a good balance and acceleration is not so good and I do not have a very good feeling. Tonight we will work to find some solutions to try in the warm up.” Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT-SAG: 16th. “I’m pleased with this result and with what we achieved today – being just 2s off the pole position pace on 4 km-long track is not bad! I believe I could have gone quicker but I don’t really mind. It’s a new track for everybody and our current position and the work we did over the past two days with the team in terms of bike set-up are satisfying and clearly prove our potential.” Eugene Laverty, LCR Honda: 18th.”I like the track even though it’s a bit bumpy and there are some good places on the brakes for overtaking, so I’m hoping to score some points. In the rain yesterday things didn’t go well but today I found a good chassis balance and feeling for the track.” 125cc. Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda: 7th.”Qualifying was not so bad. I like the track and this is the first and its my first time on the second line since Qatar. I set my best lap time alone and that has given me great confidence. I have tried to set fast times before when alone but never been as fast as this. The track was cold and dirty this morning but in qualifying it was much better. Now we have to work a little tonight to find some solutions to small problems. We have to change the gearbox ratios to get more acceleration and stiffen up the rear suspension to stop h sliding. Tyre choice is limited here but we will make decision after the warm up.” Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: 9th “In the wet yesterday the track was better than a wet Donington Park but I still took it easy hoping for better in the afternoon but it didn’t happen. This morning the track was not at its best but in qualifying it was good, it felt like a completely different track. Every lap I found something but we had only one and a quarter hours track time. Ninth is not so bad and if we can sort out a few bits on suspension and I stop making small mistakes we will have a good race.” Alexis Masbou, FFM Honda: 27th.”It’s too bad! I felt comfortable on my Honda right from the early morning. We’d fine tuned the bike set-up and selected the adequate gearing, the grip was in progress and all the right conditions were there for a good performance. I had a good pace right from the early stage, even riding alone. I really thought I was going to improve because I knew I had some more potential to come in two corners. But this engine failure wrecked our expectations. By the time I was back in the pits to take my second machine which didn¹t have the same settings, to go out on the track again and find the right pace again, I was only able to do two flying laps. I will try and have a good start tomorrow in order to pass as many riders as possible in the first lap, as I¹ve already done in the past. But I know that things won’t be easy.” Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: 31st.”I am satisfied with my qualifying session. I like this track and the bike is really good. I am surprised by the pace today. We did not change much from yesterday just two gearbox ratios to find more acceleration. In the qualifying session I was not in the fastest of groups – if I had been I could have run 1m 45.5s but now there are three of us at 1m 46.1s. Tomorrow I need on of my best starts to make a good race.” Danny Webb, Molenaar Honda: 33rd.”In free practice the bike was not accelerating at all, I was losing half a second down the straight to the fastest bikes. The tam changed the gearbox ratios and fitted a different exhaust pipe and it’s much better. It worked out well because in the first three laps this afternoon I was one second faster than my previous best time. Towards the end I got a bit excited and on the last lap set my fastest time”