FIM MotoGP World Championship Misano, San Marino August 30, 3008 Qualifying Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:33.378 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:33.888 3. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:33.964 4. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:34.236 5. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:34.322 6. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:34.398 7. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:34.461 8. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:34.494 9. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:34.652 10. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:34.795 11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:34.926 12. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:34.961 13. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:35.153 14. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.381 15. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:35.418 16. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.584 17. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:35.980 18. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:37.047 More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The top spot on the MotoGP grid will, for the seventh consecutive race, be occupied by reigning World Champion Casey Stoner tomorrow, with the Ducati Marlboro rider completing his clean sweep of practice session outings at Misano. Stoner had to dig deep for the honour of leading off the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, fighting back against some tough rivals on his final lap of the Saturday afternoon qualifying session. The Australian got back into his stride in the final two splits of the Misano circuit, with his 1´33.378 too much for even his most persistent challengers to match. Half a second separated Stoner and World Championship leader Valentino Rossi´s fastest times on qualifying rubber, although the latter had been poised for a popular home pole until the last minutes of the run. Rossi will start from second on the grid for the third race in a row, an important placing if he is to catch his rival. Stoner also extends his lead in the BMW M Award, having picked up his latest Tissot watch as a pole position prize. He will not, however, be placing the timepiece on his wrist anytime soon, with his wrist heavily bandaged and braced to protect a scaphoid fracture. Jorge Lorenzo returns to the front row for the first time since the Portuguese round in Estoril back in April, third on the grid alongside Fiat Yamaha teammate Rossi. The Spaniard had laid down some fierce lap times during the qualifying session, something that will please not just himself and his team but also tyre manufacturer Michelin. Randy de Puniet just missed out on the front row with his LCR Honda RC212V, the fastest rider for the Japanese factory. He is joined by Alice Team´s resurgent Spaniard Toni Elias and Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa on the second line. Chris Vermeulen, Shinya Nakano and James Toseland will be just behind the trio when the lights go out at Misano on Sunday afternoon. 250cc Hector Barbera took the pole position baton from Marco Simoncelli in the second qualifying session for the 250cc Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, his second top spot of the 2008 season. The morning session´s fastest rider, Team Toth Aprilia man Barbera put in a hot lap of 1´38.912 that went unmatched by his rivals, with World Championship leader Simoncelli falling short by just 0.077 as the chequered flag fell to mark the conclusion of the outing. The Metis Gilera rider had not been able to better his provisional pole time from Friday until his final run. Aleix Espargaro will line up on the front row for the first time in his 250cc career, taking his Lotus Aprilia round a further seven-tenths of a second back on Barbera. Yuki Takahashi´s fourth spot on the grid is the first appearance for a Honda rider on the front row in 2008. Last year´s runner-up at Misano, Hiroshi Aoyama heads row two, ahead of Thoms Luthi, Julian Simon and Hecor Faubel. A star-studded third line features home rider Mattia Pasini, title chaser Mika Kallio, form rider Alvaro Bautista and Brno racewinner Alex Debon. 125cc Gabor Talmacsi racked up his third pole position in as many races with a superb qualifying run at Misano, never conceding the provisional pole taken in the opening timed session on Friday. The reigning 125cc World Champion kept improving right until the end of the Saturday afternoon run, with a 1´43.729 lap on his final run holding off second fastest rider Bradley Smith. Polaris World rider Smith was just under two tenths of a second slower than Bancaja Aspar man Talmacsi, as he took his eighth front row spot of the season. The Briton was onboard the Aprilia machine used by racewinner Mattia Pasini at Misano last year. Talmacsi is something of the odd man out on the front row, the only rider over the age of 17 to place in the top four. Belson Derbi and Blusens Aprilia teenagers Pol Espargaro and Scott Redding line up alongside Talmacsi and Smith on the first line. The top two riders in the World Championship will be side-by-side on the second row, with Simone Corsi and Mike di Meglio in fifth and sixth, respectively. Sandro Cortese and Marc Marquez complete the line. More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI ON COURSE FOR HOME TOWN SHOWDOWN AT MISANO Valentino Rossi put his Fiat Yamaha M1 on the front row for the eighth time this season today, qualifying second behind Casey Stoner for his home Grand Prix at Misano. The 29-year-old, who lives just 15km away in Tavullia, will be flanked by his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo tomorrow, back on the front row of the grid for the first time since race three in Portugal. Despite admitting that the searing heat was more suited to a day at the local beach Rossi was able to steadily improve his race pace throughout the afternoon’s session, although he is still looking for a few more tenths before tomorrow’s 28-lap race. In the later stages he clocked better times with each of his four Bridgestone qualifying tyres and his final lap was good enough to leap-frog his team mate for second, although he was unable to catch Stoner. Tomorrow will be the sixth time that Rossi and Stoner have shared the front row this season, with the Italian having come out on top in three out of the previous five occasions. Valentino Rossi Position: 2nd Time: 1’33.888 Laps: 29 This weather is amazing, but I think maybe it’s better if you’re at the beach than at the track; we’re in the wrong place! I definitely prefer this to rain though so after the recent races, when we have never been sure about the weather, this is great. I’m happy about our work because we did a good job with the qualifying tyres this afternoon and we were able to improve with each one, which is important. In the end we couldn’t match Casey’s time but anyway second on the grid is good for the race. Our race set-up is still not perfect and there are some corners where we need to be faster still, so we have to work to try to improve that tonight. We have a lot of data now from the two days and so we will use this to try to come up with something to try in warm-up tomorrow. I think we can definitely still improve our race setting a little bit more.” David Brivio Team Manager “As always the front row is our target so we’re happy that we’ve reached that, it will be very important for tomorrow’s battle! We still need to look for some tenths around the lap so we need to do some more work and then use the practice tomorrow morning as best we can; hopefully we can find something which can help us to fight with Casey once again. It’s really good to see the other Yamaha’s back in the hunt again and it looks like it could be a great race tomorrow.” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FRONT ROW RETURN FOR LORENZO IN MISANO Jorge Lorenzo made an impressive return to the front row of the grid today, his first top-three qualification since his treble of pole positions in the opening three races of the season. The Mallorcan qualified third on a sweltering day in Misano and his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi made it a good day for the whole garage by qualifying second, just 0.076 seconds ahead of him. After his run of bad luck Lorenzo has been in much better shape since first practice yesterday, with improvements to his Michelin tyres giving him back his old confidence and flair. His first run with a qualifying tyre put him straight to the top of the standings and he was able to improve twice more, before being edged out by Stoner and Rossi in the closing seconds of the session. He and his crew now hope to make some final improvements to the setting of his M1 before bidding for a podium return tomorrow when the 28-lap race gets underway at 1400 CET. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 3rd Time: 1’33.964 Laps: 29 “Straight from yesterday morning it’s clear that this track is a different situation for us. We’re struggling much less and my Michelin tyres are much more competitive again here, so thanks to them. I can ride in a good, flowing rhythm once more and my tyres are giving me the confidence that I need in order to go fast. It feels really good to be back on the front row again and I am very happy today. It is clear that to stay with Stoner and Valentino is going to be very hard, but the important thing is that we have been able to compete with them today and we’re in a good position to try again tomorrow. I’m still not thinking about results but I will just do my best, try to take a good rhythm and try to put on a good race for all the fans!” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “It’s great to finally be back on the front row after some time and, more importantly, to watch Jorge riding so competitively again. Thanks to Michelin for their work because the tyres performed very well today and enabled Jorge to have good confidence and feeling with the bike, which in turn has enabled the team to find a good set-up. We have improved session by session throughout the weekend and now we are confident that we can continue to be competitive in the race tomorrow. We hope to see Jorge fighting at the front again and getting the result he deserves.” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3 Yamaha: Tech 3 Yamaha set sights on top six James Toseland and Colin Edwards have targeted top six finishes in tomorrow’s Misano GP, which the Tech 3 Yamaha duo will start from ninth and tenth on the grid respectively. British rider James Toseland clocked a best lap of 1.34.652 in a baking hot qualifying session to secure his ninth top ten grid position of the season. Toseland though believes he could have secured a place on the second row of the grid had he not lost crucial time on his last qualifying tyre with a small mistake at the final corner. The 27-year-old though has been able to run consistent times on improved Michelin tyres throughout the weekend, which bodes well for a top six challenge in tomorrow’s 28-lap race. American Edwards was just 0.143s behind Toseland to finish tenth. Edwards believes he can still further improve his race set-up on his Yamaha YZR-M1 to help maintain his top six placing in the 2008 world championship standings. James Toseland 9th 1.34.652 26 laps “I’m a bit frustrated because I think I should have been on the second row and maybe as high as fourth. We made a step with the bike set-up but on my last qualifier I got the penultimate corner pretty good, so I whacked on the throttle and the rear came round on me. It stopped before I was on a trip to the moon, but the bike had gone into a bit of a headshake and I just missed my braking point for the last corner and ran slightly wide. I lost at least a couple of tenths and that cost me the second row. But so far it has been a good weekend and the tyres have been much better from Michelin. And I’ve had time to work on the setting with the weather staying consistent, which has been a massive help. So often this season when I’ve really needed dry time to help me get upto speed, the weather has gone against me. But this weekend it’s helped me work from a base setting and we have been able to improve the bike. It is going to be a long and hard race and we’ve got to wait and see what tyre endurance is going to be like with the conditions being so hot. Nobody has done more than 15 or 16 laps so it will be tough, but I’ve got a good race set-up to give me a good chance. From the problems that we have had in the last few races, Michelin has responded well, but I’m not sure what the grip will be like after 15 laps. I definitely think we can be fighting for the top six, which is what we have not been able to do for a couple of months now.” Colin Edwards 10th 1.34.795 28 laps “I’ve never gone well at this track but when I was second yesterday morning I thought there was a slight glimmer of hope. I thought it might have been a good weekend because I felt good and confident but since then I’ve hit a brick wall. All I can do is a 35.4 regardless of what tyre I’m using or what changes we make to the bike. My first three qualifiers were barely better than a 35.4 and my last one I managed to put in a decent time, but nothing special. I’m a bit confused to be honest because it doesn’t matter what we do, the lap time is around the same. Could I have gone much faster than I did? I don’t think so. Nothing I tried made the feeling significantly better from yesterday morning and honestly I’m searching for answers myself. It is not through a lack of effort and my guys at Tech 3 as always have been working harder than ever, but the lap time just isn’t improving. Tomorrow is going to be a long race but I’ll be looking to get in the fight for the top six. I’ve got to try and get a good start and go, but I know the rear tyre I’ve got to run takes a couple of laps to get up to temperature on the left side. So I’ve got to be aggressive while at the same time a bit cautious about that. But the first couple of laps are the most important, so after that I’ll have to put my head down and see what I can do.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: HOPKINS RUES LOST TRACK TIME AT MISANO Kawasaki’s John Hopkins made a return to the track at the Misano circuit today following yesterday’s absence through injury, and despite struggling to play catch up in the Adriatic coastal heat, the Anglo-American is confident for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix. Hopkins, who was ruled out of both of yesterday’s practice sessions due to aggravating an injury to one of his intercostal muscles, suffered with front-end difficulties aboard his Ninja ZX-RR throughout both of today’s sessions. The 25-year-old had just two hour-long stints to set his machine up for the San Marino track, which features many tight, bumpy sections. Hopkins started the day with little data aboard his Kawasaki and this was evident as he looked to find a usable setting around the 4.20km circuit. The soaring temperatures caused the Anglo-American further complications in this afternoon’s qualifying session, when the heat exacerbated the grip issues he was encountering, and he had little time to evaluate possible race tyre options for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. However, despite qualifying in 17th position, Hopkins is confident that he, along with his crew, can make further adjustments in warm-up tomorrow morning, which will put him in a stronger position for the race. Anthony West saw a continuation of the troubles he came across in yesterday’s practice and suffered with no confidence in the front-end of his machine throughout both of today’s sessions. The 27-year-old Australian racer made radical changes to the set-up of his machine to improve the feedback from the front of the bike, but this brought no real joy, leaving him in 18th position on the grid. West, although frustrated as he hoped to replicate his career best MotoGP weekend last time out, will review data overnight with his crew and look to make improvements ahead of tomorrow’s 28-lap race. John Hopkins #21 – 17th – 1’35.980 “It’s been a real task today as we’ve been on the back foot because I had to sit out practice yesterday. My rib injury is definitely improving and I feel much more comfortable on the bike, but a lack of time on track has caused us quite a headache. We’ve struggled mainly with the front-end of the machine and this track is completely different from Brno, so we had a lot of setting changes to make. I had to squeeze a lot into the two hours on track and we had to wait until the afternoon heat, which will be similar to that of the race, before we could try to find a useable race tyre. Then we had to fit in qualifying too, and our final position today reflects this. My crew chief has a lot of ideas about the areas we need to change and we will review the data overnight to see where we can make significant improvements during tomorrow’s warm-up.” Anthony West #13 – 18th – 1’37.047 “It’s frustrating to come here after such a great weekend in Brno only to end up at the back of the field. We tried many different set-up changes to provide me with more confidence in the front of the bike, but nothing really brought much of an improvement. I can’t brake hard into the turns, and this makes it difficult to put a fast lap together. We have to find an improvement overnight and I am sure that tomorrow’s race will be tough, but we have to keep pushing forwards to achieve the results we have shown we are capable of.” Fiorenzo Fanali Hopkins’ Crew Chief “It’s good that John’s injury has improved, but it has been a real set back for us this weekend as we have lost two hours of valuable track time. We couldn’t try a race tyre this morning because the temperature change for the afternoon was so great, it wouldn’t have been a realistic evaluation. This left us with a lot of work to do in qualifying, and we came across a chatter problem in the front-end of his machine. We basically ran out of time to overcome this problem, as we also had to use a qualifying tyre to try and improve John’s lap time. We will make some changes in tomorrow’s warm-up after we’ve evaluated the data, and although our starting position is not so good, I am sure that we can make progress while improving our lap time during the race.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER EXTENDS RECORD WITH SEVENTH STRAIGHT POLE. MELANDRI FIFTEENTH Casey Stoner needed just two qualifying tyres to put the seal on his pre-race dominance at Misano this afternoon, the Australian setting his seventh consecutive pole position to extend a record run in MotoGP. The all-time record in the premier-class dates back to 1997, when Mick Doohan started from the front of the 500cc grid on twelve successive occasions. The current World Champion performed today under the effects of anti-inflammatory and painkilling medication, with Doctor Costa having also fitted him with a special support designed at limiting the effects of a re-opened fracture to the scaphoid. Marco Melandri qualified in fifteenth place and reported his satisfaction at the balance of the bike, although he was unable to move any further up the grid after struggling to improve his pace on a qualifying tyre. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) Pole position: 1’33.378 “The hand wasn’t too much of a problem today although I didn’t want to risk working it too hard. There is a bit of bone floating around in there and when my wrist gets into a certain position in some of the corners the nerves get trapped and I get a shooting pain up my arm. I can deal with that though and we have an important job to do this weekend. We found a good setting for the bike this morning but it didn’t work as well in the higher temperatures this afternoon, so we had to switch back to something else and it worked much better. We worked so hard on the race setting that we only had time to use two qualifiers at the end instead of the usual three. With the first one I used a new front, which needed a couple of laps to get scrubbed in, so I came in to change the rear and whilst it was good, it wasn’t as good as the first one. So, the lap time could have been better but all in all I’m delighted to be on pole again. It’s going to be a long, tough race tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 15th: 1’35.418 “We’ve managed to improve the front end of the bike a bit, which is what we wanted, and I’m actually quite satisfied with the balance we’ve found. The problem is that it is taking us too long to find a good rhythm because over the first six or seven laps I don’t have enough grip, especially on the left side of the tyre. A softer compound helps to solve it but we’re not sure it can go race distance. We’ll check it out in the warm-up tomorrow. It won’t be easy tomorrow because at this circuit in particular you have to be fast from the start.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: DE PUNIET PIPS PEDROSA, BOTH START FROM ROW TWO Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) was edged onto row two here today as Casey Stoner (Ducati) notched his seventh pole in a row ahead of Valentino Rossi, second fastest qualifier, and Jorge Lorenzo (both Yamaha) third quickest. Stoner began the hour-long final qualifying session on top with a time of 1m 34.763s and finished the stint with a best time of 1m 33.378s just over half a second quicker than Rossi’s best of 1m 33.888. Dani, sixth fastest, is just over one second shy of the pole time as he gets back up to speed while fully recovering from his German Grand Prix injuries. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) looked strong throughout the hour and when the Frenchman grabbed provisional pole with 23 minutes left to run it was a measure of his mastery of this tricky and strength-sapping circuit. He ended up fourth fastest to head row two. Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), buoyed by his strong fourth place at Brno two weeks ago, began the session strongly and was holding second spot on the grid at the halfway point with a 1m 34.924s time. He had to settle for eighth and a third row start at the finish. Another rider on form after the Czech Republic race is former Honda teamster Toni Elias (Ducati) who after a podium at Brno is carrying his form into this race. He qualified fifth fastest splitting current Honda men De Puniet and Dani. Before the gradual drift to fitting qualifying rubber the order at halfway was Stoner, Lorenzo, Elias, Rossi and Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), then Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), Pedrosa and then Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati). These riders would all hold top ten grid slots with the exception of Guintoli and De Angelis who would slide to 12th and 13th. When the extra-sticky rubber appeared it was Stoner who stamped his authority on proceedings with a 1m 34.400s lap before Lorenzo immediately bettered this by a tenth of a second. Dani responded to this by putting in a 1m 34.712s time to step up to fourth. But the only riders really getting to grips with the front row places here were Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo. In the final five minutes they swapped the pole three times before Stoner pulverized the field with his 1m 33.378s marker. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) is still not yet up to full fitness after his heel injury sustained at the Los Angeles X Games. He circulated at subdued pace and qualified 16th at the flag, 2.206 seconds adrift of the pole time, having suffered a tumble at the end of yesterday afternoon’s session. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) had a less than satisfactory outing this afternoon too. The local man could do no better than 14th fastest time and he will be as disappointed as San Marinese man De Angelis in 13th and local resident Nakano in 8th who was aiming for a top six berth here. Honda’s best qualifier De Puniet, in fourth, said: “Today was a very good day for us. When I came out on qualifiers my pace was pretty fast but this qualifying session was very tough. I had a very good flying lap which moved us to the 4th position on the grid. This race will be very close and it’s important to start from the first places in order to close the gap to the fastest riders. I feel happy because my machine is the first Honda on the grid behind three factory bikes and this means that my crew did some excellent work together with Michelin. I really want to thank everybody for their efforts.” Dani, sixth fastest, said: “I’m quite happy because we’ve improved my lap times and tomorrow I’ll start from the second row, in the same grid position as last year here. It will be important to make a good start because the first corner is very close to the grid and also quite tricky. I’ve improved my rhythm and this is really important to me because I am starting to go fast again. We worked a lot on the suspension today, the new fork gives me a positive feeling and it gives smoother performance during braking. I’m feeling very motivated but I still need some time to get back up to full speed.” Nakano, eighth quickest, said: “Even though qualifying wasn’t perfect, today was definitely a better day than yesterday. After the changes the team made to the rear of the bike it felt much easier to ride through the corners, more stable, and this prevented me from running wide like yesterday. I had fun and it was positive that I managed to improve my performance on a qualifying tyre. Tomorrow we start from eighth and I would have preferred to be on the second row.” De Angelis (13th) said: “I’m not satisfied with this at all but there are positives as well as negatives. I managed to lap consistently fast on race tyres even though we’re struggling with the qualifiers. Unfortunately we’re still not getting the best out of them and as a consequence we can’t improve at the same rate as the other riders. I’m still confident though because in free practice I did some practice starts and I think I can get away well.” Dovi on row five, said: “We need to think about the race tomorrow and focus on the best way in which to approach it. The Michelin rubber is proving satisfactory, but to recover so many positions from the start in the first few turns will be very difficult. If we were on the second and not the fifth row then we would have a better chance of a good result. Being positive, we still have warm-up tomorrow to exploit any changes in the bike to make some progress and then in the race we will give the maximum as always.” Hayden (row six) said: “Things haven’t gone perfectly smooth here, I’m having a few issues with the front. I was pushing the front quite a lot yesterday, then I crashed and today it’s still pushing. When we put in qualifying tyres it just exaggerated the problem, so I’ve been struggling to find a front tyre I like, though the rear seems to be working pretty good here. Obviously I don’t have a very good starting spot and at 28 laps it’s going to be a long race. The heel is OK, not perfect, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” 250cc Hector Barbera (Aprilia) grabbed his first pole of this season with a 1m 38.047s lap in the final minutes of this 45 minute session. He edged Marco Simoncelli (Gilera) to second with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) holding onto third and a determined Yuki Takahashi (JiR Scot Honda RS250RW) stealing fourth as the clock ran down. This is Takahashi’s first front row qualifying performance of the season and the 4.226km of this compact track would seem to suit the characteristics of Yuki’s RS250RW machine. Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG RS250RW) qualified 15th, 1.8 seconds off the pole time. Front row man Takahashi said: “I’m happy with the outcome of today, although it wasn’t easy. The team has worked very well and tomorrow I’ll make a good race for them. This is my second ‘home’ Grand Prix and as many of my mechanics live nearby, I’ll be going all-out to give them a great result. We developed the bike well, and I was out on track pretty much alone. It will be important to make a good start because it’s not easy to overtake on this circuit and there are many riders out there with similar lap times, but I am ready for tomorrow.” Wilairot said: “First practice today was difficult because when making adjustments to the gearbox ratios we had to make adjustments to the suspension, front and rear, and on both motorcycles. But the new gearbox ratio was not what we needed, and in the afternoon we decided to go back to yesterday’s configuration, and we also had to adjust the suspension again. Finally I got a good lap, 1m 39.8s, and I’m on the fourth row of the grid. For tomorrow I must improve my first two sector times to be in the top ten.” 125cc Gabor Talmacsi (Aprilia) notched his third of the season so far and his third consecutive pole when he posted a 1m 43.729s lap time to put his stamp firmly on this half hour period. Bradley Smith (Aprilia) qualified second fastest, Pol Espargaro (Derbi) third and rookie Scott Redding (Aprilia) completes the front row. Louis Rossi (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) qualified in 32nd spot on his first visit to Misano. He is 3.052 seconds shy of the pole time but the spirited Frenchman will once again be looking to claw back places in the race. He said: “We made some good progress today and I gained 1.4 second over yesterday’s time. I feel better on the Honda than during the previous Grand Prix. I know I’m still sliding too much at the front when I brake. On the other hand I manage to get in better positions for approaching bends, which wasn’t the case during the Czech Grand Prix. I like this track layout, it requires a sharp riding style.” GP San Marino Misano August 30, 2008. Final qualifying. Honda rider quotes. MotoGP: Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 4th 1m 34.236s. “Today was a very good day for us. This morning we worked on chassis set-up and suspension set-up to find the right base on these conditions. Then, in the afternoon session, we compared a few rear tyres options he have got finding a good rear tyre for tomorrow’s race. When I came out on qualifiers my pace was pretty fast but this qualifying session was very tough. I had a very good flying lap in the last lap which moved us to the 4th position on the grid. This race will be very close and it’s important to start from the first places in order to close the gap to the fastest riders. I feel happy because my machine is the first Honda on the grid behind three factory bikes and this means that my crew made an excellent work together with Michelin. I really want to thank everybody for their efforts.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 6th 1m 34.398s. “I am quite happy because we have improved my lap times and tomorrow I will start from the second row, in the same grid position as last year here. It will be important to make a good start because the first corner is very close to the grid and also quite tricky. I’ve improved my rhythm and this is really important to me because I am starting to go fast again. We worked a lot on the suspension today, the new fork gives me a positive feeling and it gives smoother performance during braking. I’m feeling very motivated but I still need some time to get back up to full speed.” Shinya Nakano, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 8th 1m 34.494s. “Even though qualifying wasn’t perfect, today was definitely a better day than yesterday. After the changes the team made to the rear of the bike it felt much easier to ride through the corners, more stable, and this prevented me from running wide like yesterday. I had fun and it was positive that I managed to improve my performance on a qualifying tyre. Tomorrow we start from eighth on the grid and even though that is not bad, I would have preferred to be on the second row. My objective is to get a good result for the team in their home Grand Prix.” Alex De Angelis, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 13th 1m 35.153s. “1’m not satisfied with this qualifying practice at all but there are positives as well as negatives. I managed to lap consistently fast on race tyres even though we’re struggling with the qualifiers. Unfortunately we’re still not getting the best out of them and as a consequence we can’t improve at the same rate as the other riders. I’m still confident though because in free practice I did some practice starts and I think I can get away well. I’ll try to make up as many positions as I can after that but it won’t be easy at this track.” Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 14th 1m35.381s. “We need to think about the race tomorrow and focus on the best way in which to approach it. I put in a 1m 35.9s lap time despite the difficulties of the bike set-up. The Michelin rubber is proving satisfactory, but to recover so many positions from the start in the first few turns will be very difficult. If we were on the second and not the fifth row then we would have a better chance of a good result, obviously! Being positive, we still have warm-up tomorrow to exploit any changes in the bike to make some progress and then in the race we will give the maximum as always.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 16th – 1m 35.584s. “Things haven’t gone perfectly smooth here, I’m having a few issues with the front. I was pushing the front quite a lot yesterday, then I crashed and today it’s still pushing. When we put in qualifying tyres it just exaggerated the problem, so I’ve been struggling to find a front tyre I like, though the rear seems to be working pretty good here. Obviously I don’t have a very good starting spot and at 28 laps it’s going to be a long race. We’re going to try a few more ideas in morning warm-up, try to get a good start and try to salvage some kind of result. The heel is okay, not perfect, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” 250cc: Yukio Takahashi, JiR Scot Honda: 4th 1m 38.822s. “I’m happy with the outcome of today, although it certainly was not easy, but the team has worked very well and tomorrow I will make a good race, just for them. This is my second ‘home’ Grand Prix and as many of my mechanics live nearby, I will be going all-out to give them a great result. We developed the bike well, and I was out on track pretty much alone. It will be important to make a good start because it’s not easy to overtake on this circuit and there are many riders out there with similar lap times, but I am ready for tomorrow.” Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT SAG: 15th 1m 39.875s. “The first practice of today has been difficult because when making the adjustments to the gearbox ratios we had to do the respective adjustments to the suspension, front and rear, and on both motorcycles. But the new gearbox ratio was not what we needed, and in the afternoon we decided to go back to the yesterday’s configuration, and we also had to adjust again suspension. Finally I got a good lap, 1,39.8, and I’ on the fourth row of the grid. For tomorrow I must improve my first two partial times to be in the top 10.” 125cc: Louis Rossi, FFM Honda: 33rd 1m 46.781s. “We made some good progress today and I gained 1.4 second over Yesterday’s time. I feel better on the Honda than during the previous Grand Prix and I sense more the bike’s reactions. I am focusing on the problems and I know that I am still sliding too much in the front as with the back when I brake. On the other hand I manage to get in better positions for approaching bends, which wasn’t the case during the Czech Grand Prix. I like this course layout, pleasant but also demanding. It requires a sharp style of riding.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi will start from the third and fourth rows respectively, after their promising practice performances didn’t materialise into good starting positions at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session. Vermeulen (P7, 1’34.461, 27 laps) looked very impressive in this morning’s final practice session in readiness for Sunday’s race. He was the fourth quickest at the 4,226m Misano circuit as he continued to improve on his race tyre lap-times. He tried many tyre compounds to find the ones best suited to the bike and hot conditions at Misano, and was pleased with results both on performance and consistency. Vermeulen looks in very good shape for tomorrow’s race as he plans to emulate last year’s podium position. Capirossi (P11, 1’34.926, 30 laps) made several changes to his Suzuki GSV-R after this morning’s session where he again looked very competitive as he posted the seventh quickest time but the alterations didn’t quite worked as planned and cost the Italian valuable time as he had to revert back to the original settings. Capirossi looked set for a much higher grid position, but was hampered on his last flying lap by traffic, leaving him with a tough starting position for the 28-lap race. The experienced Italian who is making a record breaking 277th Grand Prix appearance tomorrow is in a determined mood to get a good result. Today’s qualifying was held in very warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures again reaching 46ºC. World Champion Casey Stoner will start from pole position as he scored his seventh successive pole on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati. Tomorrow’s race is round 13 of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship and the action gets underway for the 28-lap race at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Chris Vermeulen: “We’ve had quite a good second day here. We’ve changed some set-up things on the bike and tested quite a few of the tyres from our allocation. We tried some very hard compounds for these hot conditions and they seem to be working very well. This afternoon on qualifiers the tyre worked pretty well in the new chassis, but I never quite managed to do that perfect lap and unfortunately we didn’t quite make it to the second row of the grid. Having said that, seventh is one of my better dry qualifying positions of the season so we are definitely making improvements. My race pace is strong for tomorrow and I think with a good start we can fight for the podium!” Loris Capirossi: “I am a bit upset with my qualifying position because we found a really good set-up yesterday and we were not too bad this morning and we wanted to continue like that. But this afternoon was a bit hotter and we made some changes and on the qualifiers we struggled a bit. I am quite confident for tomorrow, it won’t be easy starting from 11th, but I’ll be aggressive early on and my rhythm with race tyres is really good so we’ll have to see what happens!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s been a very competitive weekend so far for the team and today’s qualifying results are disappointing in that they don’t reflect our true potential – we would have liked to have seen both bikes on the first two rows of the grid. Chris got very close to doing that with a great effort on his final qualifying tyre. He was second here last year from eighth on the grid and he has a lot of confidence this weekend so I am sure Chris will be looking to make the jump to the front group straight from the start. I think he has got the pace – and the tyres underneath him – to challenge for the podium. “With Loris we tried a different direction this afternoon which we thought would be better but unfortunately it didn’t work and it took a while for him to come back to the high rhythm that he showed yesterday afternoon and this morning. That, combined with the fact that he had a lot of traffic on his final lap, resulted in a far from ideal qualifying result. He says he can do much better in the race, and he has the fire in his eyes, so we are expecting a big show from Loris tomorrow!” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Seven in a row for pole man Stoner in Misano Round 13: San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Qualifying Misano World Circuit Saturday 30 August 2008 Ducati’s Casey Stoner has stormed to a seventh consecutive pole position in today’s qualifying session at the Misano World Circuit, taking the top spot by a half-a-second. Stoner has been quickest in every practice session of the weekend so far and his pole time today represented a six-tenth-of-a-second improvement over his Misano pole time from last season on the slightly shorter circuit layout. It is the eighth pole position of the season set using Bridgestone tyres in a session that was split evenly between the tyre manufacturers with five Bridgestone-shod riders in the top ten. Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi took second place for his home grand prix, his eighth front row start of the season. He will line up on the front row of the grid alongside his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo who was third this afternoon. Alice Team’s Toni Elias, who took a sensational second place in Brno two weeks ago, claimed his best qualifying result of the year so far with a similarly impressive fifth place on the grid. Podium finisher at Misano twelve months ago, Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen took seventh position, while Shinya Nakano took a second consecutive eighth-place on the grid for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. Bridgestone has also continued evaluation of its tyre range for this weekend in today’s two sessions, working in conjunction with its six teams, as they strive to find the optimum set-up for their machines around the 4.226km circuit. No significant long runs were conducted today so it is difficult to predict how the race tyres will perform over the 28 laps that will make up the race distance on Sunday afternoon. Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development You must be pleased with that qualifying performance? “I think that is one of our strongest dry weather qualifying performances of the season and several of our riders are in good positions for the race. Casey’s lap was quicker even than his pole time from last year and the fact that he has now set seven pole positions in a row is a fantastic achievement. Valentino also got the most out of his machine and tyres to take second place which will set him up well for his home race. A special mention must also go to Toni who has been on excellent form on both race and qualifying tyres today. All in all it was a nicely balanced result with eight different teams in the top ten and a 50-50 split between tyre manufacturers.” How is the race tyre performance? “We have seen an improvement in our initial performance level compared to last year’s race and some of our riders appear to be competitive. The teams have been working hard to improve and tune the set-up of their machines for this circuit so we have not carried out any longer runs today. With track temperatures reaching fifty degrees, tyre durability will be a key factor tomorrow afternoon, but I hope we can live up to the challenge. Based on the practice results, it promises to be a closely-fought race.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Qualifying Session Results Pos. Rider Team Qualifying Time (pos) Gap to Pole P1 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m33.378s Pole P2 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m33.888s +0.510s P5 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m34.322s +0.944s P7 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m34.461s +1.083s P8 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m34.494s +1.116s P11 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m34.926s +1.548s P12 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m34.961s +1.583s P13 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m35.153s +1.775s P15 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m35.418s +2.040s P17 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m35.980s +2.602s P18 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m37.047s +3.669s Weather: Dry Air 32°C, Track 45°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Honda: Andrea Dovizioso needs stellar start at Misano The Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini tomorrow will provide Andrea Dovizioso with an opportunity yet again to show his aggressive nature. The difficulties of developing a good balance with his Honda RC212V today means that the Italian will start tomorrow’s race from the fifth row. The JiR Team Scot rider will be aiming for a start in front of his fans that has to be perfect and allows no room for error to recover valuable positions almost immediately, so as not to lose contact with the leading group. Despite his grid slot, Andrea is confident that he can conclude tomorrow’s race with a good result. Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager JiR Team Scot “Despite the result of qualifying which places us on the fifth row, we must also assess the positive points in our favour. We feel we can maintain a good pace in the race tomorrow, even if our single lap time is conditioned by some difficulties in the set-up of our motorcycle. In the warm-up tomorrow, we will be aiming to make a good recovery by finding an improved set-up, which should help us a little. It is a pity, as when you start a race aggressively as Andrea has to, you’re using the bike to the very maximum, the rider uses up energy and you are using up the tyres quickly too.” Andrea Dovizioso – Pilot JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V 14 ° time: 1’35 “381 “We need to think about the race tomorrow and focus on the best way in which to approach it. I put in a 1m 35.9s lap time despite the difficulties of the bike set-up. The Michelin rubber is proving satisfactory, but to recover so many positions from the start in the first few turns will be very difficult. If we were on the second and not the fifth row then we would have a better chance of a good result, obviously! Being positive, we still have warm-up tomorrow to exploit any changes in the bike to make some progress and then in the race we will give the maximum as always.” Gianni Berti – Technical Coordinator JiR Team Scot “These last two days we have focused our work on the development of the set-up of the bike. We did make constant and small progress, but we expected more, even in qualifying configuration. Andrea’s pace could be good tomorrow in the race and he should have the ability to show that, but we are penalized by our position on the starting grid.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: DE PUNIET SHINES AT MISANO GP QUALIFYING Misano, 30 August 2008: Qualifying for the Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini was run in sunny conditions today with ambience temperature of 31°C and the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet made solid progress ending the day 4th behind the front row riders Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo. After some set-up changes to his Michelin-shod Honda RC212V in this morning free session, the 27-year-old set consistent and fast lap times throughout the 60-minute session and qualified as the fastest Honda. The Frenchman set a 1’34.236 quickest time on lap 25 of 26 less than ten tenths off the fastest lap of the day and will start from the second row for tomorrow’s 28-lap race that gets underway at 14:00. De Puniet 4th: “Today was a very good day for us. This morning we worked on chassis set-up and suspension set-up to find the right base on these conditions. Then, in the afternoon session, we compared a few rear tyres options he have got finding a good rear tyre for tomorrow’s race. When I came out on qualifiers my pace was pretty fast but this qualifying session was very tough. I had a very good flying lap in the last lap which moved us to the 4th position on the grid. This race will be very close and it’s important to start from the first places in order to close the gap to the fastest riders. I feel happy because qualified as the fastest Honda behind three factory bikes and this means that my crew made an excellent work together with Michelin. I really want to thank everybody for their efforts”. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA’S PEDROSA ON SECOND ROW San Marino Grand Prix, Misano Qualifying, Saturday August 30 2008 Repsol Honda RC212V rider Dani Pedrosa recorded sixth fastest time at Misano this afternoon to put himself on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix, the 13th event of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship. Team-mate Nicky Hayden, coming back from injury, was 16th fastest in the sweltering conditions, which had track temperature nudging 50 degrees. Pedrosa was satisfied with his performance, because it suggests he is getting back up to speed following the injuries he suffered in July’s German GP and the difficult weekend he had at Brno a fortnight a go. The Spaniard spent much of today fine-tuning his RCV’s suspension, including a revised Showa front fork which improves braking stability. Hayden, who fell yesterday, is having some front-end issues here and is working hard with his crew in an effort to resolve them for tomorrow’s race. The American is riding with two cracked bones in his right heel, which he sustained while practising for a Los Angeles X Games Supermoto event at the start of the month. Dani Pedrosa, 6th fastest, 1m 34.398s “I am quite happy because we have improved my lap times and tomorrow I will start from the second row, in the same grid position as last year here. It will be important to make a good start because the first corner is very close to the grid and also quite tricky. I’ve improved my rhythm and this is really important to me because I am starting to go fast again. We worked a lot on the suspension today, the new fork gives me a positive feeling and it gives smoother performance during braking. I’m feeling very motivated but I still need some time to get back up to full speed.” Nicky Hayden, 16th fastest, 1m 35.584s “Things haven’t gone perfectly smooth here, I’m having a few issues with the front. I was pushing the front quite a lot yesterday, then I crashed and today it’s still pushing. When we put in qualifying tyres it just exaggerated the problem, so I’ve been struggling to find a front tyre I like, though the rear seems to be working pretty good here. Obviously I don’t have a very good starting spot and at 28 laps it’s going to be a long race. We’re going to try a few more ideas in morning warm-up, try to get a good start and try to salvage some kind of result. The heel is okay, not perfect, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager “Dani has improved today, his crew have been making small suspension adjustments, so his race pace is coming better, though there’s still quite a gap to the top riders. We have some more ideas to make the suspension better in morning warm-up. Nicky is feeling a lot of pain, but he is a racer, so he is trying very hard.”