FIM MotoGP World Championship Motegi Twin-Ring, Japan October 1 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:45.267 2. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:45.523 3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:45.791 4. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:45.966 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:46.042 6. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:46.211 7. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:46.467 8. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:46.586 9. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:46.694 10. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:46.763 11. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:46.811 12. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:46.818 13. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:46.917 14. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:47.165 15. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:47.922 16. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:48.169 17. Kousuke AKIYOSHI, Japan (HONDA), 1:48.367 18. Damian CUDLIN, Australia (DUCATI), 1:48.962 19. Shinichi ITO, Japan (HONDA), 1:49.971 More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Strong qualifying for Bautista and Rizla Suzuki Álvaro Bautista will start Suzuki’s home Grand Prix at Motegi from the middle of the third row after a consistent and strong qualifying session saw him equal his best MotoGP grid position. Bautista (P8, 1’46.586, 28 laps) showed great determination to push his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R further up the grid and with just minutes left in the session occupied a second row spot, but he just couldn’t hold on to that position as time ran out and he wasn’t able to better his previous best lap. Bautista worked tirelessly with his crew on a thorough test programme in both the final practice session and this afternoon’s qualifying. He is now convinced he has a good package for tomorrow’s race and believes he will be able to compete with the group of riders that qualified just in front of him today. Today’s sessions were held under overcast skies with temperatures lower than yesterday. Casey Stoner again led the field to become the first rider in the four-stroke MotoGP era to record 10 pole positions in a season, current champion Jorge Lorenzo was second. Tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix is the 15th round of the season and the 24lap race will get underway at 15.00hrs local time (06.00hrs GMT) in front of what promises to be a colourful and excited crowd determined to show its support for their countrymen who suffered in the tragedy that hit Japan early in the year and caused the postponement of the original Grand Prix date. Álvaro Bautista: “With the time I did in qualifying one-and-a-half-seconds quicker than last year I would have been in pole position in 2010! This year the level is amazing and the lap-times are very fast, but our performance is also due to the hard work the guys in the Factory have put in, it has made a big difference. This morning we tested different settings in the two bikes, one of which was set a little bit lower to help me in the hard braking parts of this track, but I tried it too late in the free practice so I didn’t have a clear idea which setting was better. This afternoon we started with the lower bike and harder compound tyres, but the feeling was not what I wanted, so I changed to the other bike and it was better. I improved my lap-time at the end, but I got into some traffic on my last laps so couldn’t improve it anymore. Eighth is not too bad and I want to produce a good race for all the Suzuki company and factory guys that are here this weekend supporting us. I will try to get a good start and fight from the beginning, I think the first three or four will be difficult to catch, but after that I think we can be in the battle for the next few positions. We will see what the weather brings and the condition of the track, but I am looking forward to a good race.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “We needed a strong qualifying performance today and Álvaro delivered that. We just didn’t get the timing right on the last run, in terms of track position and traffic, but only half-of-a-second off fourth place on Honda’s home track is a decent result. The first couple of laps will be critical tomorrow and I believe if Álvaro is in the tow with the fastest riders there is a possibility of a very strong result.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Motegi pole for Stoner with new outright lap record Round 15: Japanese GP Qualifying Twin Ring Motegi, Saturday 1 October 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Soft, Medium Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner secured his fourth consecutive pole position at Motegi today with a stunning penultimate lap to set a new outright circuit record, beating the previous best of 1m 45.543s by almost 0.3seconds. The new tarmac around part of the circuit continues to get faster this weekend and the soft compound rear slicks, brought to Japan for the first time this year, also contributed to the pole time being 1.8seconds faster than last year. Jorge Lorenzo will start tomorrow’s race from second on the grid after he took the provisional pole for a time, also beating his own pole record set back in 2008 when sticky qualifying tyres that provided huge amounts of grip for just a handful of laps were used. Completing the front row is last year’s pole-sitter Andrea Dovizioso ahead of Dani Pedrosa, Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli on the second row. Of the 18 races on the MotoGP calendar this season, new outright qualifying records have now been set on the control Bridgestone race tyres at nine of them since the cessation of qualifying tyres at the start of 2009. The preferred tyre choice this afternoon was the harder option front tyre, the same as was used here at Motegi last year, and the soft compound rear which is a new option for the Japanese GP this year. The soft compound slick uses Bridgestone’s extra soft compound in the lesser-used left shoulder and was chosen this weekend primarily to provide better warm-up performance and safety in the opening laps, but is clearly demonstrating a high level of grip too. Conditions today were markedly cooler than yesterday and are forecast to be cooler still tomorrow, meaning that this soft compound is also a viable option for race-distance. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division “I am very satisfied with the laptimes at the front today we expected the pace to be faster this year but I didn’t think we would see the pole time 1.8seconds faster than last year. This is very impressive, and I think is due mostly to the new surface here at Motegi, but also in part to machine development over the last 12 months and the fact we have our soft compound rear slicks here this year, as they provide better warm-up performance, initial grip and rider confidence than the medium compound rears everyone qualified on in 2010. Today was cooler than yesterday which helped performance of the soft slicks, and as the conditions forecast for tomorrow are cooler again I think we will see many riders using this tyre for the race. This soft compound rear is a new tyre that we developed towards the end of last season and I think the performance today, both in terms of outright grip and warm-up performance, shows we are headed in a good direction with our MotoGP tyre development.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Stoner shatters Motegi pole record with Dovizioso 3rd and Pedrosa 4th Casey Stoner qualified on pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix with a blistering 1’45.267 lap at the Motegi circuit, breaking the record set by Lorenzo in 2008 (1’45.543). It’s his first pole position at this track and tenth of the season, a new record in MotoGP. All three Repsol Honda riders have been riding very strong at Honda’s home track and Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa spent the early part of qualifying still making set up changes to their RC212V machines and working with the race tyres. In the end, it was Casey who came out on top, with Andrea Dovizioso in third position and Dani Pedrosa, fourth. Andrea made some positive steps forward and took an important front row spot for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix. He was fast and consistent with both compounds, but set his best lap time with his last soft tyre. Whereas Dani, who was fastest with the hard tyre was unable to get the soft compound working in the last minutes of the session after having been consistently in the top three all weekend to this point. CASEY STONER 1st 1’45.267 “Everything has gone very well so far this weekend, we’ve been fastest in all but one session so it’s been fantastic. We tried a few different settings this afternoon and didn’t really improve so we’ll probably go back to this morning’s setting for tomorrow. We’ll have to watch the weather as this will affect the set up, there’s also a chance of rain so it could get complicated. Jorge has been riding fantastic, as has Dovi and Dani, but there is no doubt that the Honda suits this track, I’ve been looking forward to riding it here for a while now and I’m not disappointed! Tomorrow will be a tough race, but the team is working hard and we’ll do our best”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 3rd 1’45.791 “I’m very happy to be on the front row here in Motegi! This afternoon we improved again from this morning and I feel very confident, especially under braking. We still haven’t decided on the tyre for tomorrow as we are good on both compounds but I feel positive for the race and for the fight for the podium tomorrow. I’m really happy with the work of the team and the Honda is working really well at this track, I think tomorrow we will have a great race!”. DANI PEDROSA 4th 1’45.966 “The qualifying practice started quite well for us, we were doing lap times with a consistent pace preparing for the race and everything seemed to be going well. But at the end, when I switched to soft tyres, I couldn’t get them working, I had much less grip. I thought it could be a problem with the first tyre and so I came back to the garage to change it but again I had the same issue. I am disappointed not to be on the front row, but the good feeling with the race tyres is good news. We will need to see how the weather is tomorrow, if the temperature drops a lot maybe some riders will use the soft, but considering my feeling, I will probably choose the hard one. The race will be very tough with Stoner, Dovizioso and maybe Lorenzo, but we want to fight until the end”. More, from a press release issued by HRC: Shinichi Ito ready for an emotional race at Motegi Tomorrow, Shinichi Ito will experience one of the most emotional races of his career in the Japanese Grand Prix. The HRC test rider, riding for Team HRC this weekend after four years of retirement, will start the race from the last row on the grid. Unfortunately, he lost valuable time to work on the set up of his RC212V machine this morning when he crashed after just four laps, and in the afternoon he was unable to improve his lap time from yesterday. Ito will aim to improve the feeling in tomorrow’s warm up and finish the race to honour the Japanese victims of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th. SHINICHI ITO 19th 1’49.971 “After this morning’s crash, I lost some confidence and was unable to find the pace I needed for qualifying. I worked hard to find a good setting but I wasn’t able to get the best possible. Tonight, I will speak together with my technician and we will try to find a solution tomorrow morning in warm up. Apart from this, the atmosphere here in the paddock is very nice, I like it very much and I’m so happy to be here as a GP rider. We will do our best tomorrow to have a good race” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Crutchlow close to third row in Japan Cal Crutchlow fought off a heavy cold to finish just over 0.1s away from claiming a starting position on the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese MotoGP race at the end of a closely contested qualifying session at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit. The British rider will start the 15th round of the 2011 World Championship from 12th on the grid after yet another encouraging performance on board the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine. Crutchlow’s best time of 1.46.818 was almost 0.3s quicker than the 2010 pole position time and his pace was less than 0.4s away from Valentino Rossi in seventh position. Today’s result was reward for Crutchlow’s determination after he was struck by a nasty he ad cold overnight, which left the 25-year-old with a severe sore throat. Crutchlow is hoping a good night’s rest will help him return to 100 per cent as he looks to continue his fine recent run of form in tomorrow’s 24-lap race. He is seeking a third successive top 10 finish to strengthen his bid for the coveted Rookie of the Year title. Today’s qualifying session, which took place in much cooler conditions compared to practice yesterday, didn’t go according to plan for experienced team-mate Colin Edwards. The 37-year-old had high hopes of a strong performance after claiming a season best fifth place at the Twin Ring Motegi last year. Edwards qualified fifth in 2010 but despite lapping 0.3s faster this afternoon, his best time of 1.47.165 could only secure him 14th on the grid for Yamaha’s all-important home race. Edwards suffered an early setback w hen he crashed with only a quarter of the 60-minute session completed. Edwards ran off the track at Turn 3 while pushing hard to improve his pace on his eighth lap. He ran into the gravel at high speed and despite his best efforts he was unable to keep his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine upright. He quickly adjusted to a different front-end geometry setting on his spare YZR-M1 machine to finish just over 0.3s behind Crutchlow. Cal Crutchlow 12th 1.46.818 25 laps: “I’m a bit disappointed to be back in 12th when you look how close I am to the third row. But I can’t be too upset because I feel well below my physical best today. All last night I was coughing and sneezing and I’ve been drinking about eight litres of water today and I still feel dehydrated. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed gravel but I still mana ged to go out there and lap faster than last year’s pole time. I can’t really ask for much more than that on a circuit I’ve never even seen before in my life. I might have been a bit further up the grid but on my last soft tyre I nearly high-sided coming out of the first corner. It was a big moment because I struggled to get heat into the tyre out of the pits. I still got in one more lap on that final tyre and managed to set my best time, so now I’m looking forward to the race and hoping I can have another good battle like I did at the Motorland Aragon. That was a lot of fun but also helped me learn a lot, so I’ll be looking to be in a fight for the top 10.” Colin Edwards 14th 1.47.165 22 laps: “I had high hopes coming to Japan because last year I got my best grid position and my best result of the Championship at the Twin Ring Motegi. But it just hasn’t worked out at all so far this weekend and I’m just not quick enough. I’m faster than I qualified last year but still nine places further back down the grid, so that shows how much the competition has stepped up this season. The early crash didn’t help the session run smoothly and I haven’t made a mistake as bad as that in a long time. I just completely missed my braking marker and that was all because I was pushing too hard to get more out of the bike. Looking at the lap times it is obvious that our bike doesn’t turn or accelerate as good as the rest and that means you have to ride on the ragged edge a lot. The strange part is that the bike feels fine. It is not doing anything crazy but I can’t get it to go round the track any faster. The target will be to fight for the top 10 tomorrow, but a repeat of fifth like last year unfortunately doesn’t look like it’s a realistic aim.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: BAD LUCK FOR DE PUNIET DURING QUALIFYING SESSION, THIRTEENTH. CUDLIN CONTINUES TO IMPROVE AND WILL START FROM THE SIXTH ROW Unfortunate qualifying session for Randy De Puniet in Japan. The Pramac Racing rider has reported some very interesting lap times from the beginning, almost always in the top ten, but the last exit from the pits with new tires he has not lowered his best lap as expected. Randy is thus forced to start from the fifth row. On the other side of the garage his teammate for this weekend, Damian Cudlin, has further improved his lap times approaching the group and getting the eighteenth position in front of the Japanese rider Ito. Tomorrow at 3pm local time his debut in a MotoGP race. Marco Rigamonti Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “We cannot find those 3, 4 tenth of a second in the last few laps pushing hard that would put us in much better position. The same thing happened in Aragon and we surely need to improve this aspect. Really a shame because Randy has a very good race pace and starting tomorrow from the thirteenth place he will have to be very careful in the first few corners to avoid complications. Anyway we hope to be luckier than Aragon race.” Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Team 13th in 1’46.917 “I tried to improve at the beginning of the second practice with used tyres but nothing was working too well. So we decided to go back to this morning set up and we managed to improve straight away. The positive thing is that I can ride in 1’47″ low all alone and this gives me good hops for the race. I will surely use soft tyres as with the hard one I don’t have the right feeling to push more. A pity as I can’t manage to improve those 3 or 4 tenth of a second that would put me in third row.” Damian Cudlin Pramac Racing Team”- 18th in 1’48.962 “I have to be happy with the progress we are making. It seems every time I sit on the bike we manage to lower our lap times. This was my target for the weekend. Now we are getting to the point where the improvement will be smaller and more difficult to find, but we are starting to look in some technical changes to help me. I still believe that most of the gap is still coming from me as I am still learning the bike and the track. For tomorrow my plan is just to continue to improve and get closer to the others. It would be nice to have some fights during tomorrow’s race, this is what I am aiming for.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo delivered a stunning performance this afternoon in qualifying to take second on the grid for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi. After struggling in the previous sessions for braking stability and maximum lean grip, Lorenzo’s crew made key set up changes which transformed the Mallorcan’s YZR-M1 for the final session. The final minutes of the session saw him smash the pole record of the Motegi circuit with a 1’45.523, only to have first snatched back in the last seconds by rival Casey Stoner. Fellow Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies experienced another exhausting day of riding as he battles to recover from a serious bout of food poisoning caught before travelling to Japan. Despite his reduced fitness and stamina level the American put in a huge effort in both morning practice and qualifying to take fifth on the grid and a second row start for the race. Jorge Lorenzo Position : 2nd Time: 1’45.523 Laps: 25 “We tried something different this afternoon and our lap times were unbelievable, we almost got pole! The most important thing is the first row because there are riders like Casey who find it easy to escape so I want to be right there. We have improved today but Motegi is still a tough track for Yamaha riders. If the other riders do a perfect race it is almost impossible to win, but anything can happen. Now I can say I am ready for the battle and we will put on a good show for all the Japanese fans who have come to see us race!” Ben Spies Position : 5th Time: 1’46.042 Laps: 25 “I’ve had a lot of support from the guys at Clinica to get me back towards 100% fitness. I’m just glad now to be on the bike, a couple of days ago I didn’t think I was going to be able to ride. I’m really happy to have got into the middle of the second row today and I hope things get even better for tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes. Yesterday I was pretty weak on the bike, this morning I felt a bit stronger and this afternoon I felt ok with energy levels, I was just fighting a lot of stomach cramps. I’m doing the best I can for my crew and the paddock and all the fans who are here to watch us.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “We made big steps from the first three practices, Jorge is able to stop the bike properly now so that’s a big improvement. Maximum lean angle grip has also improved so he can now stop the bike and turn and accelerate. We are quite happy; I think we have something to fight with tomorrow which is important. I have to thank the team who worked really hard to make the step forward with the bike.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “This afternoon we saw some excellent qualifying laps from Jorge, his race pace is also quite fast and consistent. For sure it is going to be a tough race but we are up there. Ben fortunately is feeling better and better, he was able to complete both sessions today. Starting from fifth on the grid is good under the circumstances; we know he did his best. Hopefully tomorrow he’ll feel even better and will put up a good fight. 24 laps will be quite intensive so he needs to be as fit as possible for it.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: ELIAS AND AKIYOSHI RESPECTIVELY 16th AND 17th AT MOTEGI QUALIFYING Motegi, 1st October: Cooler conditions welcomed the MotoGP teams and riders today at Twin Ring Motegi circuit and in this afternoon qualifying session (air temperature of 22 degrees and 32 degrees on the ground) Honda racer Casey Stoner rode his RC212V to the first spot on the grid ahead tomorrow’s 24-lap race which gets underway at 3 pm local time. LCR Honda MotoGP Team pair ended the 60-minute qualifying session at the Japanese circuit in sixth row: Toni Elias posted his best lap time of 1’48.169 (16th overall) followed by his Japanese Team mate Akiyoshi who set his best lap time of 1’48.367 (17th overall). Elias 16th: “After yesterday’s good adjustments I felt more confident ahead today’s qualifying but at the end I could not lap into the 1’47 range. This morning on harder tyre it seemed we could improve our lap time but later on Q-tyres I started to lose the front again. I went wide a couple of times but I could not go faster in these conditions. We have already chosen our race tyre and tomorrow we will work through a number of various set-up changes to move into the 1’47 range”. Akiyoshi 17th: “Today I have started to understand better the tyres features and with a few changes of the suspension setting I made the bike feeling better compared to yesterday. I have improved my pace gradually and with further adjustments on the front fork and rear link I am well prepared for the race. I will do my best as a delegate of the Japanese riders group to bring some courage and fun to my population”. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: ROSSI IMPROVES IN MOTEGI QUALIFYING, HAYDEN NOT FAR OFF The refining of the GP11.1’s setup for the Motegi circuit continued positively on the second day of practice at the Japanese Grand Prix. During the four sessions run thus far, Valentino Rossi and his team have focused mainly on the Desmosedici’s weight distribution. The Italian was seventh at the end of qualifying, and was satisfied with the manner in which they had worked. As for Nicky Hayden, the American improved his performance session by session, and in qualifying, he barely missed the third row. His time isn’t far from that of his teammate. Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 7th (1:46.467) “We’re pretty satisfied, although we can’t celebrate seventh place. Still, I was able to ride the bike a bit better. We improved the setting again this morning, and I was faster in the afternoon. We’ve changed the weight distribution for Motegi, and now I can ride more naturally, though still not as I would like. Our goal was to manage to lap at 1:46.5, and as we were able to do that, I’d say we worked well. Also, our pace with the hard tyre isn’t bad. We’re not far from Spies and Simoncelli. We hope to get a good start, and then we’ll see. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain, as I’d like a dry race.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 10th (1:46.763) “We weren’t able to continue from the good start we had yesterday, even though our times aren’t too far from the second group. With the cooler track, I didn’t have the same grip, and I was spinning quite a lot on the edge of the tyre. This afternoon, we also picked up some chatter that I hadn’t experienced all weekend, which made it really difficult to go fast. We improved compared to yesterday, but not as much as we should have. We haven’t made a lot of changes to the bike, as we tried to keep it pretty simple and just chip away. We can’t be happy with tenth, and it’s going to be tough tomorrow, but hopefully we can get a good start and have a decent race.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: HONDA MEN STONER & DOVIZIOSO DOMINATE MOTEGI QUALIFYING Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner shattered the lap record for the Twin Ring Motegi circuit while scoring a new record of ten MotoGP poles in one season in qualifying for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. The runaway world championship leader will start the 15th round of the MotoGP World Championship on the front row ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. Row two has a similar makeup, with Honda riders on either end and a Yamaha rider in between. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) qualified fourth fastest in front of Ben Spies (Yamaha) and Marco Simoncelli, the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider who rebounded from a mid-session spill to steal the second row with his final lap of Honda’s home circuit. From this weekend’s earliest laps of the 4801m circuit north of Tokyo, Stoner felt confident that lowering the existing qualifying record was achievable. The Honda RC212V was developed at Motegi and its braking stability and strong acceleration make it the perfect choice for the stop-and-go course. Lowering the record would take a sterling performance since the existing lap record of 1m, 45.543s was set by Lorenzo on qualifying tyres in 2008. To get there would mean knocking more than 1.5s off last year’s pole time of 1m, 47.001s set by Dovizioso. With just under 13 minutes remaining in the one hour session, held under cloudy skies, Stoner dipped down into the 1m, 45s lap times. His next lap would approach the previous lap record, but the new record wouldn’t come on that tyre. With just over five minutes to go in the session, Lorenzo would be the one to eclipse the old mark and temporarily hold custody of the pole. Two minutes from the end of the session Stoner shattered the mark by clocking a lap of 1m, 45.267s, a time that was 1.7s faster than last year’s pole mark. The pole was Stoner’s tenth of the season, setting a new record for the MotoGP era and breaking a tie he’d held with Valentino Rossi. Rossi secured nine poles en route to winning the 2003 MotoGP World Championship for the Repsol Honda team. Stoner had nine poles in 2008 in defence of his 2007 MotoGP World Championship. It was also Stoner’s 14th front row start in 15 races this season; he qualified fourth in Portugal. Dovizioso was hopeful of adding this year’s pole to his resume, but came up short. With just over a minute to go he fired in his best lap and moved to third, dropping team-mate Pedrosa to row two. Though he didn’t earn the pole, he was back on the front row for the first time since the French Grand Prix in mid-May. Pedrosa spent most of the hour in the top three and would have been on the front row if not for Dovi’s late fast lap. Unlike some other riders, Pedrosa paradoxically found less grip in the softer option Bridgestone rear tyre, the softest tyre they’ve ever brought to Motegi. Believing it was a problem with the first tyre, Pedrosa tried a second one, but the results didn’t change. Though he wasn’t able to produce a single fast lap, his pace on the medium compound race tyres gave him confidence ahead of Sunday’s race. Simoncelli was also steadily in the top five throughout qualifying. His bid to move up the order ended with crash in turn five when he lost the front near mid-session. After a brisk return to the pits to change leathers and motorcycles, Simoncelli went back out to improve his time. Once he regained his confidence, he was able to consistently lap in the 1m, 46s range, finishing with a best of 1m, 46.211s on the last of his 18 full laps. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) was hopeful of qualifying higher up the grid in his home grand prix. After qualifying 11th, the rider from Chiba was thankful for the support of his fellow MotoGP riders, all of whom showed up for the race. The Japanese fans echoed his sentiments, with signs thanking the MotoGP riders for their support. Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP) continued his struggles at a track where his fellow Honda riders excelled. Elias also had trouble with the softer option Bridgestone rear tyre. Most riders used it to set their fastest laps, but Elias didn’t find confidence in the front end on the soft option, which compromised his grid position. Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi was 17th aboard the LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V in his second MotoGP ride of the season. He’d earlier ridden the San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V in place of Aoyama, when Aoyama rode the Repsol Honda RC212V of the injured Dani Pedrosa in the Dutch TT in Assen. Like Elias, Akiyoshi found adapting to the tyres-Bridgestone brought medium and soft options-to be challenging. By the end of the session he’d found some confidence and was looking forward to winning the battle of the Japanese riders. Shinichi Ito rode the Team HRC RC212V to the 19th qualifying spot in a race that means a lot to him. Ito lives in Miyagi Prefecture, an area which was heavily damaged during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The 44-year-old, who began his premier class career riding a Honda NSR500 in the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, is having something of a victory lap, having won his fourth Suzuka 8-Hours earlier this year for Honda. This race will be his final appearance on an 800cc MotoGP machine, with the 1000cc RC213V set to replace the RC212V in 2012 and Ito headed back into retirement. The 44-year-old crashed his lone RC212V in the morning, robbing him of valuable setup time for the more important afternoon qualifying session. Marc Marquez (Team CaixaCatalunya-Suter) continued his Moto2 dominance by taking his sixth pole of the season. The 18-year-old from Cervera, Spain rider has been on an amazing roll, winning six of the past seven races, including the last three, to come within six points of the championship lead currently held by Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing-Kalex). Bradl qualified eighth, and .722s from Marquez, and will have his work cut out for him if he’s to retain the championship lead he’s held since the Portuguese Grand Prix back in May. Marquez put a comfortable .193s on second fastest Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2-Suter) with his 13th full lap of the Twin Ring Motegi circuit. The lap of 1m, 52.067s was a new qualifying record for the Moto2 class, bettering the 1m, 52.008s lap run by Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team-Suter) last year. The second fastest qualifying effort was a return to form for Luthi, who was on the front row in the first four races, but not since the French Grand Prix in mid-May. Luthi had .163s on Andrea Iannone (Speed Master-Suter), the third fastest qualifier. Iannone, on the front row for only the second time this season, currently sits third in the championship, 83 points behind Marquez. MOTOGP RIDER QUOTES Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda RC212V: Pole position 1m 45.267s “Everything has gone very well so far this weekend. We’ve been fastest in all but one session, so it’s been fantastic. We tried a few different settings this afternoon and didn’t really improve, so we’ll probably go back to this morning’s setting for tomorrow. We’ll have to watch the weather as this will affect the setup; there’s also a chance of rain so it could get complicated. Jorge (Lorenzo) has been riding fantastic, as has Dovi and Dani (Pedrosa), but there is no doubt that the Honda suits this track. I’ve been looking forward to riding it here for a while now and I’m not disappointed! Tomorrow will be a tough race, but the team is working hard and we’ll do our best.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda RC212V: 3rd – 1m, 45.791s “I’m very happy to be on the front row here in Motegi. This afternoon we improved again from this morning and I feel very confident, especially under braking. We still haven’t decided on the tyre for tomorrow, as we are good on both compounds, but I feel positive for the race and for the fight for the podium tomorrow. I’m really happy with the work of the team and the Honda is working really well at this track, I think tomorrow we will have a great race.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda RC212V: 4th – 1m. 45.966s “The qualifying practice started quite well for us; we were doing lap times with a consistent pace preparing for the race and everything seemed to be going well. But at the end, when I switched to soft tyres, I couldn’t get them working, I had much less grip. I thought it could be a problem with the first tyre and so I came back to the garage to change it but again I had the same issue. I am disappointed not to be on the front row, but the good feeling with the race tyres is good news. We will need to see how the weather is tomorrow. If the temperature drops a lot maybe some riders will use the soft, but considering my feeling, I will probably choose the hard one. The race will be very tough with (Casey) Stoner, (Andrea) Dovizioso and maybe Lorenzo, but we want to fight until the end.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 6th – 1m, 46.211s “I was going quite well up to the crash, but unfortunately I made a little mistake in turn five, hit a bump and crashed, which compromised the second half of the session. I struggled a little for confidence when I went back out and only got to use one soft tyre. Without that I could have maybe been fighting for the front row, but in any case I am happy because I have good race pace and hopefully tomorrow I can be fighting for the podium.” Hiroshi Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 11th 1m, 46.811s “The final position is not particularly pleasing, but my feeling with the bike is good and so is my race pace so I am confident for tomorrow. I will try to start as well as possible and make up as many positions as I can. The weather could change tomorrow and the track temperature will definitely be lower so we might have to change the set-up but we have a clear idea which direction to take. I want to have a good race in my home grand prix and give my fans a positive result.” Toni Elias, LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V: 16th 1m, 48.169s “After yesterday’s good adjustments I felt more confident ahead today’s qualifying, but at the end I could not lap into the 1’47 range. This morning on harder tyre it seemed we could improve our lap time but later on Q-tyres I started to lose the front again. I went wide a couple of times, but I could not go faster in these conditions. We have already chosen our race tyre and tomorrow we will work through a number of various set-up changes to move into the 1’47 range.” Kousuke Akiyoshi, LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V: 17th 1m, 48.367s “Today I have started to understand better the tyres features and with a few changes of the suspension setting I made the bike feeling better compared to yesterday. I have improved my pace gradually and with further adjustments on the front fork and rear link I am well prepared for the race. I will do my best as a delegate of the Japanese riders group to bring some courage to my population.” Shinichi Ito, Team HRC RC212V: 19th 1m, 49.971s “After this morning’s crash, I lost some confidence and was unable to find the pace I needed for qualifying. I worked hard to find a good setting, but I wasn’t able to get the best possible. Tonight, I will speak together with my technician and we will try to find a solution tomorrow morning in warm-up. Apart from this, the atmosphere here in the paddock is very nice, I like it very much and I’m so happy to be here as a GP rider. We will do our best tomorrow to have a good race.” MOTO2 RIDER QUOTES Marc Marquez, Team CaixaCatalunya-Suter: Pole position, 1m, 52.067s “This weekend we start a little bit slower than other weekends because this circuit is a little bit different than Misano and Aragon. Here have many hard brake points and we just find the good setup. In the beginning was normal. We need improve the bike, but now I’m happy with the bike. We have a good base, so tomorrow we will see, but I think we can do a good race. But the most important here in Japan is finish the race, because this circuit is a little bit hard for me. But anyway, I catch the pole position and I’m happy for that, but tomorrow we have the most important day.” Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock Moto2-Suter: 2nd 1m, 52.260s “Yeah, it’s a good feeling all over the weekend. We had a good basic setup of the bike and I feel quite comfortable right from the beginning. So I could go through all over the weekend with that pace and it’s good to be for sure on the front row. I’d like to catch today the pole position, but Marc was just a bit faster in the end. But I tried just too much, had a little mistake, and went in the gravel. Overall I’m happy and looking forward to the race.” Andrea Iannone, Speed Master-Suter: 3rd 1m, 52.423s “I’m happy with this result. It’s important to be starting from the first row; this is positive for tomorrow. We have a good outlook for the race. We worked on the bike and at the moment we are pretty much satisfied with the setup that we’ve prepared. I can ride without struggling too much, we just have to improve some minor things. The race of tomorrow will be a difficult one. Marc Marquez and Tom Luthi are very fast, but we’ll do our best to end the weekend with a good result. I’d like to thank the team and Suter for the work that they’ve done and that they keep doing during each grand prix.”