FIM Moto2 World Championship Catalunya, Spain June 4 Qualifying Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Stefan BRADL, Germany (KALEX), 1:46.753 2. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:46.867 3. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (MORIWAKI), 1:46.978 4. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:47.068 5. Marc MARQUEZ, Spain (SUTER), 1:47.154 6. Bradley SMITH, Great Britain (TECH 3), 1:47.207 7. Mika KALLIO, Finland (SUTER), 1:47.226 8. Julian SIMON, Spain (SUTER), 1:47.355 9. Esteve RABAT, Spain (FTR), 1:47.426 10. Jules CLUZEL, France (SUTER), 1:47.456 11. Scott REDDING, Great Britain (SUTER), 1:47.527 12. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:47.558 13. Javier FORES, Spain (SUTER), 1:47.741 14. Michele PIRRO, Italy (MORIWAKI), 1:47.765 15. Simone CORSI, Italy (FTR), 1:47.781 16. Axel PONS, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:47.817 17. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (SUTER), 1:47.846 18. Claudio CORTI, Italy (SUTER), 1:47.861 19. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (KALEX), 1:47.937 20. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (MOTOBI), 1:47.954 21. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:47.988 22. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (SUTER), 1:48.005 23. Carmelo MORALES, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:48.068 24. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Germany (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:48.081 25. Pol ESPARGARO, Spain (FTR), 1:48.087 26. Valentin DEBISE, France (FTR), 1:48.156 27. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (SUTER), 1:48.179 28. Robertino PIETRI, Venezuela (SUTER), 1:48.213 29. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (FTR), 1:48.234 30. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (TECH 3), 1:48.282 31. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (TECH 3), 1:48.331 32. Anthony WEST, Australia (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:48.487 33. Kev COGHLAN, Great Britain (FTR), 1:48.631 34. Mattia PASINI, Italy (FTR), 1:48.755 35. Santiago HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:48.841 36. Kenny NOYES, USA (FTR), 1:49.048 37. Mashel AL NAIMI, Qatar (MORIWAKI), 1:49.926 38. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (MORIWAKI), no time recorded* * Have qualified for the race having achieved a time within 107% of the fastest rider in a free practice session. More, from a press release issued by JiR Moto2 Team: GP of Catalunya, qualifying: 20th place for De Angelis Some machine development difficulties marked the second day of practice at the Circuit de Catalunya for the JiR Team. In the morning session Alex De Angelis struggled to find a good rhythm, failing to improve on the 1’47.513s time he scored yesterday with the new bike configuration. The work of finalizing the set-up started yesterday and continued in today’s qualifying session, but did not bring the desired results this was exacerbated by the traffic that usually characterizes the session on Saturday afternoon. De Angelis pulled a best time of 1’47 .954s which gives him the 20th place on the grid, a position that will require a renewed aggressiveness at the start and a tough run in the race to catch up with the leaders. Alex DeAngelis The whole day has gone bad! Yesterday we found an effective set-up of my MotoBI but today we were unable to finalize this setting. I have not found the right confidence, I still lack traction to get out of the corners and that makes me lose time from my competitors. In the qualifying session things went even worse than in free practice: I was quite unlucky because unfortunately due to the traffic I could not even do a clean lap, but yesterday we saw that our standards can be better and so we must find the right key to unlock this for tomorrow. We still have the warm-up to fix a couple of details but I’m already concentrating on the race because in this context I will be called upon to give my best for a major comeback. More, from a press release issued by Tech 3: Xavier Siméon difficult qualifying at the Circuito de Catalunya Xavier Siméon finished the Qualifying for the Gran Premio Aperol de Catalunya, which is taking place this weekend on the Circuito de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain in 31st position. The 22 years old from Belgium had finished his practice sessions this morning with the third practice on 21st position, but still has the potential to improve he says. Siméon is very disappointed of his qualifying performance as once again he was not able to proof the hard work of his team and the potential of his Tech3 Mistral 610 bike. The Youngster will need a strong start again to fight for the positions with the other Moto2 competitors during tomorrow’s r ace and bring home the long-desired points. Xavier Siméon, 31st position: “I am frustrated and disappointed. Once again I could not get a fast lap together. I wanted to try to follow another rider to ride in his slipstream, but there was nobody I could follow. I don’t really know what my problem is. I am confident, I know my potential. The bike is so much better as it was before and we found a great set up. I am happy with the bike and my team, but still I struggle to get this one qualifying lap together. In practice I am always around 15th to 17th position during the session, but in qualifying I drop so much back that again tomorrow I will have to try all I can to get the strongest possible start and ride a hard race to find my way to the points.” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3: Second row for super Smith in Catalunya Bradley Smith once again demonstrated the high level performance of the Tech 3 Racing Team’s Mistral 610 Moto2 machine in Catalunya today after he qualified on the second row of the grid at the challenging Montmelo circuit. Smith has been one of the fastest and most consistent riders on track all weekend and he was in blistering form this morning, the 20-year-old ending free practice in a morale-boosting second place on the combined timesheets. Smith was only denied the fastest time in practice by 0.041s and his fantastic form continued in this afternoon’s qualifying session, which took place on a dry track as forecast rain showers never materialised. The Brit ish rider was lying in second place and preparing to mount a challenge for his first Moto2 front row start when he suffered an unfortunate crash at the final corner with 18 minutes remaining. His Mistral 610 machine suffered extensive damage and Smith was unable to complete the session. Highlighting just how impressive his speed earlier in the session was, Smith still secured sixth place on the grid for tomorrow’s 23-lap encounter, which is round five of the 2011 Moto2 World Championship. His best time of 1.47.207 was only 0.454s slower than Stefan Bradl’s pole position time. Today’s qualifying session didn’t run smoothly for Mike di Meglio, the French rider unable to find a comfortable rear suspension setting and he will start from down in 30th position. He finished with a best time of 1.48.282, but proving just how competitive the Moto2 class in 2011, he was only 0.8s away from the top ten. Bradley Smith 6th 1.47.207 11 laps: “The second row is a good result for tomorrow, particularly when you consider I didn’t even ride at the end of the session when I know I could have gone faster. Unfortunately we had a crash in the last corner and it is a bit of mystery what caused it. I don’t personally think it was my own fault but we need to check everything on the bike as it was a big crash and the mechanics will have a lot of work to do. Now we have to check the data to find the reason of the crash and understand in which direction we want to go to for tomorrow. We need to improve a little bit in some small areas for the race tomorrow. I need to be faster in the first few laps but we have a really good pace for the middle to the end of the race on worn tyres. I’m still confident of another good result tomorrow and hopefully that will give me a big confi dence boost heading to the British Grand Prix next weekend, which is a massive race for me.” Mike di Meglio 30th 1.48.282 19 laps: “It has been a very difficult day and once again I am starting a long way down the grid and the race is going to a tough one. This morning was so much better and I had a good feeling with the bike. But we are still looking for some rear grip and I don’t feel comfortable with the bike under acceleration. We are all so close to each other on lap times that you have to improve a lot to be in front. I will have to do a strong start again to get some points tomorrow but I won’t give up and I hope I will be able to give my Team a good result.” More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing: KALLIO AND REDDING READY FOR BARCELONA BATTLE The Marc VDS Racing Team will start the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya brimming with confidence tomorrow after Mika Kallio and Scott Redding qualified in seventh and 11th positions respectively. Kallio’s confidence soared yesterday when he brilliantly adapted to a new weight distribution setting on his Suter MMXI machine, and the Finnish rider was once again one of the fastest riders on track on a warm second day of action at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona. Kallio has been able to utilise his hard and aggressive braking technique to maximum effect with the new set-up and his best time of 1.47.226 was only 0.019s away from securing him a deserved place on the second row of the grid. British rider Redding was just unable to force his way into the top ten in yet another closely contested Moto2 qualifying session that saw just over 1.5s split the top 30. The 18-year-old’s growing confidence levels with the front-end of his MMXI machine was evident again today, with Redding ending free practice with the fifth fastest time. He was denied a chance to join Kallio in the top 10 as he encountered heavy traffic in the final minutes of the session, as he sought to improve on a time of 1.47.558. Redding ended just 0.031s outside of the top 10. Kallio and Redding are now determined to score the first World Championship points of 2011 for the Marc VDS Racing Team in tomorrow’s 23-lap race. Mika Kallio #36 – 1.47.226 – 18 laps – 7th position “Thankfully the smile I got from my improved performance yesterday is still here today because it shows we have done a brilliant job. I can’t thank my Team enough because we’ve all worked incredibly hard without reaping the rewards, so hopefully this seventh place in qualifying is the start of us showing the speed and potential we know we have. We made a goal before this weekend to be no lower than 12th on the grid, so we have accomplished that and now we can focus on having a strong race. To be honest I’m not completely happy because I made a couple of very small mistakes on my fastest laps, and without those I’m sure I could have been in the top six. I just couldn’t find the perfect lap but I’m still in the top group. I still feel like I can be a bit more consistent with my pace but seventh is still a great reward for all the Team’s effort so far this season. We are now very motivated to turn this positive qualifying into a good result.” Scott Redding #45 – 1.47.527- 18 laps – 11th position “I’m happy with today even though I would have liked to have qualified inside the top ten. I showed all through practice that I was capable of being in the top five or six but at the end of the session I couldn’t find a clear track to improve my time. My confidence with the bike now feels like it is coming back to the same level I had at the end of 2010, so hopefully we can start converting that into decent results. We’ll try and find some more stability from the front-end because in the last corner the bike feels great on some laps and others not, so we need to get that more consistent for the race. But from where I’ve been all weekend in practice, I know we have the potential to move forward through the field and get a good race under my belt ahead of my home Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend.” Michael Bartholemy – Team Manager “I’m really pleased to see Mika performing at the level we know he is capable of. It hasn’t an easy start to his Moto2 career but he has demonstrated that he’s willing to work hard and keep his motivation at 100 percent. He worked a lot with his crew chief Trevor Morris after Le Mans and their ideas together have clearly worked and now we can see Mika fighting for the position we expected right from the first race. He looks much more comfortable with the bike and it suits his style more and he has been fast all weekend. More importantly he’s made his lap times all on his own without any help, so we are optimistic for tomorrow. It’s a shame that Scott couldn’t join him in the top ten because he’s been of the fastest riders in practice and we thought he’d be competing for the second row. Scott’s confidence is growing each time he goes out on track, but the target now is for both riders to finish inside the top ten tomorrow, because we really need to start scoring points after a difficult start to the season.” More, from a press release issued by Kenny Noyes’ publicist: Disappointing Start To Barcelona Weekend For Kenny Noyes Kenny Noyes’ weekend at Barcelona has started with disappointment. Kenny and his Avintia-STX team spent all weekend chasing the wrong direction with the setup of his FOGI Racing FTR, after confusing data masked a technical problem. The problem meant that Noyes struggled to make any progress over the weekend, qualifying at the back of the grid. A technical meeting revealed the underlying cause of the problem, and Kenny and his team will be starting over in the morning warmup session, going back to the settings they used in the recent Aragon test. Once again, the American will be fighting his way forward, trying to make up as many positions as possible at a track he knows and loves so well. 36th, Fastest Lap: 1’49.048 Kenny said, “Man, it’s been a tough couple of days. We spent all weekend chasing our tails because the data just didn’t make sense with what we were feeling on the bike. I’m real happy we found out where we were going wrong, so I can just get on with riding the bike again tomorrow. The back of the grid ain’t where I belong, and I’m just gonna go out and have fun trying to pass as many people as I can before the end of the race.”