FIM MotoGP World Championship Le Mans, France May 22, 2010 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), 1:33.408 2. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), 1:33.462 3. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), 1:33.573 4. Casey STONER (Ducati), 1:33.824 5. Nicky HAYDEN (Ducati), 1:33.845 6. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), 1:34.074 7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), 1:34.204 8. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), 1:34.304 9. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), 1:34.306 10. Aleix ESPARGARO (Ducati), 1:34.514 11. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), 1:34.523 12. Ben SPIES (Yamaha), 1:34.920 13. Marco SIMONCELLI (Honda), 1:34.942 14. Hiroshi AOYAMA (Honda), 1:34.979 15. Hector BARBERA (Ducati), 1:35.323 16. Mika KALLIO (Ducati), 1:35.810 17. Alvaro BAUTISTA (Suzuki), no time recorded in qualifying * * Have qualified for the race having achieved a time within 107 % of the fastest rider in a free practice session. More, from a press release issued by Dorna: Rossi secures pole at scorching Le Mans Monster Energy Grand Prix de France Saturday 22 May Report Day 2 MotoGP Reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi topped a frantic qualifying session to take pole position for Sunday’s Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. The final ten minutes of Saturday’s hour-long session saw the top spot on the timesheet change hands a number of times as the MotoGP riders pushed hard under the searing Le Mans sunshine. The Italian snatched top spot in a time of 1’33.408, quicker than the existing race lap record, and with it took his first pole position of the 2010 season, and his first at the French circuit since 2005. Jorge Lorenzo made it a Fiat Yamaha one-two in the session as he went round just 0.054s off Rossi’s pace, having consistently lapped amongst the fastest times, whilst Dani Pedrosa completed the front row of the starting grid with a fine effort late on as well. Casey Stoner had been one of those competing for pole throughout the session but the Ducati Marlboro man had to settle for the first slot on the second row, unable to make the most of the soft option tyre. The Australian’s team-mate Nicky Hayden was just two-hundredths behind, and joined him as the final rider under the 1’34″ mark as he registered the fifth best time. LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet will start his home GP from the second row as well after an impressive session placed him sixth. Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso pushed himself to the front of row three with his final lap, whilst Colin Edwards and Loris Capirossi were eighth and ninth fastest respectively. Completing the top ten times of the session was Aleix Espargaró, who despite running off at turn seven, did well to stay on his Pramac Ducati and went on to set his best time with his last lap of the session and seal his best ever MotoGP qualification. Ben Spies and Mika Kallio were both back on track after their crashes in free practice earlier in the day, and set the 12th and 16th fastest times respectively in qualifying. Meanwhile Alvaro Bautista sat out qualifying and ruled himself out of tomorrow’s race after a huge high-side this morning aggravated his existing shoulder injuries.7 Moto2 Kenny Noyes rode a storming Moto2 qualifying session to take pole position for Sunday’s race, posting a best lap of 1’39.234 to place his Promoharris machine team at the head of the grid. Noyes is the first American to take pole in the intermediate GP class since John Kocinski at the Australian 250cc GP in 1990. As was the case in the earlier practice session there was little separating a large number of riders, with the top 27 all within a second of one another. Second fastest, at just 0.031s behind Noyes, was Yuki Takahashi who will ensure that his Tech3 team start their home race from an encouraging spot. Alex Debón joins them on the front row, as will Frenchman Jules Cluzel. Fonsi Nieto and Sergio Gadea maintained their consistency from practice to take the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively, whilst Toni Elías recovered from an early crash to record the seventh quickest lap. Simone Corsi will complete the second row. 125cc 125cc World Championship leader Nico Terol will start the race at Le Mans from pole position, after he topped qualifying session with a best lap of 1’43.719. The Bancaja Aspar rider currently holds a seven-point advantage over Pol Espargaró in the championship standings, and the Tuenti Racing rider was second quickest in the session just 0.145s behind. German youngster Sandro Cortese ensured that the front row will have a non-Spanish rider on it for the first time this season, and Marc Márquez will make it three Derbi machines out of four. Bradley Smith looks to have rediscovered his pace on his Aprilia after a seizure on Friday, and will start from the front of the second row. The Brit set his best time of the session on his 19th and final lap, before suffering a small fall right at the end. Tomoyoshi Koyama, Randy Krummenacher and Danny Webb all set top-eight times as well to give themselves promising starting positions for Sunday. More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: TWO FACES QUALIFICATIONS FOR RIDERS OF THE PRAMAC RACING TEAM IN THE GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE. TENTH POSITION FOR ESPARGARO’, SIXTEENTH POSITION FOR A INJURED KALLIO. A two face Saturday qualify for the Pramac Racing Team, but with a positive outcome, on one side the Team celebrates the excellent tenth place on the grid of the young Catalan rider Aleix Espargaro, which continues to demonstrate a very good feeling with the French track, the other side is breathing for what it could become a compromised race since the beginning. In this morning second free practice session, Mika Kallio was protagonist, after five minutes from the start, of a fall that caused him the dislocation of his left shoulder. The rider was promptly back on track thanks to the work of the mobile clinic and despite the pain he participated at the qualifications of this early afternoon. He tried in every way to reduce the gap from the riders ahead of him, but the time lost during the morning and the strong pain did not allow him to obtain a better position than the last place on the starting grid. The team still has a tremendous confidence in both riders for tomorrow which will be interesting and combative. Fabiano Sterlacchini – Pramac Racing Technical Director “We are delighted for the excellent time that Aleix made, he will start from the tenth position, shame because it could reduce more the lap time, but he reached the finish line at the same time that the checkered flag was showed and this don’t allowed him to take another lap. Excellent time, however, that bodes well for the tomorrow race, we hope that the starting straight will let him recover already some other positions so that he can prove himself as a great rider. We feel so sorry for Mika, the fall during the second round of the free practice of this morning did not allow us to test all the changes that we had set for his bike. However, we have worked hard through all the qualifications being able to reduce by half a second the best lap time from yesterday. Mika has a lot of pain in the shoulder and this didn’t allowed him to push hard in qualifying today, we hope that tomorrow he will accuse less pain and that he becomes protagonist of a great race. ” Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing Team – 10th best time in 1’34 .514 “I am delighted with the result that I obtained, I have reduced by almost a second the best lap time I had yesterday, I also kept the same gap that I had from the leader of the first free practice. So I start out with an enormous charge for tomorrow, I hope to be able to finally repay the confidence that the team has placed in me during this difficult start of the championship. I have a good bike and the technicians have worked to make my bike perfect for this race. Too bad for not being able to make another qualifying lap, maybe I could further lower my lap time. This is absolutely the best position I have got on the grid since I race in MotoGP, I have a good feeling with this track and I hope to do a good race tomorrow. ” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – 15th best time in 1’35 .810 “During the free practice of this morning I crashed after just two rounds, this caused me a shoulder problem and has not allowed me to try on the track the set that the team had prepared for my bike. Fortunately, the shoulder is not broken, the doctors of the mobile clinic have made me some infiltration to allow me to do better qualifications. Despite the pain, I really wanted to take part in qualifying and I try to make the perfect balanced bike for the race of tomorrow. Unfortunately, the shoulder pain and the time that I have lost this morning, have just allowed me to reduced just half a second the time that I have achieved in the practice yesterday. To start again from the bottom of the grid is not so nice, but I will give my best to repay the tremendous work that the team have done for me.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team: Grand Prix of France Qualifying Practice 22 May 2010 Edwards on third row, 12th for brave Spies in Le Mans Colin Edwards and Ben Spies will start the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team’s much-anticipated home race in Le Mans from eighth and 12th on the grid respectively. Concentrating on improving the chassis balance of his YZR-M1 machine in today’s qualifying session, Edwards gave the large French crowd supporting the Provence-based team reason to cheer when he surged to the top of the timesheets in brilliant fashion with 25 minutes remaining. The Texan was able to lap consistently in the top five as the session reached an exciting climax. But within striking distance of a top six place after clocking a best time of 1.34.304, he had to settle for eighth position, just 0.100s behind Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Honda. Spies proved he’s got the bravery to match the speed in this afternoon’s session, which was run in sunny and humid conditions that saw air temperature peak at 28 degrees. The Texan suffered a big crash in the early stages of this morning’s final practice session when he lost control of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine at the entry to the Dunlop chicane. Spies was thrown several metres in the air before landing heavily on the ground. He suffered a badly swollen left foot, but despite discomfort when downshifting and changing direction, Spies quickly built up his pace and confidence despite missing nearly a whole hour of crucial set-up time. Only a quarter of the session had elapsed when he broke into the top ten and the 25-year-old continued to defy the pain with a series of consistent laps. But his courag eous efforts unfortunately didn’t see him maintain his place in the top ten. A best time of 1.34.920 left him 12th on the grid, though Spies remains confident that he can challenge in the battle for the top six in tomorrow’s 28-lap encounter. Colin Edwards 8th 1.34.304 27 laps “I’m riding as hard as I can but I’ve only ended up in eighth position. Those guys at the front have dropped half-a-second off the pole time from last year and while I hate to say it, I couldn’t do a mid-33. The bike feels good and I feel good but it’s just really hard work trying to run the pace of the front group. We have worked really hard this weekend and we seem to have got a fix on some of the problems we’ve had at the first two races. I’m much more comfortable on the bike and the feeling with the front-end is coming better. I liked the harder tyre more than the soft tyre today. The soft tyre felt like it moved a little bit too much but the race tyre I feel really comfortable with. Getting into a rhythm quick is going to be the key tomorrow. It is going to be a long and tough race but it is a big race for Tech 3 and Monster, so as always I’ll be pushing as hard as I can for a good result.” Ben Spies 12th 1.34.920 27 laps “After missing most of the morning session, I’m not too upset to be where I’m at. Even injury free I wasn’t going to be on the front row or anything like that. I just made a mistake this morning. I definitely wasn’t starting a fast lap but I might have been going a little too hard for the rear tyre at the time. When it flicked me, my foot was half off the peg and when it snapped back it just completely rolled the ankle and the knee. There are no broken bones and it’s nothing major. The pain level is not that bad on the bike but it i s mainly downshifting gears. It’s a matter of getting my foot back into position for the corner after shifting. I have to move my whole leg to do it. It’ll be a little tough race but it won’t hold me back. The foot doesn’t feel good now but hopefully for 28 laps I can put it out of my mind and get a good result for Tech 3 and Monster.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Rossi pole at Le Mans as the temperature continues to climb Round 3: France GP–Qualifying Le Mans, Saturday 22 May 2010 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium Rear: Soft, Medium (asymmetric Med. only) Bridgestone’s slick tyres were put to the test again today as the track temperature at Le Mans reached its highest yet at a peak of 44 degrees Celsius. Even in such conditions, Valentino Rossi used a soft rear Bridgestone slick to set a pole time 0.8-seconds faster than the existing lap record. The track conditions changed markedly from the morning’s free practice to the afternoon’s qualifying session. In the morning, the track temperature was just 25 degrees Celsius and the performance of both the harder and the softer rear options was similar. In the afternoon when the track temperature had risen to 44 degrees, still both tyres performed well indicating a temperature operating range of more than 20 degrees Celsius for each specification. This characteristic is a real achievement of the single tyre era that translates to much better production road tyres. Almost all riders favoured the harder option front slick tyre as the stiffer rubber affords greater stability under braking, which is crucial at a stop-and-go circuit like Le Mans. Only Mika Kallio used the soft front Bridgestone slick. Jorge Lorenzo was second fastest and Dani Pedrosa third, the top three separated by just 0.16seconds. Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden line up on the second row of the grid, alongside Frenchman Randy de Puniet in sixth. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “The temperature continues to be very high for Le Mans, but even if we could have predicted such temperatures here we would not have changed our compound selection. Although the track temperature is high, the surface is smooth so a softer tyre is needed to generate sufficient grip. “We have also seen that even the soft rear can cope very well with a track temperature increase ofalmost 20 degrees Celsius, and I can say that we still have some temperature range left in both specifications so durability tomorrow will not be a problem. Wear rates were good after the qualifying session, even on the soft option rear, and Le Mans is a circuit that is not too demanding on tyres because of a lack of many long and fast corners. “For tomorrow’s race the harder option front tyre looks to be the riders’ preferred choice, although rear tyre selection is likely to be more mixed based on machine setup and rider preference. Riders who want better outright edge grip will favour the softer option, but riders who want improved traction and stability through the right-handers will favour the medium rear tyre as this is the advantage given by the asymmetric construction.” Top ten from qualifying (Saturday 13:55 14:55 GMT+2) Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Gap Compounds Front, Rear 1 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m33.408s Medium, Soft 2 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m33.462s +0.054s Medium, Soft 3 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1m33.573s +0.165s Medium, Soft 4 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m33.824s +0.416s Medium, Soft 5 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1m33.845s +0.437s Medium, Soft 6 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP 1m34.074s +0.666s Medium, Soft 7 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m34.204s +0.796s Medium, Soft 8 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m34.304s +0.896s Medium, Soft 9 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m34.306s +0.898s Medium, Soft 10 Aleix Espargaro Pramac Racing 1m34.514s +1.106s Medium, Soft Weather: Dry. Ambient 25-27°C; Track 41-44°C ( Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Third row for Capirossi and disappointment for Bautista at a sunny Le Mans Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi will start tomorrow’s French Grand Prix as the team’s sole rider from the third row of the grid after qualifying in ninth place today. Capirossi (1’34.306, 26 laps) continued with the positive performance from yesterday during both the sessions today. He was consistently within touch of the front pack throughout the whole of the qualifying session and with a few more modifications to his Suzuki GSV-R this evening, he is confident he can have a strong race tomorrow. Capirossi will be Rizla Suzuki’s only rider participating in tomorrow’s French Grand Prix, following the withdrawal of Álvaro Bautista earlier today. Bautista suffered from a big high-side in this morning’s practice session and the fresh injuries he sustained added to his already broken collarbone forced him to make the decision to take no further part in this weekend’s events. He was disappointed about not competing in France, but also mindful of getting back to full fitness for a hectic schedule ahead. Today’s Qualifying was held in hot and sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 28ºC and track temperatures getting up to 46ºC. World Champion Valentino Rossi set the fastest time of the day and will start tomorrow’s 28-lap race from pole position. The race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT); with Capirossi flying the flag for the Rizla Suzuki team. Loris Capirossi: “The grid position is not the best, but I am quite happy because we have worked so hard for the whole weekend. We started to adapt the bike a bit more over the two days and now I think we are close to getting what we are looking for. My rhythm today was good and I didn’t follow anybody at all in the two sessions, which is good because it helps us understand what the rhythm and performance will be like in a race. I am really optimistic for tomorrow and I think if I get a good start I can be involved in the action towards the front.” Álvaro Bautista: “It is not a good way to say bye-bye to a MotoGP race! This morning I had an injection to help with the pain and for two laps the feeling was a little bit better, not a big difference, but better. Then I crashed and I don’t really know why because I was not going very fast and I just lost the rear tyre. After that I felt more pain down my left side and I decided not to race here and make sure I make a full recovery for the next race. In the future we have lots of races together so it is better to be 100% in all of them, than be 50% or less in one!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “Loris has improved in all the sessions and if we can tidy things up a bit more before the Grand Prix, then I think he has the race-craft and determination to grind out a decent result tomorrow. The focus for the crew overnight will be to make the bike a bit easier to ride, particularly in the faster braking areas, and to create a bit more stability, which will be important over race distance. This isn’t Loris’s favourite track, but it is certainly his favourite weather, so I think he’ll be fired-up and pushing for his best result of the season so far tomorrow. “It is a great disappointment not to have Álvaro competing for the rest of the weekend, but in the end the team and the medical staff at the track had to advise him to sit out and let the relatively minor injuries he has heal in time for Mugello. The combination of injuries would have significantly compromised his safety and possibly that of other riders. He’s disappointed, but we are now guaranteed that he’ll be fit and strong for Mugello and we’ll be looking forward to him building on his strong Jerez race performance.” Monster Energy Grand Prix de France Qualifying Practice Classification: 1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’33.408: 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.054: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.165: 4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.416: 5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) +0.437: 9. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.898: More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON FRONT ROW FOR FRENCH GP, DOVIZIOSO SEVENTH Le Mans basked in another day of fine weather today, and Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took advantage of the sunshine to put his RC212V on the front row of the grid after a fiercely competitive qualifying session. The Spaniard – who has taken pole position here for the previous two seasons – did his utmost to make it three poles in a row, and that looked possible as he hit top spot with just two minutes to go. In the dying seconds of the hour however, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo edged ahead, with Pedrosa’s time just 0.165s behind and good enough for third place. Tomorrow Pedrosa will start his 150th Grand Prix with a clear run into the first corner. Pedrosa’s Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso had a frustrating qualifying session and wasn’t able to extract the maximum from his machine this afternoon. The Italian finished the morning practice session in a close fifth place and was hoping for further improvements in th e qualifying shoot-out. Some fine machine adjustments didn’t have the expected results however, and with his final lap he set a best time of 1m 34.204s which translates to seventh on the grid and means he’ll start the 28-lap race from the front of the third row. After a 20-minute warm-up in the morning, tomorrow’s Grand Prix of France begins at 14.00 local time (GMT +2 hours). DANI PEDROSA 3rd 1m 33.573s +0.165s “At the end of the session we could put in a good final lap which has put us on the front row, and this is very important because the lap times are very close here. For the race we need to find some tenths of a second per lap in order to be able to keep a high pace, and at this track you have to be very focused because the race is long and it’s really important to be consistent and not to make any mistakes. Anyway I think we are in a good position. Now we will sit down with the team and work on the improvements to up our race pace. We’ve had good weather so far this weekend and it looks like it will continue tomorrow so we’ve been lucky this time. From the front row I hope to make a good start and give myself the best chance in the race.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 7th 1m 34.204s +0.796s “I cannot be happy to start from the third row because this has the potential to make the race more complicated. So it will it be important to make a good start and stay with the front group – that’s the plan now. Our race pace is not so bad but we need to improve it a little more. Compared to this morning the feeling with the front was not quite as good and I think this was because of some set-up changes that we made, and also the gap to the front riders was a bit bigger this afternoon. Anyway we have some ideas of what we can improve and I’m ready to give it my best in the race.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Dani achieved his primary target today which was a place on the front row so we’re please about that. His pace is very close to the riders in front of him and I think with a good start he can have a strong race. It’s his 150th Grand Prix and it would be fantastic if he could fight at the front and win this special race. I think he has a good chance. Andrea isn’t as far forward as he would like and he struggled to get the best out of the soft option tyres. On the harder option tyres his pace is better though and I think the key thing for him is to make a fast start tomorrow and get away with the leaders. If he can do this I’m hopeful that both Repsol Hondas can figure at the front.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER AND HAYDEN START FROM SECOND ROW AT LE MANS Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden will start alongside each other from the second row of the grid in tomorrow’s Grand Prix de France, having qualified fourth and fifth fastest this afternoon. It is the first time Ducati have had both riders qualify inside the top five at the Le Mans circuit the latest evidence of the improved versatility of the Desmosedici GP10. Both the Australian and the American launched strong challenges for pole position in an exciting finale to the session, which eventually saw Valentino Rossi claim top spot on the final lap ahead of his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa completing the front row. Stoner’s qualifying effort was only marginally quicker than his race pace, which bodes well for tomorrow, whilst in contrast Hayden admitted he still has work to do after making a notable improvement on the softer rubber. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th (1’33.824) “We have a lot of work to do to try and get more performance out of the softer tyre because our rivals seem to be able to make bigger improvements on it than us. We didn’t manage to lap much faster than the times we were doing on the harder race tyre so that is a little disappointing because it would have been nice to start from the front row here but at the same time we know we have a good pace over race distance. In general the bike is going really well, our race pace is more competitive than it was at this stage of the weekend in Jerez so I’m confident we can do a good job tomorrow.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 5th (1’33.845) “The second row for us is a positive result because to be honest my race pace hasn’t been great and now we’ve given ourselves a chance because the start is so important here. We made a big step with the bike in the session this morning but weren’t really able to follow it up with another one this afternoon so we have work to do tonight because at the moment it’s looking like a really tough race for us. At least the weather is fantastic I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fans here and they deserve it because they’ve had to put up with a lot of rain over the years! Tomorrow they might be leaving with sunburn but they won’t be complaining.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Rossi takes pole with Lorenzo hot on his heels in France Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi took the 59th pole position of his career and his first of the season today with an authoritative performance in sunny Le Mans. His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was just five hundredths of a second off his time, as the Fiat Yamaha pair put up a commanding display ahead of tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. After topping the time sheets yesterday, Rossi was third this morning with Lorenzo ahead of him in second. This afternoon temperatures once again soared into the high twenties and both riders looked in menacing form, having already found excellent base settings for their M1s yesterday. Both had spent time at the top of the standings before the session entered its final quarter and with ten minutes to go Lorenzo went top again, becoming the first man to dip into the 1’33s. The Mallorcan held out for a few minutes before Casey Stoner and then Dani Pedrosa took over but it was Rossi who had the most still hidden up his sleeve, the 31-year-old maestro pulling out a brilliant lap in a time of 1’33.408, a target that proved unassailable in the final two minutes. Rossi is still worried about his damaged shoulder over race distance tomorrow but he will be doing all he can to take a second win of the year, as will his championship-leading team-mate Lorenzo, when the third round of the season gets underway at 1400 CET tomorrow. Valentino Rossi – Position: 1stTime: 1’33.408Laps: 30 “This weather is really making me very happy, because for once in Le Mans we have been able to use all of the sessions properly and now here we are on pole. My setting is good, I feel comfortable on my M1 and Bridgestone tyres and my race pace is not bad either so everything is working out. It’s a great pleasure to be on pole and when I looked and saw the lap time I was very pleased with my performance and with how well we had worked, so thanks to all my team. I am still worried about my shoulder because sincerely today after ten or fifteen laps I started to lose power, but I hope adrenaline will take over in the race and that I will be able to arrive fast right to the end.” Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 2ndTime: 1’33.462Laps: 31 “This was another good session and we are very strong, although there are quite a few riders here who are fast with a good race pace. Today I was consistent and I can ride happily at around 1’34.5 so if I can keep this up during the race then we have a good chance. I need to try to get a good start tomorrow and be stronger during the first few laps, then I think I can fight for victory.” Davide Brivio – Team Manager “A good job from us all to get the first pole position of the year. The bike is working well and we only need to make a few small adjustments for tomorrow to be ready to fight. Valentino’s shoulder isn’t 100% and we aren’t sure how it will hold up under race distance but we’ve done the best we can do to put him in the right position so now we will just have to see how it goes. It looks like the weather could be even hotter so at least we don’t have to worry about that!” Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager “This was a good session and we’re pleased with the way we’ve worked. Jorge has a good grid spot without the added pressure of being on pole and his race pace is definitely fast enough to allow him to run at the front tomorrow. We hope that the work we did in Jerez will help him with his start and give him a bit more confidence and I’m sure he won’t let the others go tomorrow over the important first ten laps.”