FIM MotoGP World Championship Mugello, Spain July 2 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:48.034 2. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:48.479 3. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:48.485 4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:48.694 5. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:48.756 6. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:48.974 7. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:49.021 8. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:49.398 9. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:49.509 10. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:49.663 11. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:49.678 12. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:49.902 13. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:50.156 14. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:50.460 15. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:50.651 16. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:50.742 More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: The elements conspired against Álvaro Bautista and the whole MotoGP field today as this afternoon’s qualifying practice fell foul of the weather as sporadic rain again affected the Mugello circuit. Álvaro Bautista (P13, 1’50.460, 13 laps) had just put a new set of Bridgestone tyres into his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to set about securing a good qualifying position for tomorrow’s race, when large spots of rain started to fall onto the 5,245m Italian circuit. He returned to the pits hoping the shower would blow over, but the rain intensified and scuppered any chance he had of setting a competitive lap-time. Bautista had looked smooth and confident in this morning’s dry practice session and was consistently inside the top-six as he made adjustments to his bike to get it dialled in for tomorrow’s race. Suzuki’s Spanish star will now be looking for a good start on Sunday afternoon to make up for the disappointment of today’s qualifying and he hopes that he will be able to get in amongst the pack and produce a spirited performance in this weekend’s race. Only half of this afternoon’s hour-long qualifying session produced conditions anywhere near good enough to set a fast lap-time on slick tyres and current championship leader Casey Stoner used that time to good effect to set pole position, his fifth from eight races. Tomorrow’s 23-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) with Bautista and the rest of the MotoGP field hoping for better conditions to produce a good spectacle for the thousands of fans expected to fill the hillsides around the Tuscan circuit tomorrow. Álvaro Bautista: “Terrible is the only word I can use to explain what this afternoon was! This morning I had a good session and felt like the bike was working well. We tried a different setting to give me less movement in the corners and we made a good step forward with this. This afternoon though the conditions were horrible because it rained a bit before the start of the session and then it stopped, so I started with a used tyre just to check the track, but maybe I spent too long out there with that. When we put in the new tyres to get a good lap it started raining, so it was difficult to set a fast time. We are near the back of the grid and I will try my best to make a good start tomorrow. I have a nice rhythm from this morning and I have to forget about this afternoon, even though it was important to get a good grid position – that has gone now – and I must try my best in the race and see what happens!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “We showed good potential this morning with Álvaro inside the top-six for a large part of the session and he was still doing reasonable times right at the end on tyres with race distance already on them. We should have at least been in the low 49s this afternoon with the new tyres and on the third row at worst but the timing of our pit-stop to change to new tyres this afternoon couldn’t have been worse as the rain started to increase. Álvaro also couldn’t get the feeling he needed to push harder on the slightly greasy track, so he couldn’t improve his time before the heavy rain fell. It’s been a disappointing afternoon and we are looking for a significant improvement both in the position and hopefully the weather in the race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner sets new Mugello pole record before rain stops play yet again Round 8: Italian GP Qualifying Mugello Circuit, Saturday 2 July 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Medium, Hard Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner stormed to his fifth pole position of the season at Mugello today, making the most of the half an hour of dry running during qualifying to lap 0.4seconds clear of the field, setting a new outright two-wheeled Mugello lap record in the process. In a repeat of yesterday, light rain fell during the 125cc qualifying session but stopped just before the premier class session got underway. The track was sufficiently dry for every rider to start on slicks, and the laptimes soon tumbled as riders pushed hard to set fast laps early on, fearing another rain shower. That rain came at the half-way point of the session, by which time the top nine riders were all faster than the existing lap record on the circuit’s new tarmac and using Bridgestone’s asymmetric rear slicks for the first time here this season. In the still slippery conditions most riders started using the softer option front and rear slicks, but as conditions improved the harder front tyre was soon favoured for its extra stability and wear resistance. Rear tyre choices remained mixed though. Stoner used a softer rear, but teammate Andrea Dovizioso was the highest placed rider to use the harder rear, finishing fourth fastest. Yamaha rider and winner last time out Ben Spies finished second fastest ahead of yesterday’s pace-setter Marco Simoncelli of San Carlo Honda Gresini, both of whom also used the harder front and softer rear tyre options. As the rain fell steadily, only a handful of riders went back out on track in the second half of the session to complete some laps on Bridgestone’s soft wet tyres. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division “The laptimes today were very fast, but still I think they would have been even faster given two days of totally dry running. As it is, each rain shower has reset track conditions instead of the grip improving throughout the weekend as we normally see. Nevertheless, the new surface itself is extremely good and the undulation is much less, so the circuit has done a very good job. Both Jorge during FP3 and Casey in qualifying have lapped faster than the outright circuit record today which was set on qualifying tyres in 2008. Now in the single tyre era we don’t have qualifying tyres, only race tyres, so this indicates the level of the improvements. We were able to confirm race-distance durability of both specs of slick tyre this morning when we at least had a full 45minutes of dry running and slick tyre performance is looking good, but again valuable track time was lost this afternoon which is a shame for the teams and also the fans here. The tarmac is brand new here so it is very black in colour, and this made it very difficult for the riders to spot the wet patches or rain drops, especially when it was just damp at the start of qualifying. Today and yesterday the rain started falling around 1330hrs, and the race tomorrow is at 1400hrs local time so it will make conditions very challenging if we see the same rain tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha MotoGP Team: Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies took second place in today’s qualifying session at Mugello for the Grand Prix of Italy tomorrow. The Assen Grand Prix race winner took advantage of limited dry time at the beginning of the session to put in his fastest time on his tenth lap and final full lap of the heat. Spies then sat out the rest of the session, safe in the knowledge his grid position could not be beaten in wet conditions. The Texan had been fourth fastest in the dry morning final free practice as he continued to hunt the perfect set up for the Mugello circuit. Jorge Lorenzo enjoyed a slightly more frustrating qualifying session. The Mallorcan rider was still hunting his fastest lap when the conditions changed, denying him the opportunity of a front row start and relegating him to fifth for tomorrow’s race. The result was doubly frustrating as the morning’s free practice witnessed a blistering pace from the World Champion, the fastest rider of the session with a 1.48.080. Ben Spies Position : 2nd Time: 1’48.479 Laps: 10 “Everybody only got about ten laps in this afternoon, we only used on set of tyres so we have plenty for tomorrow. We’re pretty confident we know which rubber we want to use after the qualifying session. I wish we could have had the whole hour in the dry but there you go, it was the same for everyone. We think we can make the bike a bit better for the race so we’ll work on it and I’m looking forward to challenging for the podium.” Jorge Lorenzo Position : 5th Time: 1’48.756 Laps: 7 “I’ve been riding pretty good this morning. The bike has been working well but at the end in qualifying I couldn’t improve. It is very complicated riding in wet conditions and the pole has been for the rider who took more risks. It’s a shame because I hoped for more! My aim is to try to be in front. For this it’s important to get a good start. All my team is focused to do another good race; they are working so hard for our home Grand Prix. After Silverstone and Assen we wish to come back to the podium!” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Qualifying was a little disappointing with fifth spot on the grid. We used a different tyre package in the afternoon compared to the morning which cost a little time and as soon as we were ready to go with a faster one it started to rain. We know there is a lot more to come; the package is very strong so we have all confidence that we can do a good race tomorrow.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “It seems that the rain doesn’t want to allow us to work properly! We are satisfied we have both riders on first and second row. We improved the set up a lot from yesterday for both even with the limited dry time so far this weekend. I’m personally positive about tomorrow’s race I think both Ben and Jorge will be in front and both have the capability to fight for the podium.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Second row for Edwards, Crutchlow claims seventh Colin Edwards will start from a season best grid position in tomorrow’s Gran Premio d’Italia TIM after the American powered his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine to a brilliant sixth place in a rain-disrupted qualifying session. And British team-mate Cal Crutchlow will head the third row in seventh position after he finished just 0.047s behind Edwards in a session interrupted by the return of light drizzle that virtually wiped out the entire second practice yesterday afternoon at the Mugello circuit. Light rain that fell during the earlier 125cc session had stopped ahead of MotoGP qualifying and Edwards and Crutchlow were able to take to the track on slick tyres as hot and humid conditions quickly dried the new Mugello tarmac. But light rain began to dampen the technically challenging 5.245km track shortly after the halfway stage, preventing Edwards and Crutchlow from completing their final preparations ahead of tomorrow’s 23-lap race. Both did return to the track for the final minutes to complete two laps on Bridgestone’s rain tyres to gauge grip levels in case tomorrow’s race is staged on a wet track. Edwards was fifth fastest this morning, the American shaving almost a second off his best time from yesterday, and he secured sixth with a best lap of 1.48.974. Crutchlow was 11th quickest in warm and sunny conditions this morning, the British rider able to knock 0.6s off his best time from yesterday as he made big strides in gaining more confidence with the front-end of his YZR-M1 machine. Despite his lack of track knowledge, Crutchlow was quickly able to lower his times into the 1.49 bracket early in qualifying to claim fifth. He ended with a best lap 1.49.021 to knock a further second off his previous best time and another outstanding display from Crutchlow maintained his impressive record of qualifying in the top ten for every race in his rookie campaign. Colin Edwards 6th 1.48.974 17 laps: “That’s my best qualifying result of the season and I’m really happy with that. The start of the session was really tricky because we all went out on slicks but there were parts of the track that were still damp. Your brain is telling you it is raining but you go out and push on slick tyres and that can be a bit unnerving. I gradually built up my pace and the track dried really quickly. I was on the soft front and soft rear tyre but the front was pushing a bit too much. I came in and changed to the hard front, kept the soft tyre on and I felt much better and did my fastest time with that combination. I went out on the rain tyres right at the end just to check the bike balance with the wet setting. It also gave me a chance to check the grip in the wet and it felt awesome, just like in the dry. Once again I want to thank the people at the Mugello track because the new surface is just unbelievable. A lot of the big bumps that seem to upset my rhythm have gone and it feels much easier for me to lap at the pace I know I’m capable of here. I want to say hats off to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew too because we changed the rear set-up of the bike for the dry and it gave me more confidence. I don’t think it gives me a major advantage but I’m just more feeling of what the bike is doing, so I’m looking forward to a strong race tomorrow.” Cal Crutchlow 7th 1.49.021 16 laps: “We made a big step with the feeling from the front-end this morning and I was a second faster this afternoon. The changes we made gave me more feeling but I still feel very much on the limit with corner entry and mid-corner. I’m scratching my head a little bit searching for a solution but we need to analyse the data tonight and come up with a plan to improve for the race. Colin just took that second row from me before the rain came but it is great for the Team that both of us are up there and I’m in front of some riders who’ve got a lot of experience at Mugello, so that is satisfying. I’m frustrated again though because I’ve lost more valuable track time. This job of learning the track and trying to be competitive is tough enough as it is, but with the sessions being disrupted makes it very difficult. I only went out in the rain to do a practice start and it felt fine. I also checked the grip in t he rain and in places it felt really good and in other parts it felt a little sketchy, so I’m confident I can get a good result in the wet or dry.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Stoner flies in Mugello with Dovizioso fourth and Pedrosa an impressive eighth before rain affects proceedings again The promise of a substantial improvement in the lap times on the new Mugello asphalt has been accomplished today, on the second day of the Grand Prix of Italy, where Casey Stoner has been the main protagonist. The Australian Repsol Honda rider achieved the fastest lap in history at Mugello with a time of 1’48.034 and claimed his twenty seventh pole position in the MotoGP class, and the fifth of this season. Stoner accomplished this twenty four minutes before the end of the qualifying session, when rain made an unwelcome appearance and ruined any possibility to better the lap times. Andrea Dovizioso has improved his feeling with the front of his RC212V and stands fourth on the grid, while Dani Pedrosa starts eighth after improving his time by eight tenths from yesterday. Already this morning, six riders including Stoner and Dovizioso, had made the previous circuit record obsolete. The weather forecast predicts good weather for tomorrow, but nobody trusts the skies. Regardless, Stoner will be looking for another great result and some good points to consolidate his lead in the World Championship. Andrea Dovizioso will do his best to visit the podium again especially here at his home race, and Dani Pedrosa, who is suffering great pain in his return to racing, will try to make one of his notorious good starts to arrive with the front group from early on. CASEY STONER 1st – 1’48.034 “After the two sessions yesterday and also in FP3 this morning, we weren’t too happy with the set up we had, so we were looking to utilise all of this afternoon’s session. However, we made some changes to my second bike, which I made my fastest lap on and we’ve come out with a fantastic bike. I’m really happy to get pole here especially on a used tyre, the start of qualifying didn’t look too good, there was some rain and it was difficult to know how much to push so we went with soft tyres on front and rear to try and get a good lap time before the rain arrived. Once I was on track I realised the rain hadn’t affected conditions so much, so I came back in and made a change on the second bike and went back out with a hard front which gave us a little more stability and we managed to go a lot faster. The way the surface is working and everything in general is perfect, even with difficult conditions, we made the right choices at the right time”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 4th – 1’48.694 “I’m fairly satisfied with fourth position after the rain created strange track conditions, and I’m happy with our overall pace. Starting from the second row is fine on this track as there is a long straight before turn one. We made some modifications to improve my feeling with the front of the bike and as far as I could tell, they were positive. I wanted to do some laps with hard tyres in preparation for the race as on this track the tyre drops quite quickly, but it was not possible. The race will be long and physically demanding and it won’t be easy to maintain the rhythm for all twenty three laps, but we are ready for this challenge and look forward to fighting for a good result. I’m confident tomorrow the Italian riders will put on a good show for the public here in Mugello!”. DANI PEDROSA 8th – 1’49.398 “I was pretty lucky because the session was only 30 minutes old when the rain arrived and this is good for my injury. I made a few nice laps at the beginning of the session and I’m impressed with my lap time, eighth place on the grid is very good given my physical condition. I know that in the race it will be hard but I will try my best. I’ll try the maximum during the 23 laps, 100% in my situation and we will see how much I can achieve. This morning I felt better because I had a good rest last night, but for sure lap by lap the shoulder is getting more and more sore and this afternoon it’s been harder. I want to save energy during the warm up tomorrow morning to try to give the rest in the race”. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: MIXED CONDITIONS PLAY HAVOC WITH TONI’S QUALIFYING IN MUGELLO Mugello, 02 July: uncertain weather conditions interfered with LCR Honda rider Toni Elias plan in the second day of practices at Mugello circuit which hosts the seventh round of the calendar. After yesterday’s rain marred second session, premier class riders were anxious to rejoin the Tuscan track and this morning third free session was conducted in the dry. But track conditions changed completely for the 60-minute qualifying session held under cloudy skies with light rain and Elias could not complete his TO DO list finishing the session in 16th position (1’50.742). Casey Stoner topped the timesheet followed by Spies and Simoncelli. Elias 16th: “I am not satisfied and this weather makes me nervous. I know it’s the same situation for everybody but I had some things to adjust on the bike and could not test anything. In the first part of the qualifying when the asphalt was still dry I rode the standard bike I lapped this morning. Then I came in to make a couple of changes on the other bike but suddenly it started to rain and I could not complete my set up plan. I hope we can fix the bike in tomorrow’s warm up”. More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Casey Stoner put in a blistering fast lap to grab pole position for the start of the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM race at Mugello, his 27th pole position in the premier class. American Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) will join the Australian on the front row. With uncertain weather conditions threatening, the MotoGP grid hurried to put down as many laps as possible and the Australian on the Repsol Honda set a new circuit record of 1’48.034 in the first half of the session, to qualify him almost half a second faster than Spies on his Yamaha Factory Racing YZR-M1. The American managed to qualify second on the grid with a time of 1’48.479 at only his second visit to the Tuscan circuit. Spies edged out Simoncelli by just 0.006s, who was unable to counter with a quicker attempt as rain began to fall in earnest with 25 minutes remaining in the hour long qualifying session. Andrea Dovizioso will start his Repsol Honda on Sunday from the head of the second row, after setting a time of 1’48.694 – a 0.394s improvement over his best time set in FP1. The Italian was 0.062s quicker than Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, who set an earlier lap record in FP3. The Mallorcan’s qualifying time of 1’48.756 was over half a second slower than his earlier record breaking best time. Completing the second row will be Colin Edwards on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike, trailing Lorenzo by 0.218s. Edward’s team mate Cal Crutchlow leads row three and is the last of the field within a second of the record breaking lap of Stoner. He is joined by last year’s race winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who returns to racing after his 3 race absence due to injury, and the first Ducati Team finisher in the bunch ridden by Nicky Hayden. The Kentucky Kid’s team mate Valentino Rossi finished the session in 12th. Moto2 Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) took his second pole position of the 2011 season in a rainy qualifying ahead of the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM Moto2 race. The 125cc World Champion set a fast lap of 2’05.312 at the end of a heated time battle, beating out Alex de Angelis of the JiR Moto2 team by 0.585s and Tech 3 Racing’s Smith by 1.305s. Smith, who posted a time of 2’06.617, will take his first front row Moto2 start in Sunday’s race. Belgian rider Xavier Simeon (Tech 3 B) will lead the second row after a qualifying time of 2’06.757, with Randy Krummenacher (GP Team Switzerland Kiefer Racing) and Pol Espargaró (HP Tuenti Speed Up) joining him on the second row of the grid. Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) appeared set to challenge for pole position until his bike slowed in the last part of a final hot lap, leaving the German rider in seventh in the dying seconds of the session. Mattia Pasini (Ioda Racing Project), who held the top time in qualifying at the halfway point, finished the session in eighth while Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing) completes row three in ninth. Axel Pons (Pons HP 40) did not participate in the qualifying session and will miss the race following a crash with Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda Singha-SAG) in FP3. 125cc Johann Zarco will start from pole position for the first time in his career on Sunday, after a rain-hit qualifying session prevented the majority of the 125cc riders from improving on their provisional times. The Avant-AirAsia-Ajo rider set his best time of the weekend in the few early dry laps of the qualifying session. His time of 1’58.988 was over a second and a half faster than second place starter Luis Salom (RW Racing GP), who will start for the second time this season from the front row, and nearly two seconds ahead of third position starter Sergio Gadea (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team). Light and intermittent showers left the circuit in varying degrees of dampness during the early part of the 40 minute single cylinder class qualifying session, later turning heavier just before the end, allowing the field only the first minutes to set their fastest times. Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) posted a time of 2’01.026 to put him in fourth position and at the head of the second row, he will be accompanied by the Championship leader Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) who was quickest in the dry morning session but was taken by surprise with the arrival of rain, which had been forecast for later in the afternoon. Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) posted a top six time of 2’01.093 and completes row two. Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) and Bankia Aspar duo Héctor Faubel and Adrián Martín make up an all Spanish row three, with Italian Louis Rossi (Matteoni Racing) leading row four joined by Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) and Danny Webb (Mahindra Racing). More, from a press release issued by Honda: STONER GETS FIFTH POLE IN MUGELLO Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner sped to his fifth pole position of the season by running the fastest ever lap by a motorcycle in a rain-shortened qualifying session at the Mugello Circuit in Tuscany. Ben Spies (Yamaha) was second and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) third and on the front row for the fifth race in succession. The one hour session began with some urgency under a very light rain on the recently repaved 5.245k track north of Florence. Honda riders started strongly, taking over the top spot from the seven minute mark and sharing it among themselves to the end of the hour. Fastest rider honours went from Stoner to Simoncelli to Dovizioso in the span of 90 seconds just into the seventh minute, and before the ninth minute had elapsed Simoncelli was on top, beginning a battle with Stoner. The Australian would overtake Simoncelli with his eighth lap, just prior to 19 minutes elapsed, and strengthen it on his ninth, which turned out to be the fastest lap of the Mugello Circuit. Stoner lapped the undulating track in 1m, 48.034s, which was under the mark of 1m, 48.080 sec. set by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) in Saturday morning practice. Stoner would certainly have dipped into the 1m, 47s had the rain not begun to fall harder with 27 minutes to run. That sent everyone headed straight to the pits, where most watched the rest of the hour pass. A few riders went out at the end of the hour, but to no effect. The pole was the 31st of Stoner’s career and it came at a track where he got his first pole in the 125cc class in 2003. It was also his 27th premier class pole. Simoncelli enjoyed strong home country support, with the enthusiasm of the rain-dampened crowd filling the valley in which the track is situated. Simoncelli was either on pole or second fastest at the previous five races. His fastest lap of 1m, 48.485s was slower than Spies’ best by a mere .006s. Just behind Simoncelli on the row two pole was Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V). Dovi hails from the town of Forli, about 90kms north of Mugello, and was hopeful of joining team-mate Stoner on the front row for his home grand prix. But his consolation was that he was the third Honda in the top four. Dani Pedrosa, the third member of the Repsol Honda team, made his return to racing after a forced lay-off due to injuries. Pedrosa broke his right collarbone after getting hit by another rider in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans six weeks earlier. Two surgeries followed, with the Spaniard not riding at all until Friday morning practice. Pedrosa said the pain increased as the day went on, but that he believed he would be close to full fitness in a race or two. He finished with the eighth fastest time. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) got quicker as the session progressed, finishing with a best time of 1m, 50.156s on the last of his 15 laps. But the Japanese star said he was still bothered by injuries sustained in a practice crash last week’s Dutch TT in Assen. And he was also denied valuable set-up time after spending last week on the Repsol Honda RC212V of Dani Pedrosa. Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP) had a difficult session with the mixed weather conditions. The conditions made it impossible for Elias to run through his testing program, which meant he wasn’t able to get the most out of his RC212V. He rode his standard bike when the tarmac was dry, but when he came in to switch to his second Honda RC212V it began to rain and he wasn’t able to explore all of his race options. While the MotoGP session was cut short by rain, the Moto2 session was run on a completely wet track with early rain that stopped prior to the halfway mark. As the track dried out, the lap times fell. Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol, Suter rider Marc Marquez stole the pole from JiR Moto2, Motobi rider Alex de Angelis with his final lap. De Angelis had been surprisingly ascendant in the waning minutes, putting himself in the mix of the front row with his two final laps. De Angelis had the provisional pole when Marquez blazed to his fast lap of 2m, 5.312s on the last of his 19 laps. De Angelis finished second at a gap of .585s, with Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing, Tech 3) earning his first Moto2 front row start in third. Xavi Simeon (Tech 3 B, Tech 3) snuck onto the front row with the final of his 16 laps. MotoGP rider quotes Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda: pole position 1m, 48.034s “After the two sessions yesterday and also in FP3 this morning, we weren’t too happy with the set-up we had, so we were looking to utilise all of this afternoon’s session. However, we made some changes to my second bike, which I made my fastest lap on, and we’ve come out with a fantastic bike. I’m really happy to get pole here, especially on a used tyre. The start of qualifying didn’t look too good, there was some rain and it was difficult to know how much to push, so we went with soft tyres on front and rear to try and get a good lap time before the rain arrived. Once I was on track I realised the rain hadn’t affected conditions so much, so I came back in and made a change on the second bike and went back out with a hard front which gave us a little more stability and we managed to go a lot faster. The way the surface is working and everything in general is perfect, even with difficult conditions, we made the right choices at the right time.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 3rd 1m, 48.485s “I am on the front row and I am happy with that. Maybe I could have made a challenge for pole position, but it had started to rain and I preferred to back off. I was actually improving my lap time about halfway through the session when I saw a few drops on my visor and with a lap time already in the bank I decided not to risk it. It was a tough session because you had to trust the grip even though there was water on your visor. Everything is pretty much sorted with the bike, my pace is good and tomorrow I will try to do the best I can. I hope we have a dry race and not conditions like today. I want to stay calm because everything is in place for us to do well so I just need to pay attention at critical points. They say it’s hard to sleep here at Mugello, but I like the atmosphere and to be honest it actually helps me sleep, even though I would really like to be out there with the fans.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 4th 1m, 48.694s “I’m fairly satisfied with fourth position after the rain created strange track conditions, and I’m happy with our overall pace. Starting from the second row is fine on this track as there is a long straight before turn one. We made some modifications to improve my feeling with the front of the bike and, as far as I could tell, they were positive. I wanted to do some laps with hard tyres in preparation for the race, as on this track the tyre drops quite quickly, but it was not possible. The race will be long and physically demanding and it won’t be easy to maintain the rhythm for all 23 laps, but we are ready for this challenge and look forward to fighting for a good result. I’m confident tomorrow the Italian riders will put on a good show for the public here in Mugello.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 8th 1m, 49.398s “I was pretty lucky because the session was only 30 minutes old when the rain arrived and this is good for my injury. I made a few nice laps at the beginning of the session and I’m impressed with my lap time; eighth place on the grid is very good given my physical condition. I know that in the race it will be hard but I will try my best. I’ll try the maximum during the 23 laps, 100% in my situation and we will see how much I can achieve. This morning I felt better because I had a good rest last night, but for sure lap by lap the shoulder is getting more and more sore and this afternoon it’s been harder. I want to save energy during the warm up tomorrow morning to try to give the rest in the race.” Hiroshi Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 13th 1m, 50.156s “It was a tricky session because of the conditions and unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the right feeling with the bike, so hopefully we can do that in the morning and gain the confidence to push in the dry conditions. My physical condition is also a bit of a problem because I am still not fully recovered from the crash at Assen.” Toni Elias, LCR Honda MotoGP: 16th 1m, 50.742s “I am not satisfied and this weather makes me nervous. I know it’s the same situation for everybody, but I had some things to adjust on the bike and could not test anything. In the first part of the qualifying when the asphalt was still dry I rode the standard bike I lapped this morning. Then I came in to make a couple of changes on the other bike, but suddenly it started to rain and I could not complete my set-up plan. I hope we can fix the bike in tomorrow’s warm up.” Moto2 rider quotes Marc Marquez, Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol-Suter: pole position, 2m, 5.312s “My confidence for tomorrow is good, because in the dry (morning) condition we find a good set-up and it’s quite easy to keep the time, like 1m, 44s, 1m, 43s. But more or less that practice, that qualifying was so difficult because the track was getting dry and I was sliding quite a lot. But in the end this pole position is important. But it’s important for me tomorrow to start on the first row, as it is the most important thing in this category, and then we will see. Tomorrow should be dry and just I want to concentrate on my way and on my work and for sure I think we can do a nice race.” Alex de Angelis, JiR Moto2, Motobi 2nd, 2m, 5.897s “Finally the first row; I’m very happy about. It’s very important in this class. It’s very, very difficult to start in the first or second row. And with this condition it was also difficult because we haven’t tried with the wet condition in Mugello, so I’m very happy. The team works very well. The bike is not so bad, especially for the race, because my tyre is very, very constant. Of course I prefer to ride in the wet, but we are ready for all the possibilities.” Bradley Smith, Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 3rd, 2m, 6.617s “Obviously we have a great feeling for the wet; being brought up in the UK definitely helps. We have to ride in these conditions a lot. But definitely difficult conditions. As it started to dry it went very greasy and then all of a sudden the last three laps the grip came again and Andrea (Iannone) and a couple of other guys got behind me, I think (Thomas) Luthi was behind me. I just didn’t want to give them the tow on the last lap, so I rolled off. And that was almost the biggest mistake, because, yeah, the guys still had two laps on me, but obviously I’m happy. We have a few problems that we need to address, just because we’re having the same problems in the rain as in the dry. So it means it’s a valid problem. But to put it on the front row, at a track that I love and for the Tech 3 team, it’s a good result and looking forward to starting the race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: RAIN SHORTENS MUGELLO QUALIFYING. HAYDEN NINTH, ROSSI TWELFTH Bad weather continued to affect the MotoGP world championship today at Mugello, where rain made a brief appearance that cut the amount of useful time in the qualifying session in half. Nicky Hayden found a good dry setup this morning that improved his feeling with the bike, but he couldn’t take full advantage of it in qualifying. Valentino Rossi, who had many things to try for his GP11.1’s setup, was hurt more than others by the lack of track time and will start from the twelfth spot on the grid tomorrow. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 9th, 1:49.509 “This morning we made a couple little improvements with the bike and were feeling quite good. We didn’t put in a new soft tyre at the end, so the gap looked worse than it was. I felt confident, but this afternoon the conditions were crazy. It was spotting rain in the beginning, but everybody put their heads down and went out full-gas. Then the conditions got worse and it was a shame for the fans that we were all sitting in the garage when we’d normally be doing a time attack. It rained yesterday and today around race time, so I went out for a little at the end and had a look at the new surface in the wet, just in case. The tyre choice is going to be interesting because we really haven’t had any afternoon track time in the dry. I can’t be happy starting ninth at Ducati’s home race, but we’ll try to make our fans proud.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Marlboro Team) 12th, 1:49.902 “We had many things to try and the rain this afternoon ruined our plans, but that’s no excuse for the gap, as the conditions were the same for everyone. It’s true that we lost yesterday’s morning session, and that we’re still working on development. We expected to go better at Mugello, and instead we struggled here as well. I don’t feel good with the front, so I lose a lot on corner entry, and I can’t ride the bike well. As for the rear, we’ve made progress, and the GP11.1 has solved some issues. Acceleration is better, but we still have to work with the front. Obviously, we’ll try our best in the race, although it will be hard, but in any case we’ll gather experience that will be useful in the future.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: WEATHER AFFECTS MUGELLO QUALIFYING. DE PUNIET FIFTEENTH The starting grid for the Mugello Grand Prix, the world championship’s fifth round, was determined in rainy conditions. The first half was held mainly in the dry, while the last part was compromised by the arrival of rain. Randy De Puniet rode his Ducati well during the final free-practice session, registering the ninth-best time, just behind the factory Ducatis. In the afternoon, the Frenchman wasn’t able to repeat the performance, due in part to a problem with his brakes that slowed down the work on the bike’s setup before it started to rain. He stopped the clock at 1:50.651, good for fifteenth place on the starting grid. Marco Rigamonti – Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “The weather is once again an unknown, even here in Italy. We weren’t as clever as the others, who pushed hard from their first laps. We opted for the soft front tyre, but after he came in, Randy preferred to go back out with the hard. Then we had a problem with the brakes, and when everything was fixed, it started to rain. It’s a shame, because during the final free-practice session this morning, our time was right with those of Hayden and Rossi; this afternoon definitely went worse.” Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Rider – 15th best time in 1:50.651 “This morning I was satisfied, the feeling with the bike was better than previous releases. I was pretty good considering the qualifications. But this afternoon we encountered several problems with the front brake. I was forced to stop, I have not had time to put on my helmet that it started to rain. And the qualifications, more than 20 minutes from the end, had already been compromised. I haven’t had a chance to make a turn as it should, I hoped to be some position of “.