MotoGP Qualifying Results: 1. Sete GIBERNAU, Honda, 1:52.334 2. Marco MELANDRI, Honda, 1:52.463 3. Nicky HAYDEN, Honda, 1:52.976 4. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha, 1:53.177 5. Colin EDWARDS, Yamaha, 1:53.219 6. Toni ELIAS, Yamaha, 1:53.230 7. Makoto TAMADA, Honda, 1:53.667 8. Alex BARROS, Honda, 1:53.719 9. Carlos CHECA, Ducati, 1:53.836 10. Shinya NAKANO, Kawasaki, 1:54.023 11. Chris VERMEULEN, Honda, 1:54.217 12. Max BIAGGI, Honda, 1:54.358 13. Olivier JACQUE, Kawasaki, 1:54.407 14. John HOPKINS, Suzuki, 1:54.434 15. Shinichi ITO, Ducati, 1:54.669 16. Ruben XAUS, Yamaha, 1:55.414 17. Roberto ROLFO, Ducati, 1:55.838 18. James ELLISON, Blata, 1:56.576 19. Franco BATTAINI, Blata, 1:58.417 More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: NAKANO AND JACQUE CONFIDENT FOR ISTANBUL RACE Kawasaki riders, Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque, are quietly confident of a strong race performance in tomorrow’s inaugural Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park. Both riders were impressed by the consistent performance of their Ninja ZX-RR bikes, and their Bridgestone tyres, in race trim during today’s two hours of practice and qualifying. Nakano will start from tenth position on the third row, while Jacque heads the fourth in 13th place. Just 0.4s separated the Kawasaki pair on the time sheets. While both riders had expected more from their final runs on soft qualifying tyres, the focus today was fine-tuning race set-up. The 14 turn, 5.34 km Istanbul ‘Otodrom’ has proved a challenging addition to the MotoGP schedule, with its undulating layout and creative combination of fast and slow sections. The fastest corner, the 260 kph flat-in-fifth gear turn 11, was the scene of a scary moment for Jacque in qualifying. A huge rear-end slide sent the Frenchman spearing off the circuit at top speed, although he was able to regain control without crashing. After returning to the pit box Jacque was forced to switch to his spare Ninja ZX-RR for his final fast laps, after technicians found a small crack in an exhaust pipe. Jacque used this morning’s free practice session to confirm his comfortable base set-up, after losing direction after changes yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, Nakano posted his fastest lap with three minutes remaining and charged into seventh before finishing the session in tenth position. Today also saw a dramatic increase in top speeds as both Nakano and Jacque perfected their lines and set-up through the ultra-fast turn 11, with 312 kph clocked in the speed trap on the following short straight. Before qualifying it was confirmed that Nakano would again spearhead Kawaski’s factory MotoGP team for the 2006 season, his third year with the Green Team. Shinya Nakano: #56 – Tenth – 1’54.023 “For sure I expected more in qualifying, but I have a very consistent race set-up. I did many laps today on a race tyre and it appears Bridgestone are competitive at this track. Everything was okay with the bike and tyres for my qualifying runs, but the fast times just did not come – I pushed hard and made no mistakes, but this was the best I could do. I understand the track much better now and we only made small changes today, just to make the rear-end more stable. The bike is very good in race trim. The track is very enjoyable, but there are difficult sections, the downhill part after turn one and the final, slow first-gear complex is very tricky.” Olivier Jacque: #19 – Thirteenth – 1’54.407 “That was scary; sideways and off the track at 260 kph in the fast right-hander! That was on the second of my qualifying tyres and the feeling wasn’t perfect, and then I had to change bikes because of a small technical problem. I was hoping to be further up the grid, but on my last run on a soft tyre, on the spare bike, I made a small mistake in the final section of the lap. It’s a shame, but I have a good bike and tyre for the race – this is the most important thing – and we were back on the right set-up today.” Harald Eckl: Team Manager “I’m surprised that we are not closer to the leading times, especially as yesterday it appeared that our bike, tyres and set-up were quite competitive for this new circuit. We need to understand why we did not make more progress compared to others in qualifying – I thought Shinya could have been top six this afternoon. But Bridgestone have very competitive tyres here and I think Shinya can race for a top eight finish.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Tough day for Hopkins in Turkey Team SUZUKI MotoGP racer John Hopkins will start from the fifth row for tomorrow’s Grand Prix Of Turkey following a difficult day at the Istanbul Park Circuit. Hopkins (P14, 1’54.434) has been unable to shake off the effects of a heavy cold that he has suffered with all weekend and his misery was compounded this morning when he crashed near the end of the final free practice session. Although he was unhurt in the crash it did knock back his confidence in the front end feel of the GSV-R and he was unable to give qualifying his usual 110 percent effort. Today’s qualification practice was held in warmer conditions than had previously been experienced since the MotoGP circus came to Turkey, and lap times started to fall as a result. Today’s fastest time and pole position was recorded be Sete Gibernau on a Honda. Tomorrow’s 22-lap race will be the penultimate round of the MotoGP World Championship and will see Hopkins line up on the grid at 15.00hrs (local time), 14.00hrs CET. John Hopkins: “This cold has got me feeling like crap and the crash this morning has had me riding the bike like a pussy!” “I’m really disappointed with myself and for the whole team, I know that a lot of things were expected of me this weekend as I am the only Suzuki rider here in Turkey. I just hope that I can make a recovery overnight and be back at my best for tomorrow as I’m sure that a top 10 position is still obtainable.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “Not our best day by a long shot, which is a pity when the weekend started so promisingly and it was clear that John really enjoyed riding the track. Our relative lack of performance is down in most part to John’s physical condition which hasn’t improved since yesterday afternoon in fact if anything it is probably worse today. We hope he feels better in the morning and will be able to concentrate fully for the 22-lap race. “Technically there are a number of areas that need to improve dramatically, but unfortunately with what we have here in Turkey none of them can be addressed in time for tomorrow’s race. “John needs to apply himself fully tomorrow and to do his best to get over his ailments and his slight lack of confidence and show us and Suzuki fans what he is made of. It’s not going to be an easy race for the rider or for the tyres but we hope to improve over today’s position.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: DUCATI MARLBORO RIDERS IMPROVE TIMES Ducati Marlboro Team riders Carlos Checa and Shinichi Ito qualified ninth and 15th respectively in the single official session at the all-new circuit of Istanbul Park in Turkey, with both riders feeling capable of improving on their qualifying places in real race conditions on Sunday. Having finished the three previous unofficial qualifying stages in seventh place overall, Checa started the lone hour of qualifying at a high pace, leading the times almost immediately. He dropped back to ninth as qualifying tyres were introduced across the board, but was consistently in the top few places with a race set-up. Ito, despite not quite setting the qualifying pace he expected, is confident that he can run well in race conditions, after a drama free session for the most part. “Looking at the times from that qualifying session, Carlos can obviously go fast when everyone is on race tyres, rather than just qualifiers, so we can expect to have a good race tomorrow,” said Ducati MotoGP Project Manager Livio Suppo. “Aside from the fastest two, I think he can stay with the top guys. Ito has done a good job so far and it is really nice to see him so full of enthusiasm. Let’s hope he can enjoy tomorrow’s race.” CHECA SHOWS COMPETITIVE RACE PACE After posting quick times while testing race set-up Checa feels that he can run with the leading group up front, as he chases another good result after having scored 2 podium finishes in the last 3 races. “Today was quite good on race tyres,” said Checa. “I could not improve my starting position with the qualifying tyres so we will be a little behind at the start. On race tyres we are in good shape and that came through making improvements in the set-up. I will be going out to get a good position right from the start and we will see what happens. A lot of things will be decided by the initial laps but I am feeling much more comfortable than yesterday.” ITO READY TO RACE AFTER POSITIVE SESSIONS Regular test pilot Ito worked his way through a full programme of testing in the 90 minute morning session, and despite losing his final chance of improving his personal best in qualifying, he knows he will be ready to race on Sunday. “We improved the settings on the bike in both the morning and afternoon sessions today,” said Ito, “and I also found a good race tyre. The setting of the machine and the balance are good so for tomorrow we should be fine in race conditions. I was a little disappointed not to set a faster time because during my final chance to set a fast lap a quicker rider came up behind on the last corner, and I had to go wide to let him through”. More, from a press release issued by Gauloises Yamaha: SECOND ROW START FOR GAULOISES YAMAHA PAIR IN ISTANBUL Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will start the inaugural Grand Prix of Turkey from the second row of the MotoGP grid tomorrow, after lapping fourth and fifth fastest in this afternoon’s single qualifying session. After making the most of another extended 90-minute free practice in the morning, the difference between the leading riders was much closer today, with the top six all pulling to within a second of the pole position time of 1’52.334 set by Sete Gibernau (Honda). After a difficult morning, Rossi clocked the fourth fastest lap of the day after making a series of improvements to his YZR-M1 machine designed to meet the demands of this new and challenging circuit. The Italian knocked almost two seconds off his best time from yesterday and is targeting even more set-up refinements in tomorrow’s warm-up session before challenging for a record-equalling twelfth victory of the season in the race. After suffering a series of setbacks yesterday Edwards was able to work without interruption today and the American emerged as one of the strongest contenders for a pole challenge in the final stages of the session. Edwards, who revealed that he has made a change to his riding style here after struggling to compete for the podium in recent weeks, launched his final attack in the very last minute but was held up by a slower rider and ended up conceding 0.042 seconds to Rossi, eventually lining up just behind his team-mate in fifth place. VALENTINO ROSSI (4th – 1’53.177; 27 laps) “This morning was not good at all, I had some big problems and we were quite worried. Then this afternoon we made some major modifications and the bike began to work much better. In the end the lap time was not so bad and we were able to finish the session on the second row. After this morning’s troubles I am quite happy with this fourth place and maybe we can fight at the front tomorrow. We need to use the warm-up well and make a few more small changes to the set-up. I think it’s going to be a very hard race tomorrow; Melandri and Gibernau were very fast today and I think tomorrow will be a big, big battle.” COLIN EDWARDS (5th 1’53.219; 25 laps) “We’ve struggled to find a set-up in recent weeks so here in Istanbul we’ve basically gone to Valentino’s base setting and made gradual changes to suit my style. I’ve had to adapt my riding more to a 250 style, carrying much more corner speed, and as the weekend’s gone on I’ve learnt more and more tricks that are helping me to go faster. This afternoon I felt good, I had much more confidence in the set-up and it helped me set some consistent times. To be honest I’m a little disappointed not to be on the front row because I felt like I had a 1’52 in me, but it wasn’t to be. The main thing is that we’ve made improvements and if we can keep doing that in the warm-up tomorrow then we should be okay for the race.” DAVIDE BRIVIO GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “The team has worked very well to improve the situation; it is still not the best but it is certainly much better than yesterday. The steps forward with the bike have allowed the riders to think more about where they can improve and both Valentino and Colin have created a good base to work from in the race. We have some very fast rivals and it will be a hard battle in the race but I can definitely say that we will be trying our best to be a part of it.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Gibernau eclipses Melandri to seal inaugural Istanbul pole Sete Gibernau became the first rider to lap quicker than Marco Melandri at the Istanbul Park circuit in this afternoon’s single qualifying practice for the Grand Prix of Turkey, snatching pole position from his young team-mate on the final lap of an exciting afternoon session. Gibernau’s time of 1’52.334 was enough to secure top spot thanks largely to a mistake from Melandri, who ran wide during his final pole assault after again dominating the time sheets throughout the majority of the day. The Spaniard’s fourth pole position of the season also puts him within touching distance of the BMW Award for the MotoGP Best Qualifier, with a 1.956 second advantage over Valentino Rossi and just one qualifying session remaining at Valencia in two weeks’ time. “From the first moment we came here I’ve felt comfortable with the track and the bike has been working well,” reflected Gibernau. “It is very technical and has a bit of everything; I’m enjoying myself. When you are having fun everything else seems to come much easier and we’re in good shape. This morning we ran almost a full race distance and in the afternoon I was able to put in a good qualifying lap so hopefully our progress can be confirmed in the warm-up tomorrow. I’m not obsessed about winning but I am about having a good race!” Nicky Hayden responded to Melandri’s challenge by recording the third fastest time of the afternoon session to complete an all-Honda front row. The American is tied on points with the Italian in the battle for the second place in the championship and, after lapping 1.268 seconds slower than his rival yesterday, he was able to close the gap down to just over five tenths today. Colin Edwards, who trails the pair by eight points in the championship, will continue his quest for the runner-up spot from the second row of the grid in tomorrow’s race after a close battle with his Yamaha colleagues Valentino Rossi and Toni Elías. Whilst Rossi will be launching his bid to equal Mick Doohan’s record of twelve wins in a single season from fourth place, Elías made the most of a tow from Edwards on the final lap to line-up behind the American in sixth improving his previous best ever qualifying performance from last weekend at Phillip Island by one place. Makoto Tamada propelled himself several places up the grid with a final lap effort that was good enough for the seventh fastest time. The Japanese rider lines up ahead of Alex Barros and Carlos Checa on the third row, knocking his compatriot Shinya Nakano back to the fourth row ahead of Chris Vermeulen, who produced an impressive performance in only his second MotoGP appearance to out-qualify the experienced Max Biaggi. Lone Suzuki rider John Hopkins qualified fourteenth fastest despite suffering from a heavy cold, whilst it was announced that his team-mate this season Kenny Roberts, who is out of the final two rounds with a broken wrist injury, will not have his contract renewed by the factory next year. Alex de Angelis recovered from the disappointment of a race crash at Phillip Island six days ago to record his third pole position in the 250cc class after dislodging Casey Stoner just two laps from the end of the session. Stoner bounced back from a crash in the closing stages to set his best time on his second bike, with the Aprilia pair joined on the front row of the grid by Honda team-mates Hiroshi Aoyama and Dani Pedrosa. Jorge Lorenzo, who has until the end of the season to become the youngest ever winner of a quarter-litre race, starts from the second row in seventh place. Thomas Lüthi made the ideal preparations for his first assault on the 125cc World Championship title after clinching his fourth pole position of the season. The Swiss youngster has gone on to win each of the races he has started from the front of the grid this season and a similar result tomorrow, combined with fifth place or lower for Mika Kallio, would secure the title. Kallio also starts from the front row tomorrow after qualifying third fastest, behind Héctor Faubel and ahead of Mattia Pasini. More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing: SETE AND MARCO SET THE PACE The Spaniard clinches his fourth pole of the season at the new Istanbul circuit, where Marco Melandri has dominated in free practice GP OF TURKEY – MOTOGP QUALIFYING PRACTICE Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri set the first and second fastest times in the official MotoGP qualifying practice today and will both start as serious contenders to take their first victory of the season. The Italian dominated all three free practice sessions but conceded pole to his team-mate by just one tenth of a second. Sete set a perfect lap on his way to his fourth pole of the season, his first since Brno. Melandri made a small mistake on his final lap but has never previously demonstrated the kind of consistent form he has shown at Istanbul Park, a circuit where he hopes to take a major step towards the runner-up spot in the championship. The riders had an extended 90-minute session to get used to the track this morning, allowing Sete to complete a full race simulation with a consistent rhythm in high 1’53s and low 1’54s. SETE GIBERNAU! (1st, 1’52″334): “This is a technical and difficult circuit which has a bit of everything fast corners, slow sections, drops, rises, hard braking”¦ More than having a perfect bike in each section, you need a good general balance. I like the track, you can have fun here and that always makes the job easier, which you can see in the result. The team have worked well from the start, we’ve been fast and set a good pace, something we’ve been missing for the last few rounds. In the afternoon we made a few changes which weren’t quite right but we went back to the setting from the morning and I was able to fight for pole. Tomorrow will be a tough and long race but hopefully I can make a good start and fight until the end.” MARCO MELANDRI (2nd, 1’52″463): “The weekend started well and we have made progress in every session. After dominating the three free practice sessions I’m sorry not to have got pole but I am calm and I fe! el good. The bike is working well and Michelin have given me some good tyres which have adapted perfectly to the characteristics of the track. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we’ll see what the best tactic is because we have to think about finishing second in the championship.” LAP TIMES 1. Sete Gibernau (Esp/Honda) 1’52″334 2. Marco Melandri (Ita/Honda) 1’52″463 3. Nicky Hayden (USA/Honda) 1’52″976 4. Valentino Rossi (Ita/Yamaha) 1’53″177 5. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha) 1’53″219 More, from a press release issued by Camel Honda: OFFICIAL PRACTICE – TURKEY GRAND PRIX – 23/10/05 ISTANBUL EXCELLENT PROGRESS FROM CHRIS AND ALEX IN TURKEY The Camel Honda duo are two of the riders to have made most progress today, in comparison to their results from the first day of practice, and tomorrow they will start from the third and fourth rows of the grid. Alex Barros, who both in the morning free session and afternoon qualifying showed he had similar pace to the top five, set the eighth fastest time, whilst Chris Vermeulen, who is quickly adapting to the RC211V and learning how to use the qualifying tyres, took a promising overall eleventh quickest. Sito Pons Camel Honda “This track gave no advantage to any rider in terms of experience, and it’s a great circuit, but it is also technical and challenging, yesterday the differences in performance were much bigger than normal because everyone had taken their own measures to combat the new track with different results. Our riders were amongst those who made giant strides forward compared to yesterday, and both have sealed decent position on tomorrow’s grid. Alex has a good pace on race tyres looking at the rest, not like the top two, but he’s certainly in line for a good race tomorrow. Chris has advanced a row on the grid compared to his first race and in terms of lap-times has closed the gap to first place by half a second on a much longer track: he’s doing a magnificent job and if he can get away well tomorrow, he will honestly get the chance to complete his objectives and finish in the top ten. Alex Barros Camel Honda 1’53.719 8th position “The bike improved a lot today, I felt much more comfortable than yesterday. We have changed everything a little bit, the gearing, the suspension, the electronic power management system, a complete 360 of all the settings basically, which is quite normal on a new track. We still have some small problems but I’m quite satisfied with my race pace. With the qualifying tyres I improved a little, but the third row is an average result.” Chris Vermeulen Camel Honda 1’54.217 11th position “I’m still 1.8 seconds behind pole position but it’s less than last time and it feels great to be getting the bike more under my control and more familiar in my hands. Of course, my objective today was to get into the top ten, and I missed out by one spot because I made a slight error with the second qualifying tyre, going wide in one corner, but in any case it’s fantastic to manage to out-qualify riders like Biaggi, Hopkins, Jacque. Tomorrow’s race will undoubtedly be difficult, this is a really tough track and there are some really hard braking areas, but my aim is to be in the top ten as ever and if possible ahead of another Honda. I want to thank the team because we are working great together, it’s a brilliant experience and it makes the job much easier than it could otherwise have been.” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park Saturday 22 October 2005 ALL HONDA FRONT ROW FOR TURKISH SHOWDOWN Honda riders made the inaugural Turkish MotoGP their own with a dominant performance at the new Istanbul Park track. Sete Gibernau (Team Movistar Honda RC211V) qualified on pole for the fourth time this season, his team-mate Marco Melandri (Team Movistar Honda RC211V) was second fastest qualifier and Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) completes the front row. These three riders have had the measure of the 5.340km track from the outset and no one has been faster than this trio so far. They remain the only riders to have visited the 1m 52s region in terms of lap times. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) who qualified fourth fastest is 0.843 seconds shy of Gibernau’s pole time. Sete has a reputation for getting the best from super-sticky qualifying rubber and the Spaniard is certainly maximising his chances of finally posting a win in what has been a troubled season. But his pole time of 1m 52.334 seconds shows how firmly in command he is, albeit at this late stage of the season. Halfway through this final hour of qualifying it was Rossi who was fastest, but as the minutes went by Melandri took command of the session with his team-mate in close pursuit of the top grid slot. The qualifying times are much more spread out than they have been in recent races and the Honda front-runners would appear to have adapted to the demands of this circuit quicker than their rivals. Even Chris Vermeulen, standing in for the injured Troy Bayliss (Camel Honda RC211V), in only his second outing on the RCV qualified just outside the top ten in 11th. The young Aussie out-qualified Max Biaggi (Repsol Honda RC211V) who could only manage the 12th quickest time for a start from the fourth row. Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V) was seventh fastest and Alex Barros (Camel Honda RC211V) qualified eighth. Sete is eager to capitalise on this pole in his bid to notch his first race win this year. He said, “This is a technical and difficult circuit which has a bit of everything fast corners, slow sections, drops, rises, hard braking. More than having a perfect bike in each section, you need a good general balance. I like the track, you can have fun here and that always makes the job easier, which you can see in the result.” Marco is bidding for a maiden win and knows he has a good chance here. He said, “The weekend started well and we have made progress in every session. After dominating the three free practice sessions I’m sorry not to have got pole but I am calm and I feel good. The bike is working well and Michelin have given me some good tyres.” Nicky is in a tough fight with Melandri for the World Championship runner-up position and values this front row start. He said, “Things are slowly getting better. The Movistar boys came out early and really jumped on the pace and got going fast. Sure it’s nice to be on the front row for tomorrow but I’ve got a few problems with a couple of sections of the track where I’m losing a lot of time so I’m not satisfied by any means with my set-up or my riding. I’m not as clean and smooth as I need to be.” Tamada said, “I am satisfied with these two days of practice. You need to be aggressive in the turns at this track because if you try to ride them in a clean way it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll lose tenths of a second. If we can improve our RC211V’s settings tomorrow morning, I am sure we can do well. But first of all I’ll have to start well because, as always, the getaway is of vital importance for the rest of the race.” “The bike improved a lot today,” said Barros. “I felt much more comfortable than yesterday. We have changed everything a little bit, the gearing, the suspension, the electronic power management system, a complete 360 degree turn of all the settings, which is quite normal on a new track. We still have some small problems but I’m quite satisfied with my race pace. With the qualifying tyres I improved a little, but the third row is an average result.” Max said, “Obviously I’m not at all satisfied with the results of the last two days. We just can’t seem to get a good balance for the machine round here. We’ve tried a lot of things but in the end we still don’t have a balanced bike. The front is too light and we still struggle for grip in places. The qualifying tyres only really work when the bike is set-up well. Sometimes when you put qualifiers on a bike that is not set-up properly then it becomes even harder to ride.” Vermeulen said, “I’m still 1.8 seconds behind pole position but it’s less than last time and it feels great to be getting the bike more under my control and more familiar in my hands. Of course, my objective today was to get into the top ten, and I missed out by one spot because I made a slight error with the second qualifying tyre, going wide in one corner, but in any case it’s fantastic to manage to out-qualify riders like Biaggi, Hopkins and Jacque.” With the 250cc World Championship already wrapped up in favour of Dani Pedrosa (Team Movistar Honda RS250RW), it was Alex de Angelis’ turn to post his second pole of the season with a lap time of 1m 56.930s. Casey Stoner was second fastest (both Aprilia), Hiroshi Aoyama (Team Movistar Honda RS250RW) third quickest and Dani fourth to complete the front row. Hector Barbera (Fortuna Honda RS250RW) and his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo (Fortuna Honda RS250RW) start from row two as sixth and seventh fastest with Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Racing Team Honda RS250RW) in eight position. Dani said, “Today was a lot better than yesterday although I expected to improve more in the afternoon. I tried to get a tow at the end of the session, as everybody does, but nobody was pushing and I had to go it alone. Anyway, I can’t complain because we haven’t had any major problems and the important thing is that we’ve found a good set-up for the race.” Aoyama said, “I think we worked well in the afternoon although it helped to follow Dani on the last lap to set my time. I still don’t feel totally comfortable with the front end in turns 8, 9 and 10 and I’m losing a bit of time there. We’ve got the warm-up to try and improve and if we can do that I think I can have a good race because my pace isn’t bad.” Dovi said, “I like the track but tomorrow it will be a difficult race for me because we haven’t found a good solution to the setting problems that slowed me yesterday and today. Start from the second row is not a big problem if you can easily keep the pace of the leaders. But we have to improve the set up.” Thomas Luthi (Elit Grand Prix Honda RS125R) did all he could to give himself the advantage for tomorrow’s 19-lap 125cc Grand Prix by posting a pole time of 2m 03.585s. The young Swiss is the only man underneath the 2m 04 second barrier. Hector Faubel (Aprilia) qualified second fastest and Luthi’s title rival Mika Kallio (KTM) was third quickest. Mattia Pasini (Aprilia) completes the front row while Tomoyoshi Koyama (Ajo Motorsport Honda RS125R) made it to row two as seventh fastest man, just behind Mike Di Meglio (Kopron Racing World Honda RS125R) in sixth. Luthi said, “I like this track, everything has gone really well for us here. The track is difficult but very nice to race on. The part after the start and finish is super it flows so well and suits my style. Everything is working good with the bike, the engine is fast and the handling is very good. Sure we have a couple of minor details on suspension to think about and to try in the warm up tomorrow. I hope for a good start and see what happens from there.” Koyama said, “We had some kind of engine problem in the qualifying session I had no acceleration off the slow corners but top speed was not too bad but I still had to use the slipstream of the faster guys to get a good time. I really like this track, particularly the long left hand corner. The chassis and suspension are really good the only small problem I’m having is the front end is trying to turn in at the downhill corners but nothing serious.” Fabrizio Lai (Kopron Racing World Honda RS125RW) qualified 11th and Alex Masbou (Ajo Motorsport Honda RS125R) 12th. Lai said, “I made three good sessions and I was sure I would improve in the qualifying session. But today we have made a mistake with the engine set up, it had less power than yesterday. Tomorrow we will adopt the previous settings and I hope to have a good race. I really like this track.” HONDA TEAM QUOTES: MotoGP: Sete Gibernau, MoviStar Honda: 1st: “This is a technical and difficult circuit which has a bit of everything fast corners, slow sections, drops, rises, hard braking”¦ More than having a perfect bike in each section, you need a good general balance. I like the track, you can have fun here and that always makes the job easier, which you can see in the result. The team have worked well from the start, we’ve been fast and set a good pace, something we’ve been missing for the last few rounds. In the afternoon we made a few changes which weren’t quite right but we went back to the setting from the morning and I was able to fight for pole. Tomorrow will be a tough and long race but hopefully I can make a good start and fight until the end.” Marco Melandri, MoviStar Honda: 2nd: “The weekend started well and we have made progress in every session. After dominating the three free practice sessions I’m sorry not to have got pole but I am calm and I fe! el good. The bike is working well and Michelin have given me some good tyres which have adapted perfectly to the characteristics of the track. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we’ll see what the best tactic is because we have to think about finishingsecond in the championship.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd: “Things are slowly coming better. The Movistar boys came out early and really jumped on the pace early and got going fast. Sure it’s nice to be on the front row for tomorrow but I’ve got a few problems with a couple of sections of the track where I’m losing a lot of time so I’m not satisfied by any means with my set-up or my riding. I’m not as clean and smooth as I need to be. We’ve got one more session to try to get things right. It’s one thing to ride at a new track and try and go for a good lap time, it’s quite another thing to see what happens in the race for the first time.” Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 7th: “I am satisfied of the work done in these two days of practice. We made it to develop the bike without many complications or bad surprises. I had some problems with the grip when I was using the second set of soft tyres, while with the third and last set I committed a mistake in the first intermediate which has slowed me down. I probably could have started the race a bit further up. In this track is fundamental to be aggressive in the turns because if you try to ride them in a clean way it’s almost guaranteed that you lose some tenths of a second. If tomorrow morning we’ll make it to improve our RC211V’s setting, I am sure we can do well, but first of all I’ll have to start well because, as always, the start is of vital importance for the rest of the race.” Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 8th: “The bike improved a lot today, I felt much more comfortable than yesterday. We have changed everything a little bit, the gearing, the suspension, the electronic power management system, a complete 360 of all the settings basically, which is quite normal on a new track. We still have some small problems but I’m quite satisfied with my race pace. With the qualifying tyres I improved a little, but the third row is an average result.” Chris Vermeulen, replacement rider for Troy Bayliss at Camel Honda: 11th: “I’m still 1.8 seconds behind pole position but it’s less than last time and it feels great to be getting the bike more under my control and more familiar in my hands. Of course, my objective today was to get into the top ten, and I missed out by one spot because I made a slight error with the second qualifying tyre, going wide in one corner, but in any case it’s fantastic to manage to out-qualify riders like Biaggi, Hopkins, Jacque. Tomorrow’s race will undoubtedly be difficult, this is a really tough track and there are some really hard braking areas, but my aim is to be in the top ten as ever and if possible ahead of another Honda. I want to thank the team because we are working great together, it’s a brilliant experience and it makes the job much easier than it could otherwise have been.” Max Baggi, Repsol Honda: 12th: : “Obviously not at all satisfied with the results of the last two days. We just can’t seem to get a good balance for the machine round here at all. We’ve tried a lot of things but in the end we still don’t have a balanced bike. The front is too light and we still struggle for grip in places. The qualifying tyres only really work when the bike is set-up well. Sometimes when you put qualifiers on a bike that is not set-up properly then it becomes even harder to ride. I really need to finish the race tomorrow. The last two races have been a disaster and I’ll be fighting hard tomorrow for the points and honour in the championship.” 250cc: Hiroshi Aoyama, MoviStar Honda: 3rd : “I think we worked well in the afternoon although it helped to follow Dani on the last lap to set my time. I still don’t feel totally comfortable with the front end in turns 8, 9 and 10 and I’m losing a bit of time there. We’ve got the warm-up to try and improve and if we can do that I think I can have a good race because my pace isn’t bad.” Dani Pedrosa, MoviStar Honda: 4th: “Today was a lot better than yesterday although I expected to improve more in the afternoon. I tried to get a tow at the end of the session, as everybody does, but nobody was pushing and I had to go it alone. Anyway, I can’t complain because we haven’t had any major problems and the important thing is that we’ve found a good set-up for the race. We’ll have to get a good start and hope that nobody causes us any problems but I think the first few laps will be decisive. The tyres don’t seem to be a problem so I expect it will be a group battle with four or five of us at the front.” Hector Barbera, Fortuna Honda: 6th: “From Australia to now I seem to have a different bike. It makes a real difference and I am enjoying it. I know my strength is not putting in flying laps, but I managed it easily and know I have room to improve. I was held up yesterday and made a mistake with the set-up as I changed it from Australia. I am not thinking about the podium; I am feeling confident and believing in myself.” Jorge Lorenzo, Fortuna Honda: 7th: “The truth is I always improve by about a second from Friday to Saturday, but this time I managed only two tenths and am down in seventh. I like the track, but have tried everything and am still some way off the leaders. In the second section of the circuit I am losing alot of time and we’ll have to work on it tomorrow. We have been lapping fast from the first free session but have not been able to improve since. We will look at the situation closely in the warm-up to try and resolve it.” Andrea Dovizioso, Scot Honda: 8th: “I like the track but tomorrow it will be a difficult race for me because we haven’t found a good solution to the setting problems that slowed me yesterday and today. Starting from the second row is not a big problem if you can easily keep the pace of the leaders. But we have to improve the set up for me to be able to do that”¦”. Yuki Takahashi, Scot Honda: 11th: “We have improved from yesterday but the front closes when I try to push harder. Tomorrow we will work again on the set up during the warm up and hope everything is good for the race.” Alex Debon, Wurth Honda BQR: 12th. “I had a little problem with my best engine in qualifying and we spent 18-minutes looking for a solution. I had to use my spare bike to set my lap time but only got six laps in on that one. Even so my grid position is not so bad. On the positive side the bike is handling really good and I have just a small problem with the front end turning in but nothing to worry about. I also know that we can fix the problem in time for the warm up. I am confident that if I get a good start I will surely have a good race.” Jakub Smrz, Molenaar Honda: 19th. “After a few laps of the qualifying session the front end began to vibrate so I came into the pit to se what was wrong. It felt like a wheel problem. We changed it but it was not much better so I came in and changed to my second bike. I improved my time from yesterday by 0.5s but was faster this morning. I’m a little bit angry because I could have fought for a third row start. One good thing is that we ran more laps than race distance with the tyres and that is always positive. My number one engine is good so if we fix the problems I will have a good race.” Dirk Heidolf, Kiefer-Bos-Castrol Honda: 21st. “My grid position is not good and I’m not happy with it. For the first 5-6 laps of the qualifying session the engine was slow so I came into the pit. It was the CDI that caused the problem but we lost almost 20 minutes before I got out on track again. When I went out I quickly found a good rhythm and ran high 2m 00s lap times. This will be good for the race or sure. There is a concern about the front tyre, it was finished very quickly in the session and I had two huge front wheel slides, so we have work to do on the front end before the warm up. We will have to be a little cautious on the first 2 3 laps of the race but if I run 2m 00.5s laps I will be OK.” Arturo Tizon, replacement rider for Radomil Rous at Wurth Honda BQR: 24th. “I am now getting better on the 2-stroke. I had to change my riding style and the way I was thinking about riding the bike compared to a 4-stroke. I was getting on the throttle too hard and that caused me problems. This morning I also changed my riding position to get ore weight n the front wheel and it helped me a lot. “ 125cc: Thomas Luthi, Elit Honda: 1st. “I like this track, everything has gone really well for us here. The track is difficult but very nice to race on. The part after the start and finish is super it flows so well and suits my style. Everything is working good with the bike, the engine is fast and the handling is very good. Sure we have a couple of minor details on suspension to think about and to try in the warm up tomorrow. I hope for a good start and see what happens from there.” Mike Di Meglio, Kopron Racing World Honda: 6th. “Today we have found solutions for our problems of yesterday. The bike is now fast and I enjoy riding it at this track. I have to improve my lines in some corners but I think I can race with the leaders of the race.” Tomoyoshi Koyama, Ajo Motorsport Honda: 7th. “We had some kind of engine problem in the qualifying session I had no acceleration off the slow corners but top speed was not too bad but I still had to use he slipstream of the faster guys to get a good time. I really like this track, particularly the long left hand corner. The chassis and suspension are really good the only small problem I’m having is the front end is trying to turn in at the downhill corners but nothing serious.” Fabrizio Lai, Kopron Racing World Honda: 11th. “I made three good sessions and I was sure I would improve in the qualifying session. But today we have made a mistake with the engine set up, it had less power than yesterday. Tomorrow we will adopt the previous settings and I hope to have a good race. I really like this track.” Alexis Masbou, Ajo Motorsport Honda: 13th. “Things could be better, the engine is average compared to some races this year. The team and HRC are working on this now and we will see in the warm up if things have improved. We have found a good compromise on the suspension settings particularly with the front fork forks and the tyre.” Alvaro Bautista, Seedorf RC3 Tiempo Holidays Honda: 16th. “I was faster today than yesterday and I think I can go faster still. The engine was not as good on top speed as yesterday but the air pressure is different today so that might be the problem. I was behind Koyama on the straight but could not use his slipstream to pass. The chassis is very good and the suspension set up is perfect for this circuit. If we find a little more power and II get a good start I know I can run with the fastest riders in the race.” Aleix Espargaro, Seedorf RC3 Tiempo Holidays Honda: 23rd. “That was a very bad session for me the rear tyre was finished in after a few laps. This was very strange because we had a good set up from yesterday after we changed the geometry a little and softened up the suspension. It was OK in the morning but in qualifying it gave me a totally different feeling. The track temperature was higher today but the difference to the bike was extreme. The engine was not as fast today either but I know I can run 2m 05.5s lap times so if we fix the bike I will have a good race. But I will need a good start from my grid position if I m to take good points from the race.” Sandro Cortese, Kiefer-Bos-Castrol Honda: 25th. “The first 15-minutes of qualifying was OK then I came in to change tyres and went out to set a good time. The tyres were working for me and I got on the back of Da Rosa and Pesek and we were running a good pace. But we came across Giuseppetti the other two got passed in a corner and I had to wait. After that I could not set a good time alone. I am not so happy because the bike is good, the engine is strong and the handling is very good. I have made good starts in the last five races and I will need another good one tomorrow.” Sascha Hommel, Molenaar Honda: “This is a very difficult and technical track and set up is really important. In the qualifying session my tyres were quickly finished and it was important I did not crash so I was not as fast as I could have been when I went for my fast lap. The engine is good but we need to work on the suspension before the warm up tomorrow.”