FIM Moto2 World Championship Sachsenring, Germany July 17, 2010 Qualifying Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (SPEED UP), 1:24.982 2. Arne TODE, Germany (SUTER), 1:25.655 3. Toni ELIAS, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:25.664 4. Julian SIMON, Spain (SUTER), 1:25.758 5. Gabor TALMACSI, Hungary (SPEED UP), 1:25.772 6. Simone CORSI, Italy (MOTOBI), 1:25.830 7. Stefan BRADL, Germany (SUTER), 1:25.918 8. Shoya TOMIZAWA, Japan (SUTER), 1:25.967 9. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:26.028 10. Alex DEBON, Spain (FTR), 1:26.104 11. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (FTR), 1:26.110 12. Roberto ROLFO, Italy (SUTER), 1:26.114 13. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (TECH 3), 1:26.120 14. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Colombia (BQR-MOTO2), 1:26.156 15. Scott REDDING, Great Britain (SUTER), 1:26.246 16. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (I.C.P.), 1:26.274 17. Fonsi NIETO, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:26.319 18. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (BIMOTA), 1:26.320 19. Anthony WEST, Australia (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:26.320 20. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (SUTER), 1:26.462 21. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (MORIWAKI), 1:26.492 22. Damian CUDLIN, Australia (PONS KALEX), 1:26.522 23. Claudio CORTI, Italy (SUTER), 1:26.533 24. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (TECH 3), 1:26.600 25. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (MORIWAKI), 1:26.600 26. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (BIMOTA), 1:26.670 27. Hector FAUBEL, Spain (SUTER), 1:26.736 28. Vladimir IVANOV, Ukraine (MORIWAKI), 1:26.755 29. Sascha HOMMEL, Germany (KALEX), 1:26.761 30. Yusuke TESHIMA, Japan (MOTOBI), 1:26.824 31. Jules CLUZEL, France (SUTER), 1:26.831 32. Sergio GADEA, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:26.981 33. Lukas PESEK, Czech Republic (MORIWAKI), 1:27.051 34. Joan OLIVE, Spain (PROMOHARRIS), 1:27.080 35. Kenny NOYES, USA (PROMOHARRIS), 1:27.144 36. Valentin DEBISE, France (ADV), 1:27.171 37. Vladimir LEONOV, Russia (SUTER), 1:27.180 38. Robertino PIETRI, Venezuela (SUTER), 1:27.682 39. Niccolo CANEPA, Italy (FORCE GP210), 1:27.801 40. Mashel AL NAIMI, Qatar (BQR-MOTO2), 1:28.146 41. Yannick GUERRA, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:28.790 More, from a press release issued by Blusens-STX: YONNY HERNÁNDEZ WILL START IN THE FOURTH ROW AT THE GRAND PRIX OF GERMANY AND MASHEL AL NAIMI IN THE TENTH. IN 125CC TITO RABAT HAS SEEN HOW THE EIGHTH PLACE FLEW AWAY FOR JUST A LITTLE BIT, SO HE WILL START NINTH Sachsenring, 17th July 2010. Yonny Hernández has made his third best result of the year in the qualifying practice of the German Grand Prix, eighth round of the MotoGP World Championship. He has finished 14th in the circuit of Sachsenring while his team mate Mashel Al Naimi has classified 40th, like he did in Assen and Montmeló. The Colombian rider did the 10th best time in the morning, but could not equal this result in the afternoon, so he is going to start tomorrow in the fourth row for the first time this season. His goal is to do a good start, fight for the top ten and do his best race of the year, which would help him go upper in the championship standing and would let the team Blusens-STX improve his position too (it is tenth now). The Qatari rider made the 32nd best time yesterday and 34th in the free practice of today. However, in the qualifying practice he has not been able to keep this excellent level and he has finished in the tenth row. He will start with the aim of finishing the race once again and gain more and more experience in order to get more used to this new category and forget the habits he acquired when doing endurance motorcycling. On the other hand, Tito Rabat has lost the eighth position in the last minute, when Johann Zarco has passed him for just 0,006, so he will be starting tomorrow from the third row in the ninth place. The Blusens-STX rider was third in the morning practice on wet and seventh on Friday. With this tenth place for the race he has improved his classification of past years in the Grand Prix of Germany, but he will not be in second row for the first time in four GGPP. The rider from Alella (Barcelona) is over two seconds away from the amazing pole Marc Márquez has done (Marc has improved in almost eight decimals the previous record of the circuit), but he is only seven decimals away from the third. Therefore, his goal is to start well and stick with the first group and battle for podium, which would put him a little ahead in the world championship ranking. 68 YONNY HERNÁNDEZ (14º. 1’26.156, +1.174): “Yesterday I crashed pretty hard and my knee and ankle hurt a little today; fortunately, it does not hurt too much. I am satisfied with the work the team and I have done today, because we found the right setting very fast. In the morning we were in the top ten, which is great, but in the qualifyings I found it harder to speed up. Luckily, I finished 14th. I am very motivated with the race and looking forward to fighting to be in the top ten and have my best result of the year here tomorrow. I like the track a lot and could adapt to its peculiarities quite easily. I have been competitive and I hope we can confirm this impressions on Sunday by doing a beautiful race.” 95 MASHEL AL NAIMI (40º. 1’28.146., +3.164): “This morning I was faster and improved my time of yesterday, but in the afternoon I could not have the same rhythm. I was five decimals slower than in the free practice and I a second and four decimals further to pole. I did my best time in lap 12 out of 23, after that I was a little unfocused. At first, I felt strange in this circuit, but after the qualifyings I already felt better. Tomorrow my aim is to finish the race; I must be really careful because the circuit is short and starting in the back is a handicap. There might be an accident in the first bend and we have to pay attention to avoid any problems that may come”. 12 TITO RABAT (9º. 1’28.075, +2.022): “The qualifying session was a bit worse than I expected, because the weekend so far was perfect. Yesterday we did fantastic work and this morning as well. We were one of the best four on wet. However, in the afternoon the rear wheel was slippery in the left bends, which are majority in this circuit, and this has affected my times. We need to solve this problem before tomorrow’s race if we want to have options of fighting for a podium place. I believe we can afford a good result, because the two best riders are a little far, but Smith (who is third) is only 7 decimals ahead, so if we fix the problem in the rear tyre we could catch him. It is fundamental to start well, but we also have to realize that after crashing in Assen and Montmeló we must finish the race. Furthermore, in the last two years I could not finish this circuit’s race, so I really want to break this pattern.” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3: Takahashi targets top five in Germany for Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 Racing’s Yuki Takahashi is confident he can challenge for a top five place in the German Moto2 race tomorrow. The Japanese rider is still on a high after his stunning debut Moto2 victory at the Catalunya circuit earlier this month and his confidence showed with an encouraging qualifying performance on the tight, twisty and undulating Sachsenring track this afternoon. With track temperatures well over 20 degrees cooler today than yesterday’s sweltering conditions, Takahashi concentrated on improving turning performance with his Tech 3 Racing machine on his way to posting the 13th best time, just 0.006s away from the third row. Continuing to use a new chassis he rode to victory in Barcelona, Takahashi worked closely with his Tech 3 Racing crew to improve handling in the flowing final two sections of the track. He made major progress with various chassis tweaks and is confident further modifications for the warm-up session will bolster his hopes of success in the 29-lap race. Takahashi clocked a best time of 1.26.120 to finish just under 0.5s away from second on the grid and is hoping to avoid what is sure to be a chaotic first corner with 41 bikes jostling for space at the tight right-hand turn. Raffaele de Rosa was unable to capitalise on a brilliant practice performance and he ended up 24th on the grid as he continues his quest to score his first points of the season. The Italian was boosted by chassis set-up changes made at the recent test session at the Motorla nd Aragon track in Spain. He clocked the fifth best time in practice but was unfortunately unable to replicate that form in qualifying and a best time of 1.26.600 left him less than 0.5s away from ninth, with less than two seconds dividing the top 32 riders. Yuki Takahashi 13th 1.26.120 23 laps “I’m quite satisfied because I wanted to build on the momentum we gained with the win at Barcelona recently. That victory gave us a lot of confidence and belief and it was a decent session when you look at the times and see I’m only a small gap away from second place. The good thing is I know where we can improve and the team will work hard to make some set-up changes tonight to improve the bike in T3 and T4. That’s where I’m losing a lot of time with some turning issues but I’m sure the changes we have planned will be a big step in the right direction. I was really close to the thi rd row and it is going to be a tough race. Overtaking at this track is not easy but I hope to make a good start and avoid trouble at the first corner. If I can do that I’m sure I can fight for the top five.” Raffaele de Rosa 24th 1.26.600 27 laps “I have to admit I expected to be much higher up than 24th on the grid. We know that starting from that far back how difficult it is and the race is almost compromised before you start. We found a really good base setting at the Motorland test and I felt much more comfortable on the bike. That showed when I was fifth quickest in practice and that gave us confidence that we could achieve a much higher grid position. But I ran into some traffic on my last run otherwise I believe I could have been much quicker. It is a shame but the better feeling I have with the bike now, I’m hoping to have a strong race.” More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: TOUGH TEST AHEAD FOR MARC VDS PAIR A last lap charge from Scott Redding saw the British youngster qualify 15th for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, while his Marc VDS teammate, Hector Faubel, will start from the seventh row of the grid after finishing today’s timed session 27th fastest. Redding struggled with traction problems through free practice and qualifying, almost crashing on more than one occasion through turns nine and ten when the rear of his Suter MMX machine lost grip. The Gloucestershire teenager also lost time through sector four – the two left-hand turns at the bottom of the hill – for the same reason. Redding will sit down with his crew tonight to try and identify set-up changes to improve the handling of the bike in these two specific areas, which he’ll then test during warm-up tomorrow morning. Faubel was disappointed to only qualify on the seventh row of the grid for tomorrow’s race, after making big steps forward with the set-up of his Suter MMX Moto2 machine during practice and qualifying today. The 26-year-old Spaniard also lost time through the last section of the track and, like his teammate, will focus his efforts on finding an improvement through turns 12 and 13 during tomorrow’s 20-minute warm-up session. Redding and Faubel are confident that it will be possible to improve on their qualifying positions during tomorrow’s 29-lap Moto2 race. Both riders are determined to push for points scoring finishes in front of the Marc VDS Racing Team’s President, Marc van der Straten, who will be watching the race from pit wall. Scott Redding #45: 15th – 1’26.246 “The fourth row of the grid isn’t where we wanted to be this weekend, even if it is my second best qualifying position of the season so far. We’ve really struggled here at Sachsenring; first with the front and then with the rear of the bike. I’ve had a few scares through turns nine and ten – where I crashed yesterday – as the rear just comes round on me with no warning. I’m also losing time through the fourth sector and we need to find out why this is, so that we can make the necessary set-up changes before warm-up tomorrow. The race will be tough, that’s for sure, but I’ll be pushing as hard as I can to secure a good result in front of the boss!” Hector Faubel #55: 27th – 1’26.736 “The bike felt good today, probably the best it’s been since the start of the season. My first two runs in qualifying were good, but then we switched to the harder option front tyre for the third run and this didn’t work as well as the medium option. I was able to lap consistently in the 1’26s bracket though, so we have a pretty good pace for the race, but I’m losing time through the last section of the track and this is something we need to address with the team overnight. I think the problem is that I’m braking too early for these two corners, but this we will be able to confirm with the data. The race will be hard, and this track is not easy to overtake on, but I will be pushing to try and get into the points tomorrow, as always.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Manager “Scott qualified higher than he has done for the last few races, so I’m satisfied with that, although it’s not really where we expected to be at this point in the season. The biggest problem is that he is losing almost half a second through T4 and that’s something we definitely need to sort out ahead of tomorrow’s race. Today Hector was really happy with the bike for the first time this season and most of his laps were done on used tyres. The lap times are still not coming easily for him, but this is mainly because he’s having similar issues to Scott in T4. Apart from Andrea Iannone, who was in a class of his own today, Scott and Hector are not far off in terms of lap times and I’m confident that they’ll be able to fight for points in tomorrow’s race.” More, from a press release issued by JiR Moto2 Team: Today saw the best qualifying session yet for Simone Corsi, who ended the day with the sixth fastest time. Tomorrow he will start from the second row of the Moto2 grid. Overnight rainfall altered track conditions today and the Roman rider put his best time in on the fourth lap; the intense traffic during the session and the final minutes in particular did not permit to him to improve his lap time. TSR’s Japanese tester Yusuke Teshima finished the session just 1.8 seconds from the pole recorded by Andrea Iannone. Tomorrow the weather forecast predicts a warmer temperature and indications from warm-up will be used to choose tyres and set-up for the race. Simone Corsi “Our pace for the race is good. I have not been able to improve my performance with the soft tyres though. Tomorrow it will be important to start and stay in the fastest group of riders. The tyres will play an important role, after two consistent sessions I hoped to start from the front-row but it is good to have made a step forward compared to previous races.” Yusuke Teshima “In the last few minutes I found myself on a very crowded track! I was very surprised to see some riders going slowly on the racing line. This was a pity because I was doing my best performance then, but the lap was spoiled. This is my first time at the Sachsenring circuit and I must say that the track is not the easiest to learn, however, with this being my third race for JiR I’m confident that tomorrow I will get some points.”