FIM MotoGP World Championship Motorland Aragon, Spain September 18, 2010 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (DUCATI), 1:48.942 2. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:49.251 3. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:49.343 4. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:49.506 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:49.565 6. Randy DE PUNIET, France (HONDA), 1:49.952 7. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (YAMAHA), 1:50.017 8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:50.046 9. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:50.088 10. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:50.323 11. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:50.440 12. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:50.523 13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (DUCATI), 1:50.537 14. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (HONDA), 1:50.580 15. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:50.836 16. Mika KALLIO, Finland (DUCATI), 1:51.490 More, from a press releases issued by Rizla Suzuki: Positive steps for Bautista on day two at Aragon Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista made steady progress during today’s final practice and qualifying sessions at Aragon in Spain to earn himself a fourth row start for tomorrow’s race. Bautista (P12, 1’50.523, 21 laps) improved throughout the two sessions before posting his fastest lap of the day right at the very end of qualifying. He was hampered in this morning’s practice by a crash, but was able to walk away and return to the pits completely uninjured. Bautista’s race pace throughout the day was very consistent and the improvements he has made in his riding and to the bike’s settings look like giving him a competitive edge in Sunday’s race. Today’s qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures finally heating up to a respectable 26ºC after yesterday’s heavy rain. Casey Stoner took pole position on his Ducati, with World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa filling the remaining front row places. Tomorrow’s 23-lap race will be the first MotoGP that the Motorland Aragon circuit has staged and the lights will change to go for that historic moment at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Álvaro Bautista: “Today I have improved my lap time and I’m quite happy with the progress we have made. I crashed this morning and lost some time, but fortunately there wasn’t any physical problem for me. I tried two different gearboxes in this morning’s session and we chose the best one and concentrated on riding with that one this afternoon. With the race tyre this afternoon my rhythm was not too bad and when I put on the softer compound rear tyre at the end of the qualifying session I was able to improve my times. The grid position is not that good, but we are very close to the guys in front. If I get a good start tomorrow I feel confident that I can fight to be in the top six. The positive thing about my qualifying time is that I did it on my own and didn’t follow another rider like some of the others guys out there did. I want to have a good race here tomorrow because it is another home event and I have a lot of fans here to support me, so it is important I put on a good show for them.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “Álvaro’s made big steps forward today, but despite that he is far from happy with 12th on the grid, especially when just over half-of-a-second off his time would have seen him on the second row. His race pace is very consistent and the bike is very stable on the brakes, so he is hoping to make some aggressive passes tomorrow in the early laps and fight back towards the front group as quickly as he can.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner sets scorching pole in Aragon Round 13: Grand Prix of Aragon Qualifying Motorland Aragon, Saturday 18 September 2010 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Extra Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner took his first pole position since the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix at Aragon today with an effort on his penultimate lap that took him 0.3seconds clear of the field and the only man to lap below the 1m49s mark. Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo continues his perfect front-row record with second fastest, a fraction of a second ahead of compatriot and closest championship rival Dani Pedrosa. Every rider except Hiroshi Aoyama used the softer option rear tyre for their fastest laps, but front tyre choice was mixed. Stoner used the harder option front, as did Pedrosa and fourth-placed Nicky Hayden, but Lorenzo, Ben Spies and Valentino Rossi all used the softer option. Conditions for qualifying, reduced to 45 minutes as a result of the reinstatement of the Friday morning practice session, were fine and dry and the track was the cleanest it has been all weekend. As a result, Stoner’s pole time was 1.7seconds faster than the best time set yesterday. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “Track conditions today were better than yesterday but the surface was still dirty and slippery so I didn’t expect Casey’s 1minute 48second lap which was very fast. Today riders were able to evaluate both available tyre specs ahead of tomorrow’s race, and from today’s results it looks like front race choice will be mixed with both working well. “For the rear tyres, the harder option will be preferable from a degradation point of view because this circuit has some uphill corners where the riders are accelerating hard and this demands a lot in terms of traction, and because the track surface is still dusty which increases wear appearance. The key point for tomorrow’s race will be managing tyre performance over race distance in these conditions.” Top ten from qualifying (Saturday 14:05 14:50 GMT+2) Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Gap Compounds Front, Rear 1 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m48.942s Ex. Hard, Soft 2 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m49.251s +0.309s Medium, Soft 3 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1m49.343s +0.401s Ex. Hard, Soft 4 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1m49.506s +0.564s Ex. Hard, Soft 5 Ben Spies Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m49.565s +0.623s Medium, Soft 6 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP 1m49.952s +1.010s Ex. Hard, Soft 7 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m50.017s +1.075s Medium, Soft 8 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m50.046s +1.104s Ex. Hard, Soft 9 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m50.088s +1.146s Ex. Hard, Soft 10 Hector Barbera Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1m50.323s +1.381s Medium, Soft Weather: Dry. Ambient 21-22°C; Track 26-28°C ( Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Interwetten Honda: Despite the second last starting position improvements for Aoyama Hiroshi Aoyama qualified at the qualifying practice of the Grand Prix at the Motorland Aragón on 15th position for tomorrow’s race. It will not be easy to start the race from there, as the only possibility to catch up places will be to attack the group in front from behind and that will be difficult. After a wet practice day yesterday the session today stayed dry and this was better to learn to know this challenging track. Also tomorrow for the race the weather should stay dry, which gives the Japanese hope to improve his result. Hiroshi Aoyama, 15 1’50.836: “Of course I am not satisfied with this position, but we improved regarding this morning and I hope we can continue in this direction. I also hope it will stay dry tomorrow as I prefer the layout of the track in the dry. I hope I will have a good start and can catch the group in front as I was not able to do that in the last race.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Spies shines at spectacular Motorland Aragon Ben Spies set himself up perfectly for a strong showing in tomorrow’s Motorland Aragon MotoGP race after another masterful qualifying performance at the spectacular new Spanish venue this afternoon. Spies will start from the second row of the grid for the seventh time in the last eight races after a dazzling lap of 1.49.565 saw him end a shortened 45-minute qualifying session in fifth position. Having quickly mastered the technical and challenging 5.078km track in two practice sessions yesterday, Spies was able to significantly improve the set-up of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 in sunny but cool conditions this afternoon. Temperatures nudged close to 20 degrees and Spies concentrated on making his YZR-M1 machine turn better in the long corners of the Motorland Aragon circuit, which has drawn universal praise from the MotoGP field for its challenging layout. He finished only 0.059s behind compatriot Nicky Hayden in fourth place and just over 0.2s away from registering his third front row start in the last four races. Colin Edwards will start his 100th MotoGP race for Yamaha from 11th position on the grid, the experienced American missing out on the top ten by just 0.117s. Edwards initially attempted to qualify using the hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre, a decision that unfortunately didn’t pay off as he’d anticipated. But he still had time to use his final soft tyre option to set a best time of 1.50.440 with a determined charge on his final lap. Ben Spies 5th 1.49.565 20 laps “I’m pretty happy to be on the second row again and I managed to put in some decent laps on the race tyre that bodes well for tomorrow. I can still improve the bike and make it steer better in the longer corners because in the tight and twisty sections we’ve got it working pretty well. I’m in that top six battle where I need to be and I’m satisfied with that because I’m still in that fight for the top three in the championship. The start will be crucial because we’re lacking a little bit of speed on the straight, so I need to get off the line good to try and go with those guys at the front. This track has got a lot of passing opportunities so it should be fun and a pretty good race for the fans to watch. I’m just trying to stay in that top six for the rest of the season but it is good that I’m consistently able to qualify and race with the fastest riders in MotoGP .” Colin Edwards 11th 1.50.440 19 laps “I started the session on the hard tyre and then switched to the softer compound to try and get my grid position but I had a bit of spinning and couldn’t really get the best out of it. At that point I thought it would be better to try and qualify with the hard tyre because it was a bit more stable and I’d been able to run a better lap time. So for the last run I had a new hard and a new soft tyre to choose from and I went for the hard. All weekend I’d gone faster on the hard tyre but the last one I couldn’t get the same feeling. I came back in with only four minutes to go and put the last soft tyre in knowing I’d only get one lap in. I scrubbed the tyre off as good as I could on the out lap and got my head down but I made a couple of really small mistakes that cost me a couple of places on the grid. Tomorrow is my 100th race for Yamaha and as always I’ll be giving it the best effort I can.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER TAKES FIRST EVER ARAGON POLE, HAYDEN JUST BEHIND HIM IN FOURTH Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner will start the inaugural Grand Prix of Aragon from the front of the grid tomorrow after taking an historic first pole position at the Motorland circuit this afternoon. Nicky Hayden is also aiming to force his way into the record books as part of a two-pronged assault on the podium after qualifying fourth, meaning he will line up directly behind his team-mate on the grid. Slightly modified weight distribution seemed to give Stoner extra speed today, with the Australian reporting improved rear grip and solid handling through the constant direction changes around this circuit. Hayden, meanwhile, benefitted from the switch to a different aerodynamics package – featuring a larger front fairing – that proved crucial today, with this circuit featuring the longest straight on the MotoGP calendar. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st (1’48.942) “We’ve been trying different things for the last few weekends to try and get the bike more competitive without making really big progress but it looks like we might have found something here. We’ve changed the weight distribution a little bit and it has given me more grip and confidence. Maybe it’s just the fact the bike suits this place but either way we’ve got to be happy to be back on pole for the first time since Qatar. I also like riding at new circuits when you haven’t already done a million laps around a place it’s always refreshing. We have to wait and see how the race pans out and see if I can run with these guys because we’ve had a few false dawns already this season so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but we feel good in race trim and I’m looking forward to it.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th (1’49.506) “Overall it’s been a positive day. We have had two dry sessions and I had fun we constantly made the bike a little bit faster and even though it would have been nice to be on the front row, we’re only a tenth off, the team is doing a great job and we have to be satisfied. For Casey and I to be in the top four shows that the bike is working really well around here. On the Ducati simulator the best lap I had was a 1’49.1 and the pole time was a 1’48.9 so that’s impressive, somebody back in Bologna is doing their homework! They’re doing a great job and tomorrow it’s my turn to try and bring something home for the team.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FRONT ROW FOR LORENZO BUT ROSSI STRUGGLES AT ARAGON Jorge Lorenzo took another front row this afternoon at Aragon, the remarkably consistent Spaniard putting his Fiat Yamaha machine onto the second spot on the grid to continue his record of a top-three qualification at each round this season. His team-mate Valentino Rossi had a more difficult day and will start from seventh tomorrow, at the head of the third row. After a wet day yesterday the rain stayed away and there were even some occasional bright spells at the Spanish circuit, giving the riders some much needed dry track time. Lorenzo was consistently fast throughout the session and was pleased with how he was adapting his riding style to suit the track, which led to better grip and more confidence today. In the closing minutes he was up on the pole position time on several occasions before just missing out each time in the fin al split, but his final best lap was only three tenths off pole-sitter Casey Stoner and the championship leader is hopeful of being in the mix for tomorrow’s race. Rossi was disappointed to find himself unable to run closer to the front today, finishing this morning’s session down in 11th and only making a little headway this afternoon as he struggled to find a competitive package for the track. The 31-year-old was confident he could do a good enough lap with the softer tyre at the end of the session to put him on the second row but a small mistake lost him time and he could only qualify seventh. He and his crew will work hard tonight to try to find a way to improve their pace and the reigning World Champion will use tomorrow’s warm-up to make some last minutes adjustments before the race. Both riders are paying their respects to Shoya Tomizawa at this race; Lorenzo by wearing a replica of the Japanese rider’s helmet and Rossi with a specially created sticker on his own helmet. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 2nd Time: 1’49.251 Laps: 21 “I’m riding well and I am happy about how I have improved my riding style in every practice to better suit this new track. I also understand the track better on every lap so this helps me to be faster. We are losing some time on the straight at the end of the lap so we have to be very strong in all the other parts to try to make up for it. We can’t do anything about this so it’s important that I know how to ride the rest of the track perfectly. I think tomorrow could be quite an exciting race for us and for the fans and for sure it will be a hard fight for me, but I will do my best as usual to get on the podium.” Vanetino Rossi Position: 7th Time: 1’50.017 Laps: 20 “This morning was a bit of a disaster! This afternoon things were a bit better but we are still not that fast. Unfortunately, with the softer Bridgestone tyre at the end for my fast lap I made a small mistake and lost half a second, otherwise I think I could have been fourth. Now we have to start from the third row and the start of the race will be very important because I have to try to improve my position and stay with the leaders. We have some ideas and we will use the warm-up to try to find a way to improve our pace. It will be a hard and long race but we will do our best.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Second position is good as we know it’s going to be a very tough race tomorrow. We found a good direction this afternoon; everyone else has improved as well but Jorge felt better this morning than yesterday and improved by over one second. To fight with Dani and Casey tomorrow will be a fun challenge because they look strong and have a good pace, but we will be careful and of course our target is always the podium.” Jeremy Burgess Crew Chief “We’re struggling a bit here and we didn’t improve our pace today as much as we were hoping to. Starting from the third row isn’t ideal but we will look at the data tonight, come up with some ideas and use the warm-up tomorrow to check a few things and try to make sure we’ve got a bit more up our sleeves for the race.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON THE FRONT ROW AT ARAGON, DOVIZIOSO EIGHTH Dani Pedrosa will start the first ever Grand Prix of Aragon from the front row tomorrow after qualifying in third place in a closely fought session today. The Spaniard spent much of the 45-minute session at the top of the timesheets and on his final flying lap he looked on course to record his third pole position in four races, before a slight mistake saw Pedrosa run wide and lose the 0.2s advantage he’d built in the first two sectors of the lap. Still, the 24-year-old is happy to be on the front row and has a valuable clear run into Aragon’s first corner tomorrow when he’ll be looking to record his third MotoGP win in as many races. Dovizioso was fourth in this morning’s practice session, improving his lap time from yesterday by a full second as he increased his familiarity with the impressive Aragon circuit. The 24-year-old shaved off a further seven tenths of a second in qualifying and his best lap of 1m 50.046s was just 0.1s from clinching a second row start. He never quite found a satisfactory set-up though, and in the end had to settle for eighth place and the middle of the third row. However, Dovizioso proved at Mugello and Misano this year, where he also qualified in eighth, that starting from this position need not prevent him from fighting for the podium in the race – and that will be his plan when the lights go out. The Grand Prix of Aragon begins at 14.00 tomorrow after a 20-minute warm-up session in the morning. DANI PEDROSA 3rd 1m 49.343s +0.401s “I’m happy to be on the front row as this was our main target for this afternoon’s session. I just made a little mistake and ran wide on my last fast lap when I was going well and was 0.2s ahead, so I think pole position could have been possible, but the front row is the important thing. So now we must just stay focused and get a good start because the first corner is quite near to the start line which means it will be important to get a clean run into there. It’s a new track where we haven’t raced before so the main question is how the tyres will work over a full race distance. Our performance over the last few races has been great and I want to try as hard as possible for the victory here. Everyone has come into this weekend with a blank sheet of paper so maybe it could be one of the most open races of the season.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 8th 1m 50.046s +1.104s “Our race pace is reasonable, but to be honest I’m not very happy with the session, and starting from the third row is not where we wanted to be. It’s difficult because we’re lacking some speed and we haven’t narrowed it down to one particular problem. So we need to look at the data and try to analyse what changes we can make for the warm-up tomorrow. We need to improve our speed in the centre of the corners and also the fluidity of the handling. For the race our pace is not so bad but starting from the third row is a handicap – especially because the first corner is very slow and so you cannot easily recover positions there. Still, we’ve proved previously that we can have good a race from this position and that’s what we’ll try to do again.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Dani was looking in with a good chance of taking pole position today and perhaps if the qualifying session was still one hour long he would have achieved it because his last flying lap was faster until he ran wide. However, he is on the first row and has a good opportunity to get away at the front – this is the key result from his session. Dani’s pace has been strong all weekend and I believe he has the chance to challenge again for victory tomorrow. Andrea didn’t get the qualifying result he wanted and his team will analyse the results from today and adjust the settings in preparation for warm-up tomorrow. It’s the first ever Grand Prix of Aragon and we are determined to make it a good one for the Repsol Honda Team.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: DE PUNIET BACK IN SECOND ROW AT ARAGON GP QUALIFYING Aragon, 18th September: the LCR Honda MotoGP Team rider Randy De Puniet rode his RC212V on the sixth spot for tomorrows 23-lap race at Aragon Motorland circuit which is a brand new event on the world championship calendar. After yesterdays cloudy and rainy 45-minutes free sessions, the premier class riders experienced another cold practice this morning but the weather turned into sunny for the qualifying session which saw Stoner on the top of the timesheet. The Frenchman confirmed he is a fan of the Spanish track and found a good rhythm in the dry posting the 6th fastest time(1’49.952) in the afternoon session enjoying riding his machinery at the 5.078km race track which boasts elevation changes and some spectacular corners. De Puniet 6th 1’49.952 Randy: “After yesterdays engine brake issues the guys worked in the right way to improve the bike and this second row makes me very confident for tomorrows race. We just lacked some rear grip in this morning session but we made another step forward in the afternoon. I finally enjoyed riding my bike after the bad injury I suffered in Germany. The last month has been very tough for me but now I feel in good shape again and more consistent on this track compared to Misano. Of course I am not at 100% yet and I know that this race will be close but I feel more comfortable now and it seems I do not need to p ush hard to be fast and this is very positive”. More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: DIFFICULT DAY FOR THE PRAMAC RACING TEAM Definitely not what was expected for the qualifying session of home grand prix for the Spanish rider of the Pramac Racing Team, Aleix Espargar. The Spaniard has in fact ended the session in thirteenth place this afternoon, which means having to start from the fifth row in tomorrow’s race. Not better than him has done his teammate, Mika Kallio, who failed to narrow the gap with its rivals and will start tomorrow in sixteenth position. Both riders will have to review their bike set up to retrieve the largest numbers of positions on the track in the first ever race at the Circuit de Aragon which will start at 14 local time. Fabiano Sterlacchini – Pramac Racing Technical Director “The ranking today does not allow us to say much. Mika cannot find the right feeling with the bike in the last race weekends and the situation is not the best. However we will work hard in the warm up tomorrow morning to try to straighten the situation in the race tomorrow afternoon. Aleix start a row ahead of Mika and we hope that he can at least earn the top ten in his home Grand Prix.” Aleix Espargar – Pramac Racing Rider – 13th best lap time in 1’50.537 “The bike has improved a lot even if following some riders faster than me I saw that in some parts of the track I lose too much time. Particularly in long corners I cannot close the lane as I would. Now, thanks to the work of my engineers, we will try to find a good technical compromise to try in tomorrow’s warm up. I really hope to find a good solution for tomorrow’s race because many of my fans will be in the stands of this wonderful circuit.” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Rider – 16th best lap time in 1’51.490 “We tried everything but nothing has led us to make that leap that we need at this time. We are too distant from the riders ahead of us and I am sure that this is not my position. Tomorrow I’ll put on the track all the anger I have inside me to gain a good position in the race for me and my team.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Casey Stoner took his first pole since the season opener in Qatar with the top time in qualifying on Saturday at the Gran Premio A-Style de Aragón. The Australian became the first and only rider to get under the 1’49″ mark so far this weekend on board his Ducati Desmosedici GP10, when he posted a best time of 1’48.942 on his penultimate lap of the session to beat local heroes Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa to the inaugural pole at MotoGP’s newest venue. Stoner remarked, “We’ve been trying different things for the last few weekends to try and get the bike more competitive without really making any progress but it looks like we might have found something here. We’ve changed the weight distribution a little bit and it has given me more grip and confidence. Maybe it’s just the fact the bike suits this place but either way we’ve got to be happy to be back on pole for the first time since Qatar.” Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo will start from the front row of the grid for the 15th successive race after maintaining his fantastic qualifying record, which stretches back to the Malaysian round last year. The Fiat Yamaha rider was 0.309s off Stoner with a best time of 1’49.251. Dani Pedrosa contended for pole throughout the session and the Repsol Honda rider appeared to be en route to taking top spot when he went through the second split on his final lap 0.215s up on Stoner, but the Spaniard was pushing hard and ran wide, eventually placing third at a fraction over four-tenths of a second off the top time. Consistency has been Nicky Hayden’s strong point this weekend and he only missed out on a front row start by 0.163s, ending the session in fourth place. Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was impressive in fifth as he placed his M1 alongside his fellow American’s Ducati, whilst Randy de Puniet continued to go from strength to strength as he qualified his LCR Honda machine in sixth. Heading up the third row after coming in seventh on the timesheet Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) was 1.075s from Stoner, with Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) both within a tenth of a second of the reigning World Champion. Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) completed the top ten. Moto2 Andrea Iannone put in a fine last lap in the Moto2 qualifying session to take his fifth pole of the season. The Italian’s effort of 1’55.148 delivered him top spot on the timesheet ahead of Scott Redding by a margin of 0.041s. Britain’s 17 year-old Marc VDS Racing rider looked all set for his first-ever World Championship pole as he led for the final stages of the session, but a third successive front-row start will not be of any disappointment to the Brit. Following him was Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) at just five-thousandths of a second behind, with Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) currently second in the Championship standings completing the front row of the grid. A slow-speed fall for Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) did little to dent his confidence and he closed the session in fifth position with another Italian, Claudio Corti (Forward Racing) following closely behind. Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) was seventh and an impressive substitute ride from Michele Pirro for the Gresini Racing team saw the Italian secure a second-row start. Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) qualified in 12th place at 0.690s off Iannone’s pace and had a minor crash at turn one, whilst Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki) who is currently third in the standings will start from 20th on grid. British wild card Kev Coghlan (Monlau Joe Darcey) qualified in 13th. There were falls during the session for Axel Pons (Tenerife 40 Pons), Raffaele de Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) and Karel Abraham (Cardio ab Motoracing), all of whom were uninjured. 125cc Marc Márquez shaped up for the 125cc race in the perfect manner by securing his eighth pole position of the 2010 campaign. The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider’s effort of 1’59.335 left him 0.563s clear of the remainder of his competitors in a clinical display. Riding behind his team-mate, Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) literally followed Márquez onto the front row with his effort of 1’59.898, with Nico Terol forced to settle for third. Terol is currently second in the championship, nine points adrift of Márquez, and was the third and final rider to get under 2’00″ as he came in 0.635s off his rival’s time. Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) secured his best qualification since the second round at Jerez by completing the front row with the fourth best time. Pol Espargaró still holds hopes of challenging Márquez and Terol at the top of the Championship but the Tuenti Racing rider will start from the head of the second row after placing fifth in the session, with Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar) and Johann Zarco (WTR Team San Marino) joining him. Jonas Folger (Ongetta Team), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) and Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) all secured starts from the third row. More, from a press release issued by Honda: Aragon Grand Prix, MotorLand Aragon MotoGP and Moto2 qualifying September 18 2010 Weather: windy and warm Track temperature: 26 degrees Ambient Temperature: 19 degrees PEDROSA ON FRONT ROW, GOING FOR THREE IN A ROW Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) will launch his bid for his first MotoGP hat-trick from the front row of the grid at Aragon tomorrow. The Spaniard winner of the last two races at Indianapolis and Misano ended qualifying session a close third fastest after leading much of the session. Second fastest after free practice, Pedrosa was in confident mood for the first-ever MotoGP qualifying session at Aragon, the only wholly new Grand Prix circuit on this year’s calendar. Like the vast majority of riders, Pedrosa is enjoying the new venue, which is set out across the hillside a few kilometres from the town of Alcaniz in the province of Aragon in Spain’s north east. The circuit layout is mostly medium speed and flowing, with a meandering middle section across a hillside, with plenty of blind corner entries and off-camber curves. The topography flattens out somewhat in the final section, which is mostly made up of the long back straight and the start/finish straight. Aragon isn’t all that’s new this weekend the practice and qualifying programme is also different. Following rider requests the schedule has been changed from three one hour sessions to four 45 minute sessions because this gives teams more time to implement adjustments between sessions. If deemed a success, the new format could become the standard at all races. Pedrosa is using the impressive power and rider-friendly handling of his RC212V to great effect here. On his final lap of the afternoon he looked like he might outrun pole position man Casey Stoner (Ducati). After the first two sectors he was two tenths ahead, but then he ran off the track and that was the end of that attack lap. Nevertheless he is happy with his race pace and is sure to feature up front tomorrow, along with fellow front-row starters Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) produced another excellent performance, securing a second-row start for the second successive race. And the Frenchman has more than that to be happy about this is the first time since he broke a leg during July’s German GP that he has close enough to full fitness to really enjoy riding again. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) was fast throughout the sessions, but lacked that extra bit of speed during the all-important final stages of qualifying that would have claimed a better position on the grid. The Italian was eighth fastest which puts him on the third row, which will make this another challenging race. Dovizioso is aiming to adjust his machine for the pre-race warm up to improve mid-corner speed and fine tune the handling. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) rode a great last lap to promote himself to the third row of the grid, the hard-riding Italian rookie’s fastest lap leaving him only just over a tenth of a second shy of a second row start. Nonetheless, Simoncelli is confident he can be fast enough tomorrow to go for a top-six result. Team-mate Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) had a more disappointing session, taking 14th place. Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V) had a difficult two days of practice and qualifying, struggling to find that last bit of speed required to put him in the midst of the MotoGP pack. He qualified 15th and will need an excellent start if he’s to get away with a good group. The contest for pole position in the Honda-powered Moto2 class was as hectic as ever, with the fastest three ending the session separated by just 0.046 seconds. Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team, Suter) had the upper hand for much of the 45 minutes, but with ten minutes to go he was bettered by Alex De Angelis (JIR Moto2, Motobi). Redding still had more to give, however, and with five minutes remaining he sneaked ahead of his San Marino rival, by just five thousandths of a second. Finally it was Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up) who took pole, the Italian’s last lap putting him four hundredths ahead of Redding. World Championship leader Toni Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki) had a more difficult qualifying outing. He slid off at the first turn with 15 minutes to go while lying seventh fastest, and although he managed to continue, his hopes of getting a place on the front two rows were over. Winner of the last four Moto2 races, the Spaniard completed today in 12th spot. Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team, Suter) was the last man on the front row, less than two tenths slower than De Angelis. Row two is Simone Corsi (JIR Moto2, Motobi), Claudio Corti (Forward Racing, Suter), Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up) and newcomer Moto2 Michele Pirro (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki). Elias, like most riders here, is wearing a tribute to Shoya Tomizawa, the Japanese Moto2 rider who died following a crash at Misano two weeks ago. Elias’ helmet bears the number 48, Tomizawa’s riding number, which has been permanently retired from the Moto2 class. Marcel Schrötter (Interwetten Honda 125 Team) would have done better than 19th in the 125 qualifying if he hadn’t ran off the track during his fastest lap. Pole position went to World Championship leader Marc Marquez (Derbi) HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda RC212V: 3rd, 1m 49.343s “I’m happy to be on the front row as this was our main target for this afternoon’s session. I just made a little mistake and ran wide on my last fast lap when I was going well and was 0.2s ahead, so I think pole position could have been possible, but the front row is the important thing. So now we must just stay focused and get a good start because the first corner is quite near to the start line which means it will be important to get a clean run into there. It’s a new track where we haven’t raced before so the main question is how the tyres will work over a full race distance. Our performance over the last few races has been great and I want to try as hard as possible for the victory here. Everyone has come into this weekend with a blank sheet of paper so maybe it could be one of the most open races of the season.” Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda RC212V: 6th, 1m 49.952s “After yesterday’s engine-braking issues, the guys worked in the right way to improve the bike and this second row makes me very confident for tomorrow’s race. We just lacked some rear grip in this morning’s session but we made another step forward in the afternoon. I am finally enjoying riding my bike after the bad injury I suffered in Germany. The last month has been very tough for me but now I feel in good shape again and more consistent on this track compared to Misano. I am not at 100% yet and I know that this race will be close but I feel more comfortable now and it seems I do not need to push hard to be fast and this is very positive.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda RC212V: 8th, 1m 50.046s “Our race pace is reasonable, but to be honest I’m not very happy with the session, and starting from the third row is not where we wanted to be. It’s difficult because we’re lacking some speed and we haven’t narrowed it down to one particular problem. So we need to look at the data and try to analyse what changes we can make for the warm-up tomorrow. We need to improve our speed in the centre of the corners and also the fluidity of the handling. For the race our pace is not so bad but starting from the third row is a handicap especially because the first corner is very slow and so you cannot easily recover positions there. Still, we’ve proved previously that we can have a good race from this position and that’s what we’ll try to do again.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 9th, 1m 50.088s “I am pretty happy because I think we were quite strong today but to be completely honest I was hoping to be on the second row and we only missed it by just over a tenth. Anyway, things are going quite well and we’ll see if we can use the information from today to make more improvements for the race. I spent most of the session riding alone and I haven’t got much of a reference from the other riders as to where I can improve. Maybe that will change in the race and I am confident I can finally finish in the top six.” Marco Melandri, San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V: 14th, 1m 50.580s “It has been a very disappointing session. We tried changing the geometry on one of the bikes to improve it but as usual whenever we try to change something and push harder the situation is worse. We still have problems with the front on the soft tyre and we are not improving. Once again I have to start from the fifth row and all we can do is wait and see what kind of race it is tomorrow although I’m not expecting a great result.” Hiroshi Aoyama, Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V: 15th, 1m 50.836s “Of course I am not satisfied with this position, but we improved regarding this morning and I hope we can continue in this direction. I also hope it will stay dry tomorrow as I prefer the layout of the track in the dry. I hope I will have a good start and can catch the group in front as I was not able to do that in the last race.” MOTO2 RIDER QUOTES Andrea Iannone, Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up: pole position, 1m 55.148s “I’m happy with the results we are getting this weekend, even if I am aware it’s not finished yet. I know that tomorrow we’ll face a tough race; there are a few riders who have been very strong lately. I’m satisfied with this qualifying session and in particular with the lap time we set: it’s even better than what we achieved in the tests of July. After Indianapolis and Misano we needed this result: the team never stops working to prepare a perfect machine for every race, but things can go wrong sometimes. Now we are back and we are strong. I thank the team for their amazing work, I hope we’ll end the weekend well.” Scott Redding, Marc VDS Racing Team, Suter: 2nd, 1m 55.189s “I had a much better feeling with the front compared to yesterday, so I was able to push hard right from the start of qualifying. The bike felt good, the times came pretty easy and I really thought I’d done enough to take pole, only to lose out to Iannone right at the end. I felt like I could have gone faster, down into the high 1m 54s even, but my front tyre was shot and there was no time to return to the pits for fresh rubber. Of course, I gave it a go anyway, but had to back off after having to save a front-end slide by picking the bike up on my elbow! It would have been good to start tomorrow’s race from pole, but the front row will do for me. We had some problems with the durability of the front tyre today, but with higher temperatures promised for tomorrow I don’t think this will be such an issue. If the conditions are right then I have the pace to run right at the front of the race and I’ll definitely be looking for a podium finish. There’s no complicated race strategy in place, it will just be full gas from start to finish!” Alex De Angelis, JIR Moto2, Motobi: 3rd, 1m 55.194s “I’m very happy with this front row. This weekend I really needed to get back in the saddle and regain some trust with the bike. My lap times are good and this makes me feel good, because I am getting my confidence back. The race will be tough, like they always are in Moto2. We will aim to get a good start and get away with the lead pack, then we will see what happens.” Julian Simon, Mapfre Aspar Team, Suter: 4th, 1m 55.364s “Even though we struggled to get on the pace this morning I’m happy overall. We tried a variety of clutch settings and I lost my focus a little but in the afternoon I was back to my best. The top four riders are very close and I think it could be a great battle at the front tomorrow. It will be hard to make a break because of the long straight so I hope my pace is good enough to keep me up there to the end. It would be great to win at home but I’m not going to worry about that – it would be nice just to be on the podium in front of these fans. We have done a good job so far and if I get a good start tomorrow we can be fighting for the win.” HONDA 125 RIDER QUOTES Marcel Schrötter, Interwetten Honda 125 Team: 19th, 2m 03385s “The first few laps I just could not close the gap in front of me and there was so much traffic on the track. My fastest lap was my last lap, but I almost went straight in one corner and lost my pace. At the end it was still my fastest lap, but I could not improve. I am missing four seconds to the front.”