2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Motegi, Japan September 22, 2007 Qualifying Results: 1. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:45.864 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:46.255 3. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:46.575 4. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:46.643 5. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:46.804 6. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:46.912 7. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:46.997 8. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:47.047 9. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:47.121 10. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:47.136 11. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:47.163 12. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, 1:47.295 13. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:47.316 14. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, 1:47.334 15. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:47.367 16. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:47.714 17. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:47.914 18. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:48.085 19. Akira YANAGAWA (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:48.569 20. Shinichi ITO (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:49.548 21. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, 1:50.035 More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: KAWASAKI LOOKING STRONG FOR MOTEGI RACE Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and Anthony West overcame soaring temperatures and exhausting humidity at the Motegi circuit this afternoon, to qualify their Ninja ZX-RR machines on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s 24-lap Japanese Grand Prix. Kawasaki wild card rider, Akira Yanagawa, will be chasing his team mates from the seventh row of the grid, after qualifying in 19th position today. De Puniet opened proceedings this afternoon by switching to a qualifying tyre just before the halfway point in the session, capturing pole position with his first attack lap. The 26-year-old Frenchman held onto the top spot until the final six minutes, before finally being deposed by eventual pole sitter, Dani Pedrosa. Pushed further down the order after a string of fast laps by his factory rivals, the Kawasaki pilot looked all set to reclaim a front row position with his last flying lap, but was baulked by another rider through the last sector and, finally, had to settle for fourth position and the lead spot on an all-Bridgestone second row. While de Puniet’s confidence is high going into tomorrow’s race, the Frenchman knows that a fantastic qualifying performance today doesn’t automatically guarantee an equally good result tomorrow, when conditions are likely to be very different at the Motegi circuit. After struggling to get the best from his qualifying tyres in previous races, West proved today that he’s now mastered the technique needed to turn in a fast time when it counts, by posting his best qualifying performance to date. The 26-year-old Australian was placed second on the timesheet, just behind his team leader, after his first qualifying run, but was eventually pushed off the front row to finish the hour long session sixth fastest overall. Like West, Kawasaki wild card rider, Akira Yanagawa, also has limited experience of Bridgestone’s qualifying tyres, but still turned in a creditable performance in his first MotoGP qualifying session since Catalunya in 2003, to secure 19th position on the grid. The 36-year-old Kawasaki stalwart is under no illusions about how difficult tomorrow’s race will be, but remains determined to finish what he started at Motegi five years ago and finally see the chequered flag in his home race aboard Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine, albeit one that is very different to the bike he debuted here in 2002. All three Kawasaki riders are keen to secure a good result in tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix, which will be watched trackside by the chairman of the board of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. Mr. Masamoto Tazaki, and the managing director of Kawasaki Motors Racing, Mr. Yoshio Kawamura. Randy De Puniet #14 – 4th – 1’46.643 “I’m a little bit disappointed because I wanted to be on the first row but it wasn’t possible. I gave the maximum, and I was still going well on the last lap, but Checa was in front of me and I lost a few tenths so couldn’t make it. Still, I hope to do okay in the race. I’m very happy to be the first Bridgestone rider on the grid, everybody’s done a great job so far this weekend and I feel comfortable with the bike, the race tyres and I hope to go well tomorrow.” Anthony West #13 – 6th – 1’46.912 “Hopefully it won’t be this hot tomorrow because a whole race like this could be very difficult. At the last few rounds, I’ve struggled to find the right set up, but here I’m happy with what we’ve done so I think it could be a good race. I thought the other guys would go quicker in the last few minutes because I got my qualifying in early but most of them didn’t so I’m still second row. It’s a perfect place to start and I’m feeling really happy.” Akira Yanagawa #87 – 19th – 1’48.569 “I’m still unable to fulfil the potential of this bike the way we’ve seen Randy and Anthony doing today because I haven’t yet managed to alter my riding style to suit it. For example, I like the front suspension to be set harder but this bike doesn’t like that set up so, as I said yesterday, we need to compromise! For the race, we’ve chosen a softer front and a medium rear and I used two qualifying tyres, which made me almost a second faster, but I need to open the throttle some more. I’m used to this weather but I’m not used to this bike! But I will do my best, of course.” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: KONICA MINOLTA Honda 12th for Japanese Grand Prix KONICA MINOLTA Honda rider Shinya Nakano shaved almost a second-and-a-half from his Friday lap-time in today’s qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix. The former 250cc GP championship runner-up improved the set-up of his Honda RC212V around the 2.98mile Twin Ring Motegi circuit, but will make some further changes to the front-end of his 800cc machine in time for tomorrow’s 24-lap race. Weather conditions continue to be hot, although it is expected to be a little cooler in time for tomorrow’s race. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “I thing that today was a very exciting qualifying session and I’m happy that Honda show they have the power here at their home track with Dani Pedrosa on pole position and Nicky Hayden in third. It’s also good to see Michelin take the top three positions. Shinya was quite good today and he made some progress but we needed to make a bigger step forward to move up the grid for the race. I think he had a lot of pressure today, as he wanted to have a good qualifying session at this, his home grand prix. I think perhaps he didn’t use his last qualifying tyre as well as he could have. He was behind Valentino Rossi and had posted the fastest first sector of the lap, he lost a little time in T2 and then made a mistake in T3 and lost some more time. Tomorrow will be a different story and I think we have to use warm-up to refine the settings that Shinya can use for the race, as we search for improved consistency.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (47 laps 1′ 47.295″) “It’s been tough today as the lap time around here has improved a lot! On the qualifying tyre I was making a good lap time in T1 and T2 sectors, but in T3 and the downhill T4 sector we’ve been having problems with braking stability. This makes it hard to enter the corner at high-speed and affects your overall lap-time. Tomorrow we will change some settings to the front of the bike to improve our braking performance. We need to make a good start as at Motegi it’s very hard to pass around here.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “This morning we saw that some Michelin riders were able to run consistent 1’47s lap-times, that was a surprise for us as we didn’t expect to see these kind of lap times! We will see tomorrow if they were using a soft tyre or if they really can do it in the race. We can run in the 48s consistently and I think this is our potential for the race. We’ve improved a lot these last two days, but Shinya is still not confident under braking after the main straight. In T4 alone we’re losing a few tenths on both qualifying and race tyres. We will test some adjustments tomorrow on the front forks to improve this and hope to find a solution. Braking stability is so important here, as in that sector after hitting the brakes it’s the slow-speed sector of the track, where it’s important to enter this section as fast as you can to get a good lap time. That part of the track is also a good point to overtake, so making this improvement in warm-up tomorrow could be key to our having a good race here.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: De Puniet, Elias and West lead Bridgestone’s home charge from row two Round 15 Japan – Qualifying Motegi Circuit Saturday 22 September 2007 Bridgestone-shod Kawasaki Racing riders Randy de Puniet and Anthony West will line up either side of Honda Gresini’s Toni Elias on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi with De Puniet leading the charge from fourth place on the grid, just 0.068s from the front row. Ducati duo Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner will start the race from eighth and ninth positions ahead of fellow Bridgestone users Marco Melandri (Honda Gresini) and John Hopkins (Suzuki) who comprise two-thirds of the fourth row of the grid in tenth and 11th places respectively. Weather conditions are expected to change ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s race, which could threaten to shake up the running order that has emerged this weekend. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has led each of the four practice sessions this weekend, including his dominant pole position this afternoon, but several Bridgestone-shod riders have also set encouraging times on race tyres, leaving hope that Bridgestone-shod riders can challenge in the lead pack tomorrow. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Are you satisfied with today’s qualifying tyre performance? “Congratulations to both Kawasaki riders, Randy and Anthony, for some impressive flying laps, also to Toni Elias for a great second row result. Overall though, I am not really satisfied with the performance of our selected qualifying tyres, and I believe that they were a bit too hard, even for the very hot track conditions that we have experienced. Track temperatures again reached close to fifty degrees, quite surprising for this time of year in Japan, but the forecast is for cooler temperatures tomorrow. Tomorrow’s race, I think, will be very competitive, so these grid positions will hopefully help them.” What has the race pace been and how will it be affected if the temperatures drop? “The performance of our tyres has been pretty much as expected in spite of the weather. We evaluated hard and medium specifications today and put a lot of laps on our tyres, which showed encouraging consistency. The tyre performance this weekend seems to be very close and competitive and, with the exception of Pedrosa, who has been a step ahead all weekend, I think a lot of riders are very closely matched. It will certainly make for a tough race. We do not really know what the weather will bring tomorrow which adds an element of unpredictability, but we will make sure we are in the best position after the morning warm-up to select the most competitive tyres for our five teams and twelve riders in the race.” Riding Perspective Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 4th position on the grid “I’m a little bit disappointed because I wanted to be on the first row but it wasn’t possible. I gave the maximum, and I was going well on the last lap, but Checa was in front of me and I lost a few tenths so couldn’t make it. Still, I hope to go well in the race I’m very happy to be the first Bridgestone rider on the grid, everybody’s done a great job so far this weekend and I comfortable with the bike, the race tyres and hope to go well tomorrow.” Bridgestone Qualifying Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Best Lap Time Gap P4 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m46.643s +0.779s P5 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 1m46.804s +0.940s P6 Anthony West Kawasaki 1m46.912s +1.048s P8 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m47.047s +1.183s P9 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m47.121s +1.257s P10 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m47.136s +1.272s P11 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m47.163s +1.299s P13 Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki 1m47.316s +1.452s P15 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 1m47.367s +1.503s P17 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m47.914s +2.050s P19 Akira Yanagawa Kawasaki 1m48.569s +2.705s P20 Shinichi Ito Pramac d’Antin 1m49.548s +3.684s Weather: Dry track – Air 32° C, Track 45°C, Humidity 45% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Demanding race awaits Rizla Suzuki MotoGP after difficult qualifying at Motegi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen suffered their worst grid positions of the season as the pair struggled to improve significantly on their race tyre times during this afternoon’s qualifying session for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Hopkins (P11, 1’47.163, 23 laps) will start outside of the top-10 for the first time this season and will be looking for one of his now customary good starts to make sure he is able to get away with the front runners. He had improved on his race pace though throughout the day and looks strong and consistent. Hopkins is still in a confident mood as he heads into tomorrow’s race and is sure that he can put on a good show for Suzuki at its home GP. Vermeulen (P17, 1’47.914, 27 laps) improved his lap times in race trim significantly, taking almost two seconds off his best time from yesterday’s first session. He was unable to match his improvement on race tyres to qualifying tyres and will start from the sixth row of the grid. Team Test Rider Kousuke Akiyoshi (P13, 1’47.316, 22 laps) continued with his excellent form and was ninth quickest during this morning’s final practice session. He lost some places in the afternoon using qualifying tyres, but a start at the head of the fifth row is still a very impressive result for a rider in only his third Grand Prix. Today’s pole position was taken by Dani Pedrosa in the stifling conditions as air temperatures reached 32°C and humidity hit 45%. If tomorrow’s conditions are similar then the race will be as much a contest of attrition and stamina for the riders during the 24-lap race, as it will be a competition of tyres and machines. Sunday’s race is round 15 of the MotoGP World Championship and the main event gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (05.00hrs GMT). John Hopkins: “The weekend has been going pretty well for us and the free practices were all good. We’ve worked hard with Bridgestone to get the best possible set-up that we can for tomorrow. This afternoon we ran into a couple of problems with the qualifying tyres so we had to do the best we could. We were comfortable on the race tyres, but it was so warm I tried to conserve a bit of energy for the qualifiers at the end of the practice. On my fastest lap I made a mistake on the last turn that cost a couple of tenths, if that hadn’t have happened I’m sure we’d have been a couple of rows higher up the grid. It’s no different than the last couple of races though, I’ve got to go out and get a good start and not let anyone get away, because I know I can run with the pace of anybody!” Kousuke Akiyoshi: “My lap times have improved over the day and I am sure I can run in the top-10 tomorrow. I am really enjoying the weekend although I would have liked to have been higher up the grid. I have not tested many qualifiers on the 800 and was not sure how fast I could go – maybe I could have gone quicker!” Chris Vermeulen: “The whole weekend hasn’t been very good so far. We’ve made a lot of progress on race tyres today and it felt a lot more consistent and at one point I was inside the top-10 and the Bridgestone tyres were working really well. Unfortunately on the qualifiers I couldn’t get anymore grip than I did on the race tyres so it wasn’t easy to go any quicker, and that is something we’re going to have to work on. It sucks starting from so far back, but I can’t change that now, I just have to go out there and do the best I can and try to get as many points as possible.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “These were definitely not the results that we were looking for today especially at Suzuki’s home Grand Prix. John and Akiyoshi have both shown very good pace and consistency on race tyres, but neither of them could quite get it done on qualifiers and it’s going to make it difficult to achieve a top result tomorrow. Nonetheless we’ll be relying on one of John’s trademark starts and hoping that he can use the superb braking stability of the GSV-R to make significant headway in the early laps and get with the fastest riders as soon as possible. “Chris made big steps today and has put himself back into being a top-10 contender on race tyres. However the qualifying result is going to make for a hard day’s work tomorrow and we all need to look at Chris’s qualifying potential as a team, and make sure we improve for 2008.” More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda Racing: SECOND ROW FOR ELIAS AT MOTEGI Melandri only 10th but can count on a good race pace Toni Elias will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Japan from the second row of the grid. The Team Honda Gresini rider returned to the top end of the time sheets with an excellent display at the Twin Ring Motegi, a track where overtaking is difficult and a top grid position crucial. Elias’s fifth place is the fruit of a lot of hard work from his team. Alongside the mechanics, Toni has worked hard to resolve the tractions problems he has been suffering lately and this allowed him to get maximum performance out of his qualifying tyre. It was a tough day, meanwhile, for his team-mate Marco Melandri, who struggled in qualifying today after being on top form in free practice yesterday, when he lapped third fastest. Marco will start from the fifth row and will have to make the most of the warm-up to improve the setting of his bike. He can count on a good pace, but the race will be demanding. Today the temperatures were particularly high, registering 45°C on track and 32ºC ambient, with 45% humidity. Forecasts for tomorrow are predicting clouds and a 20% chance of rain. TONI ELIAS (5th, 1’46″804): “It was a difficult session but we found the right way forward in the end. I’m happy with fifth place – it is very important for us and a good qualifying position was the first objective we set for ourselves this weekend. The team have worked really well and we’ll try to make another small step forward in the warm-up tomorrow. I’m confident – I like this track and considering my physical condition I have to be satisfied. I am still suffering from pain in my left leg and I have to say that this heat isn’t making it any easier.” MARCO MELANDRI (10th, 1’47″136): “I’ve got a decent race pace but unfortunately tomorrow we’ll be starting from a little way back. The bike was skipping around on a qualifying tyre and I couldn’t get the best out of the bike. It’s a real shame because it’s really important to start near the front at this circuit. I can’t say I’m happy but we’ll keep trying. Tomorrow we’ll try to make the most out of the warm-up and find something that can improve the bike and after that it’s a case of getting a good start. I like the track but it’s going to be a tough race for us tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Coming up short in the battle for victory last weekend, Dani Pedrosa emerged victorious in a tumultuous battle with Valentino Rossi for pole position in this afternoon’s qualifying session for the A-Style Grand Prix of Japan. The Spaniard, who had been the fastest rider in practice for the race at Motegi, heads an all-Michelin front row alongside five-time MotoGP World Champion Rossi and reigning title holder Nicky Hayden. It was with Rossi that he experienced a final five minute shootout, trading spots with his Italian rival before finally clocking an unanswered 1’45.864 lap. Rossi, who had a disastrous day yesterday, came back from his mechanical problems and an early run-off in the afternoon session to take his third consecutive front row. The Yamaha factory rider looked far more at ease with his machine than in the Friday practices, and reverted to his usual qualifying strategy after trying something new at Estoril. He also cuts the gap between himself and Casey Stoner in the BMW M Award to under four tenths of a second with his latest qualifying performance. Hayden is also on a positive run of qualifying form, having been on the first line of attack since for the previous three races and adding to his tally this afternoon. The American, who returned the World Championship to Honda after two barren years in 2006, accompanied team-mate Pedrosa in bringing the factory success this afternoon. A final push not quite enough to improve his position, Randy de Puniet heads row two on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR800, joined by late addition Toni Elias and Anthony West in the latter’s best qualifying position since his addition to the Kawasaki setup in the middle of the year. They in turn will be trailed by the star-studded trio of Yamaha factory rider Colin Edwards, last year’s race winner in Japan Loris Capirossi and World Championship leader Casey Stoner. The current MotoGP frontrunner, who could win the title by finishing ahead of Rossi at Motegi, experienced his lowest qualifying position of the season, his previous worst being a fifth place start at Jerez. There were small run-offs for Stoner, Edwards, Rossi, de Puniet and Shinya Nakano this afternoon. In other news from Motegi, in the Grand Prix Commission meeting Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta proposed the introduction of a single tyre rule for MotoGP in 2008, something which will be decided on at the forthcoming Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Mr. Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO “We have made a proposal in the Grand Prix Commission meeting today to reach an agreement between all the different tyre manufacturers for the use of tyres in 2008,owing to the situation in which some factories believe that they can’t have tyres which they think are competitive. We thought that the best possibility is to go to a one-tyre rule.” said Mr.Ezpeleta. 250cc Shuhei Aoyama will start his home race in pole position, his first ever appearance at the head of the grid in the World Championship. The Japanese rider surprised everybody with a series of flying laps at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying outing, a 1’51.327 lap making him a worthy poleman at Motegi as he edged out title contenders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. Both headed out on track in final attempts at beating Aoyama’s time, but were unable to match the Honda rider and local hero. Hector Barbera will once again start from the front row, closing off the front four. Perhaps unjustly considering his great pace over the past two days, Mika Kallio was demoted to the second row after having been unable to better his fastest lap from Friday afternoon. The Finn lines up alongside team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama, who has won the past two quarter litre races held at Japan, Honda rookie Julian Simon and third Japanese hopeful Yuki Takahashi. The top ten is completed by championship challenger Alex de Angelis and Swiss star Thomas Luthi. Hiroshi Aoyama, Barbera, De Angelis and Luthi all had dramatic moments as they ran off track in the session, the former taking a tumble at the midway point in the afternoon. 125cc Mattia Pasini may be out of the running for the 125cc World Championship trophy this season, but the Italian certainly has the finest collection of Tissot watches in the category courtesy of his eight pole positions so far in 2007. The Polaris World rider took his latest top spot with a 1’57.301 lap of Twin Ring Motegi, a new pole position record albeit slower than his blistering time from this morning. Behind Pasini, home rider Tomoyoshi Koyama trailed the pole position man by over half a second, and will line up alongside the two men at the top of the World Championship on the front row. Said contenders Gabor Talmacsi and Hector Faubel should provide yet more twists in the 125cc title chase story tomorrow as they start at the head of the grid. Briton Bradley Smith starts from fifth, leading off the second row which also includes Simone Corsi, Joan Olive and Lukas Pesek. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM RIDERS ON THE THIRD ROW AT MOTEGI Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner will start tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix from the third row of the grid after running eighth and ninth fastest during this afternoon’s qualifying session. World Championship leader Stoner scored better in free practice, using race tyres, the Australian ending the first three sessions in fourth place. During qualifying his set-up didn’t work so well, but he is confident of making detail adjustments during warm-up so that he can have a strong race. Capirossi, winner here in 2005 and 2006, has moved forward during the weekend and is confident of a decent race tomorrow. LORIS CAPIROSSI, 8th fastest, 1m 47.047s “I have to give credit to my team – they have been very reactive this weekend and even if we are struggling again, as usual with the power delivery which doesn’t seem to suit my riding style, we’ve made a few small steps forward. We’ve tried a lot of small changes and finally we found a race pace with which I am satisfied. Of course, my rhythm isn’t the fastest but it’s not so bad, around the low 48s. I think it is the rhythm for a reasonable race tomorrow.” CASEY STONER, 9th fastest, 1m 47.121s “Today we couldn’t get a good feeling with the bike, no matter what we did. I was frustrated because I think we could have improved my time with my second qualifying run but the change we’d made to the setting made braking difficult, so when I came into the last chicane the bike wouldn’t go back a gear, so I destroyed the last corner and lost more than half a second. The tyres weren’t so bad and to be honest the setting we had this morning was quite good, but as soon as we started the afternoon session that setting didn’t seem to work, so we struggled to find a solution. We know we have to improve a little bit more and I think we will try another direction during warm-up. If we can improve a bit in the morning, starting from the third row shouldn’t be a big problem. Normally we get goods start and with a few passes we can get to the front.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FRONT ROW START FOR ROSSI AHEAD OF MOTEGI SHOWDOWN Valentino Rossi sealed his tenth front-row start of the season ahead of tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi today, the Italian taking second place on an all-Michelin front row in between Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden. Colin Edwards also had a good session, qualifying seventh at the head of the third row. After making a poor start to the weekend by finishing 14th yesterday, Rossi made a step up this morning and put in the second fastest time in free practice. His qualifying session did not get off to plan however as he made an off-track excursion in the opening minutes and then found himself down in 18th place mid-way through. Edwards meanwhile, was doing little better in 17th, but both began to steadily improve as they worked on refining their race settings and finalising their tyre choices for tomorrow Once it came down to qualifying tyres it was clear that Rossi especially was on top form and his first run put him in second place, before improving again with his second tyre and moving one place higher. Pedrosa was even faster however and, despite Rossi’s Michelin tyre working well enough to give him a second flying lap, a small mistake on the last corner cost him a few tenths and he was unable to better the Spaniard. Edwards also put in two good qualifying laps and looked to have sixth in the bag before he was edged down one place by Toni Elias. Tomorrow’s 24-lap race gets underway at 1400 Japanese time. Rossi must finish in front of Casey Stoner in order to keep his championship hopes alive for another race; the Australian will start from ninth tomorrow, on the outside of the third row. Valentino Rossi Position: 2nd Time: 1’46.255 Laps: 25 “I’m in good shape and I’m very happy with this result after the problems we had yesterday. We were struggling a lot but everyone has worked very hard and today has been much, much better. We tried some modifications and now I can use the throttle well and the grip from the tyres is good. In fact today the tyre situation is really a lot better and I can use my M1 how I want to, with a good rhythm. This morning especially was a big improvement although this afternoon we tried some different things again and it wasn’t quite so good to start with. Pedrosa’s rhythm is slightly better than mine at the moment so we have one or two things to work on, but we’re definitely in a good position and we are starting from the front row, which is the most important factor. I was very happy with the qualifying tyres because I was able to do two laps with the second one. Michelin brought a new tyre and asked that I try for a second lap and it worked well, so this is very encouraging. Now I am really looking forward to the race; it’s going to be hard in this heat but we will do our best and see what happens.” Colin Edwards Position: 7th Time: 1’46.997 Laps: 23 “We’ve made some really important steps forward today with regards to the new tyres, how we use them and also to our base setting. We’ve rearranged the bike a bit and things were a lot better today. This afternoon was really difficult at the start, I was riding as hard as I could but I was two seconds off the pace! Then we put a different tyre in – the one I will use in the race – and I was riding the same but was suddenly a lot faster. This is a very sensitive track when it comes down to tyres and setting and you really have to find the key. With my first qualifying tyre I put in a pretty uneventful lap and with the second I was looking faster but I caught up to some other riders and, although they didn’t slow me down, I slightly lost the edge of my concentration and that cost me a little bit of time. Thanks a lot to my guys, they’ve been working as hard in the box as I have out on track and they’ve done a great job today.” David Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “It’s been a good day’s work, considering the issues we were facing yesterday. Valentino is in good shape for the race and, most importantly, starting from the front row again. Colin has a few more things to work on but he’s improved his pace a lot as well and with a good start he can be in the fight tomorrow. We have a few more details to check and our engineers are working hard to make sure both riders have the best package for tomorrow; it will be a very testing race and 24 laps here puts a lot of stress on tyres, brakes and engine, so we need to be sure everything is perfect. Then we will just be hoping to see another exciting race like last week and with both of our riders able to be in the fight until the end.” More, from a press release issued by Team Roberts: ROBERTS FRUSTRATED IN THE JAPANESE SUN Kurtis Roberts struggled in the blistering sunshine of final qualifying for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix on the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit, a track that doesn’t suit the Honda-powered KR212V hybrid. Lacking the acceleration needed for the track’s many slow corners, Roberts qualified 21st for Sunday’s fifteenth round of the MotoGP World Championship. Though he qualified on the back row of the grid, it wasn’t for lack of effort. The youngest son of the three-time 500cc World Champion and team owner crashed in the morning practice entering turn five. Roberts found early in the weekend that the lack of acceleration was problematic and he was keenly aggressive on the brakes. But his aggression ended up putting him on the ground. “Just trying too hard and lost the front on the brakes,” he said. “Still on the brakes on my knee and lost the front in turn five. Youknow you can’t go any faster, but you’re trying to and that’s when you know it’s going to happen. We’re not going to make up any time anywhere else. We definitely aren’t going to make anything up under acceleration or on top speed. So where else are you going to make it up on this track?” Rather than de-tune him, the crash inspired Roberts to try harder in qualifying. Try as he might, he couldn’t significantly improve his time throughout the one hour session. The Japanese GP is the first of three flyaways, with the MotoGP circus enjoying a break afterward before moving on to Australia and Malaysia. The final round is at Valencia. KURTIS ROBERTS – 21st Position, 1:50.035 The nature of the track’s killing us, because it’s all these places where the bike’s got to accelerate. Even the not stop-and-go stuff, it’s still low in the powerband, unless it’s revving it’s guts out. It’s got to have a torque curve and we don’t have one compared to everyone else’s. We knew how the session was going to go before the session started. It’s just getting past the point of frustration, but we’re here because it’s not like you can sit here and say they’re working on it, they’re working on it, they’re working on it. For us, this is completely not against any part of the team, because we’re all working our butts off. CHUCK AKSLAND-TEAM MANAGER It’s no fun to be at the bottom of the time sheets, that’s for sure. The guys aren’t working any less hard than they did last year when we were at the top. It’s just very frustrating and a very difficult weekend. We’ll go out and do our best tomorrow. Kurtis’s feedback is the bike’s working great, corner speed’s good, he catches people on the brakes, we’re just lacking acceleration. And no matter how fast you make the motorcycle go around the corner, we can’t make up for that acceleration. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA BLASTS TO POLE POSITION, HAYDEN JOINS HIM ON MOTEGI FRONT ROW Both Repsol Hondas will start Sunday’s Grand Prix of Japan from the front row after a highly impressive show of pace by the factory Honda squad in today’s qualifying session at the Twin Ring Motegi. Dani Pedrosa produced another dominant display and has been fastest in every session this weekend before taking his second pole position of the season by 0.391s this afternoon. Just as important as securing the front slot on the grid has been Pedrosa’s pace on race tyres this weekend. The 21-year-old Spaniard was able to complete a high number of laps on his Michelin race tyre options today including a lap of 1m 47.155s this morning which is inside the existing race lap record of 1m 47.288s. As promised, Nicky Hayden made substantial improvements at Motegi today as he made full use of the two one-hour sessions. In the morning the World Champion knocked a full second from his best lap time of yesterday and finished the session in third place behind Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi. With his first qualifying tyre in the afternoon the 26-year-old from Owensboro, Kentucky went to second on the time sheets before being nudged back to third by Rossi. A small mistake on his second qualifier cost the World Champion a chance of pole position, but Hayden was pleased to record his fourth front row start in successive races. The weather is expected to be unpredictable tomorrow at the 4.801km (2.981-mile) Motegi circuit with a chance of rain for the 24-lap race, so the Repsol Honda Team will remain vigilant as the 14.00hrs start time approaches. Dani Pedrosa Qualifying : Pole Position 1m 45.846s “I’m very happy to be on pole position and it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the front row so today went very well for us, all in all. We’ve spent today mostly working on race tyre selection and it looks like we’ve got good pace in all the conditions we’ve had so far this weekend. We’ll have to look at the weather for tomorrow to make our final selection of race tyre, but I think we’re looking pretty good, and hopefully the endurance will be there too because we’ve tested for that by putting in a lot of laps on the same tyre. We’re in a good position for the race, but anything can happen. The weather is looking like it will change and we’ve seen first corner incidents at this circuit before. I hope we get through the first corner cleanly and have a good race at Honda’s home track.” Nicky Hayden Qualifying: 3rd 1m 46.575s “I definitely have to say thanks to the team because we made quite a lot of progress straight away this morning and I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike. I’m not completely thrilled with my second qualifying lap though. My first two splits were quite good but then I made a little mistake and in the last part of the lap I didn’t put it together clean enough. I really didn’t improve my time from my first qualifier to my second one and with these boys that won’t cut it. Nevertheless I’m happy to be on the front row that’s four in a row and the bike, tyres and everything is working pretty well so I’m excited for the race. I know it’s going to be difficult tomorrow because there are a lot of guys going quickly but hopefully we’ve got a package that we can do something with. This afternoon I was able to put in some decent laps on a used race tyre so I’m excited for the race.” Makoto Tanaka – Team Manager “This was a very successful qualifying session for us because we have both riders on the front row. Dani has had a perfect record at Motegi so far this weekend being fastest in every practice session and taking pole position. He was a avery close second at the last race in Portugal and is looking good for tomorrow. The ground temperature changed from the morning to the afternoon but still the race tyres can cover the range of conditions, so thanks to Michelin because we seem to have very good performance on race tyres and qualifying tyres here. Nicky also put in many good laps today. We still need to make some setting adjustments to his machine but with a good start tomorrow I hope he can be at the front too. Anything can happen but we’re hoping for a Repsol Honda one-two in the race.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: PEDROSA ON POLE WITH HAYDEN ON FRONT ROW TOO Repsol Honda teamsters Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) and Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) made the front row of the Motegi grid their own with a pole and third spot, separated only by Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) as second fastest rider. An hour of hyper-intense MotoGP qualifying got underway in stifling heat here at this huge Honda facility; ambient temperature at an unseasonal 32-degrees with the track at 45-degrees. Within five minutes of the start of this hour-long session Rossi was in the dirt at turn one after Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) had put in an early fastest lap of 1m 48.109s to take an early provisional pole from Dani Pedrosa who topped yesterday’s timesheets. De Puniet and then Casey Stoner (Ducati), who was struggling here, both visited the same turn one gravel trap as Rossi early in the session. All those riders exploring the limits of grip at a corner which is among the trickier first turns on the calendar and just as significant in terms of race position in those critical early laps. Dani Pedrosa swiftly showed his mastery of this 4.801km track. The Spanish ace, now really on top of his RC212V after being mildly out of sorts mid-season, reeled off a 1m 47.633s lap with 42 minutes still left on the clock, to retake pole from de Puniet. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) was on the pace early on, holding third place from Loris Capirossi (Ducati). Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) too was looking good, breaking into the top six with 38 minutes gone. Then de Puniet made his now customary move of fitting a sticky qualifying tyre at around the mid-point of the session. The Frenchman promptly made pole again with a time of 1m 46.643s and this was to prove a more than respectable time until two minutes remained. His team-mate Anthony West made the same move with twenty minutes to go and for a time the green duo topped the leaderboard. But they were both vulnerable when push came to shove and Dani bested them with a 1m 46.543s lap to take charge again. The late order was Pedrosa, de Puniet, Rossi, Nicky Hayden, West and Colin Edwards (Yamaha) until with two minutes remaining Rossi looked to have gone top with a 1m 46.864s time. But Dani had more left to give and on the one minute mark he scorched round in 1m 45.864 seconds, destroying Capirossi’s 2006 pole time by nearly a second with 190cc less to play with. Rossi persisted for one more lap with a qualifying tyre, but could only do a 1m 46.255s time to stay second despite Hayden’s best efforts to oust him. Elias meanwhile made it to fifth for a row two start alongside fourth fastest de Puniet. Poleman Dani Pedrosa said: “I’m very happy to be in this position and it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the front row. We’ve spent today mostly working on race tyre selection and it looks like we’ve got good pace in all the conditions we’ve had so far this weekend. We’ll have to look at the weather for tomorrow to make our final selection of race tyre, but I think we’re looking pretty good, and hopefully the endurance will be there too because we’ve tested for that by putting in a lot of laps on the same tyre. I hope we get through the first corner cleanly and have a good race at Honda’s home track.” On the front row for the fourth consecutive race, Nicky Hayden said: “I definitely have to say thanks to the team because we made quite a lot of progress straight away this morning and I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike. I’m not completely thrilled with my second qualifying lap though. My first two splits were quite good but then I made a little mistake and in the last part of the lap I didn’t put it together clean enough. I really didn’t improve my time from my first qualifier to my second one and with these boys that won’t cut it.” Toni Elias finished up fifth and said: “It was a difficult session but we found the right way forward in the end. I’m happy with fifth place it’s very important for us and a good qualifying position was the first objective we set for ourselves this weekend. The team have worked really well and we’ll try to make another small step forward in the warm-up tomorrow. I’m confident I like this track and considering my physical condition I have to be satisfied. I am still suffering from pain in my left leg and I have to say that this heat isn’t making it any easier.” His team-mate Marco Melandri qualified 10th. He said: “I’ve got a decent race pace but unfortunately tomorrow we’ll be starting from a little way back. The bike was skipping around on a qualifying tyre and I couldn’t get the best out of the bike. It’s a real shame because it’s really important to start near the front at this circuit. I can’t say I’m happy but we’ll keep trying. Tomorrow we’ll try to make the most out of the warm-up and find something that can improve the bike and after that it’s a case of getting a good start.” Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) managed 12th. He said: “It’s been tough today as the lap time around here has improved a lot. On the qualifying tyre I was making a good lap time in T1 and T2 sectors, but in T3 and the downhill T4 sector we’ve been having problems with braking stability. This makes it hard to enter the corner at high-speed and affects your overall lap-time. Tomorrow we’ll change some settings to the front of the bike to improve our braking performance. We need to make a good start because it’s very hard to pass around here.” Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) had to settle for 14th and said: “I’m waiting for the cooler weather, not so much for me, but to improve the potential of our tyre and chassis set-up, usually it is not so hot for the Motegi race. My qualifying tyre runs were not so good, some chatter, like in Estoril returned on the very soft tyres. For the race we have softened the rear suspension and continue to work to maximise tyre endurance although we do not have the pace to run right at the front. I am aiming for a more consistent race than Estoril and a finish in the top ten.” A frustrated Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) qualified 21st. He said: “The nature of the track’s killing us, because it’s all these places where the bike’s got to accelerate. Even the not stop-and-go stuff, it’s still low on power, unless it’s revving its guts out. It’s got to have a torque curve and we don’t have one compared to everyone else. We knew how the session was going to go before it started.” Honda riders were right on top of 250cc qualifying with Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) just taking pole from Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) with series points leader Jorge Lorenzo third fastest and Hector Barbera completing the front row as fourth fastest man. Mika Kallio (KTM) headed the timesheets early on, but the Finn would be one of many riders to run off track in his efforts to stay on top. Hiro Aoyama (KTM) and last weekend’s winner in Portugal Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) would also visit the gravel. With five minutes of the three-quarter hour session to go Kallio was on top with Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW) fastest Honda runner in fifth. Lorenzo then stole pole from Kallio before Aoyama made his first successful bid for pole. Dovi then relieved the former All Japan 250cc champ of the top slot before Aoyama knocked out a 1m 51.327s lap to cement his place at the head of the grid. Kallio heads row two with his team-mate Hiro Aoyama alongside him as sixth quickest man, with Simon seventh fastest after getting baulked by Bautista while on a hot lap. Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda RS250RW) completes the second row. Just 1.001 second covers the first two rows of the grid. Aoyama said: “I was very surprised to get pole position. I was following Andrea Dovizioso and thought I was second fastest but when I saw my number at the top of the list on the timing screen at the last corner I was very happy. Today I was aiming to set fast average lap times but conditions were too hot both the air and track temperature if they were cooler I could have bettered my times.” Dovi said: “The team did a good job for me this morning and I feel OK with the bike. We have found a very good balance for front and rear and good stability under braking. I was both happy and unhappy with qualifying. I ran a fast lap on the soft qualifying tyre and went into the box to fit another set but we did not have any. So I had two choices fit race tyres or stop. I went out on a set of race tyres and set my fastest lap.” Mattia Pasini (Aprilia) put his stamp firmly on 125cc qualifying with his eighth pole of the season. He was fastest yesterday and today he again appropriated pole position more than half a second ahead of his closest opposition Tommy Koyama (KTM), Gabor Talmacsi and Hector Faubel (both Aprilia) on the front row. British teenager Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda RS125R) heads row two as fastest Honda qualifier while Mike di Meglio (Scot Honda RS125R) starts from 12th on the grid and Esteve Rabat (Repsol Honda RS125R) from 15th. Smith said: “I am not 100% happy with the bike. It was me that made a small mistake on my fastest lap but I have to be positive for the race. This morning on a race distance tyre the pit showed me the ‘Box’ sign but I carried on another lap and crashed stupid! This afternoon we changed the suspension slightly and on my second run I basically knew all my reference points and was much faster. Everything came together nicely.” Di Meglio said: “My engine was not good all weekend and I was struggling to go faster until the qualifying session so I am very happy now because the team have given me a fast engine. I like this track very much there are many heavy braking places and the bike is very stable under braking. The one problem I have is with the rear tyre sliding after four or five laps. The mechanics will soften up the rear suspension a little to try and help me find grip for longer. I need a good start because at the first corner there is a big bump on the racing line so I will run a wide line there.” Honda rider quotes: MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1st.”I’m very happy to be on pole position and it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the front row so today went very well for us, all in all. We’ve spent today mostly working on race tyre selection and it looks like we’ve got good pace in all the conditions we’ve had so far this weekend. We’ll have to look at the weather for tomorrow to make our final selection of race tyre, but I think we’re looking pretty good, and hopefully the endurance will be there too because we’ve tested for that by putting in a lot of laps on the same tyre. We’re in a good position for the race, but anything can happen. The weather is looking like it will change and we’ve seen first corner incidents at this circuit before. I hope we get through the first corner cleanly and have a good race at Honda’s home track.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd.”I definitely have to say thanks to the team because we made quite a lot of progress straight away this morning and I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike. I’m not completely thrilled with my second qualifying lap though. My first two splits were quite good but then I made a little mistake and in the last part of the lap I didn’t put it together clean enough. I really didn’t improve my time from my first qualifier to my second one and with these boys that won’t cut it. Nevertheless I’m happy to be on the front row – that’s four in a row – and the bike, tyres and everything is working pretty well so I’m excited for the race. I know it’s going to be difficult tomorrow because there are a lot of guys going quickly but hopefully we’ve got a package that we can do something with. This afternoon I was able to put in some decent laps on a used race tyre so I’m excited for the race.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 5th.”It was a difficult session but we found the right way forward in the end. I’m happy with fifth place – it is very important for us and a good qualifying position was the first objective we set for ourselves this weekend. The team have worked really well and we’ll try to make another small step forward in the warm-up tomorrow. I’m confident – I like this track and considering my physical condition I have to be satisfied. I am still suffering from pain in my left leg and I have to say that this heat isn’t making it any easier.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 10th.”I’ve got a decent race pace but unfortunately tomorrow we’ll be starting from a little way back. The bike was skipping around on a qualifying tyre and I couldn’t get the best out of the bike. It’s a real shame because it’s really important to start near the front at this circuit. I can’t say I’m happy but we’ll keep trying. Tomorrow we’ll try to make the most out of the warm-up and find something that can improve the bike and after that it’s a case of getting a good start. I like the track but it’s going to be a tough race for us tomorrow.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 12th. “It’s been tough today as the lap time around here has improved a lot! On the qualifying tyre I was making a good lap time in T1 and T2 sectors, but in T3 and the downhill T4 sector we’ve been having problems with braking stability. This makes it hard to enter the corner at high-speed and affects your overall lap-time. Tomorrow we will change some settings to the front of the bike to improve our braking performance. We need to make a good start as at Motegi it’s very hard to pass around here.” Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 14th. “I’m waiting for the cooler weather, not so much for me, but to improve the potential of our tyre and chassis set-up, usually it is not so hot for the Motegi race. My qualifying tyre runs were not so good, some chatter, like in Estoril returned on the very soft tyres. For the race we have softened the rear suspension and continue to work to maximise tyre endurance although we do not have the pace to run right at the front. I am aiming for a more consistent race than Estoril and finish in the top ten.” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 21st.”The nature of the track’s killing us, because it’s all these places where the bike’s got to accelerate. Even the not stop-and-go stuff, it’s still low in the power-band, unless it’s revving it’s guts out. It’s got to have a torque curve and we don’t have one compared to everyone else’s. We knew how the session was going to go before the session started. It’s just getting past the point of frustration, but we’re here because it’s not like you can sit here and say they’re working on it, they’re working on it, they’re working on it. For us, this is completely not against any part of the team, because we’re all working our butts off.” Chuck Aksland -Team Manager Team Roberts. “It’s no fun to be at the bottom of the time sheets, that’s for sure. The guys aren’t working any less hard than they did last year when we were at the top. It’s just very frustrating and a very difficult weekend. We’ll go out and do our best tomorrow. Kurtis’s feedback is the bike’s working great, corner speed’s good, he catches people on the brakes, we’re just lacking acceleration. And no matter how fast you make the motorcycle go around the corner, we can’t make up for that acceleration.” 250cc: Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 1st. “I was very surprised to get pole position I was following Andrea Dovizioso and thought I was second fastest but when I saw my number at the top of the list on the timing show at last corner I was very happy. Today I was aiming to set fast average lap times but conditions were too hot both the air and track temperature if they were cooler I could have bettered my times. But the temperature will drop tomorrow and that is something positive for me. The bike is running fast but I must get a fast start and stay in the top group. I ran with soft rubber yesterday but today I took the harder tyres and they were good. “ Andrea Dovizioso, Scot Honda: 2nd. “The team did a good job for me this morning and I feel OK with the bike. We have found a very good balance for front and rear and good stability under braking. I was both happy and unhappy with qualifying. I ran a fast lap on the soft qualifying tyre and went into the box to fit another set but we did not have any. So I had two choices – fit race tyres or stop. I went out on a set of race tyres and set my fastest lap. I helped Aoyama with a slipstream for his best lap time and finished second so I was a little unhappy but when I realised the others were running soft tyres I have to be happy with second on the grid. “ Julian Simon, Repsol Honda: 7th.”Obviously I am not too satisfied. We have a good pace for the race; the engine is working fine and we managed to go faster on the T4 section where we lost time yesterday. But at the end of the timed session this afternoon, when we were going for the fastest lap and aiming to get a position at the front of the grid, I had an incident with Bautista and we ended up dropping back a lot. My first fast lap was OK and I was 5th, but on the second Bautista got in my way and he was going slow and that meant I could not improve my time. In the end 7th and on the second row; that is not what I expected to get today.” Ratthapark Wilairot, PTT-SAG Honda: 14th. “I believe I could have improved a bit and dip under 1’53, but it proved impossible as the heat made things difficult for us today and the time I set yesterday was already very good. Despite this, I’m happy because I clinched my best qualifying result of the season and all the riders who are ahead of me are all pretty experienced. With this result, I’m looking forward to the race. I’m pretty upbeat and I hope it will be a bit cooler tomorrow, if it’s not the case the race will be very tough.” Yuki Takahashi, Scot Honda: 16th.”My grid position is not good I should have been on the second row. Until this afternoon I had some engine setting problems and basically lost three sessions. I am happy with the set we have but have to work hard tonight to improve machine balance I have to improve in the warm up tomorrow morning. The engine is better and I have decided the tyres that I will run, soft front harder on the rear. If we find a better balance I hope for a good race.” Eugene Laverty, LCR Honda: 21st.”I only got one fast lap in, we also had a small engine problem, and I just missed the fifth row by 0.2s, I really wanted to be on the fifth row. The braking stability is much better today although a problem on the two downhill corners.” 125cc: Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: 5th.”I am not 100% happy with the bike but it was me that made a small mistake on my fastest lap but I have to be positive for the race. This morning on a race distance tyre the pit showed me the ‘Box’ sign but I carried on another lap and crashed stupid! This afternoon we changed the suspension slightly and on my second run I basically knew all my reference points and was much faster. Everything came together nicely, more or less like last year when I had a bad first day and good qualifying session. This is a pretty technical track and you need to put in a lot of laps to find a perfect lap. I have two problems under braking I am running wide and with some of the corners here pretty much 90 degrees they tighten up on you – then, when I release the brakes I have some chatter but the team can fix that.” Mike di Meglio, Scot Honda: 12th.”My engine was not good all weekend and I was struggling to go faster, until the qualifying session so I am very happy now because the team have given me a fast engine. I like this track very much there are many heavy braking places and the bike is very stable under braking. The one problem I have is with the rear tyre sliding after four or five laps. The mechanics will soften up the rear suspension a little to try and help me find grip for longer. I need a good start because at the first corner there is a big bump on the racing line so I will run a wide line there.” Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda: 15th.”I am not a happy man, I am not fast here and I don’t really know why. I just could not find a fast rhythm this afternoon. The engine is OK and the chassis but we have work to do on the suspension to get it better and stop the sliding. I have to improve in the warm up.” Alexis Masbou, FFM Honda: 22nd.”I entered the first corner a little too fast and lost the front coming over a bump. Since the beginning of practice I feel strong on the brakes but seem to have problems entering the corners properly because my speed and racing lines aren¹t ideal. Therefore I¹m not exiting corners properly and losing precious seconds. I can express it without any problems but have been unable to make the necessary corrections on the track. It¹s true that I lack references on this racetrack where I didn¹t do so many laps back in 2005. We will analyse and work on this aspect during the warm-up in order to optimise our chances for an honourable race result.” Danny Webb, Molenaar Honda: 29th.”To be quite honest with you I am not really happy I just could not put one fast lap together in qualifying. It was a case of either me making a silly mistake or there being to much traffic. But we made a big step forward with the bike. We cut down the rear end sliding a lot and the team will improve it more tonight. We were slow this morning but we put in another engine and its faster. I’m having a struggle through the last section at the tunnel and the lefts after that.” Shoya Tomizawa, Project Muy FRS Honda: 30th. “I understood that there is a difference in the level of ability between the GP riders and me. It doesn’t work in the same way to run at all with All-Japan championship style in the GPs. It was very good study for me to follow the GP riders group today. However the pace of the top group was so quick and it’s like the 250 class. I want find correct machine set up tomorrow and want to follow the GP riders. I think that it becomes surely good experience for me.” Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: Non-starter due to concussion sustained during practice for the Portuguese GP last weekend. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: MotoGP World Championship. Japanese GP. Second practice session THE REPSOL RIDERS DANI PEDROSA AND SHUHEI AOYAMA, ON THE FRONT OF THE GRID IN MOTOGP AND 250cc FOR THE JAPANESE GP Nicky Hayden, third will also be on the front row. Simón seventh in 250cc and Bradley Smith fifth in 125cc. There was no better place for the Repsol Honda riders to get two poles today than at the Circuit of Motegi, where tomorrow the Japanese GP will be held, the track owned by Honda. The riders in the Repsol Honda Team, Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP and Shuhei Aoyama in 250cc, set the best times at Motegi today in their respective categories. Dani Pedrosa has had a perfect weekend so far, showing that he is the fastest in the category in the four training sessions. New tyres and some modifications to his Honda RC212V mean that the young Repsol rider set some good times and managed to get a pace that makes the team optimistic. His teammate Nicky Hayden, who has got better as the weekend has gone on, also has a good pace and in the last couple of minutes went out on the track at the same time as Pedrosa to get the pole, although in the end he was beaten by Pedrosa and Rossi. This is the fourth consecutive race that the American Repsol Honda Team rider will start on the front row of the grid. In 250cc, the big surprise today is called Shuhei Aoyama. The local hero surprised everybody with two final laps set at a blistering pace. He was on the track with Dovizioso and Lorenzo fighting for the pole and these two tried to snatch the pole from the Japanese Repsol Honda Team rider after he set the best time on his first attempt. But Aoyama gave his rivals no chance this afternoon and on his second attempt he lowered his previous time by 4 tenths. So he kept his pole position until the end of the session. This is the first pole ever for Shuhei Aoyama in the World Motorcycling Championship. His teammate Julián Simón, who was also having a good session, has a good pace but right at the end of the second and definitive timed session found himself dropping in the classification and is 7th on the grid tomorrow. He was in fact impeded by another rider during his fianl attempt to set the fastest lap. The Briton in the Repsol Honda 125cc Team, Bradley Smith, got back onto the second row of the grid in the smallest category, he qualified in 5th position at the end of the second and definitive timed session, a position that he occupied in the Chinese GP. In spite of making some mistakes during his final attempts to get the pole, Smith made sure of a good position and this means he can hope to be among the leaders tomorrow. His teammate Esteve Rabat, did not have a good day today. Rabat has admitted that today he was not in his best form, and so was not capable of getting a good result. His position on the grid, 15th, means that he starts on the fourth row of the grid tomorrow. Quotes MotoGP Nicky Hayden>> 3rd, 1m 46.575s “I definitely have to say thanks to the team because we made quite a lot of progress straight away this morning and I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike. I’m not completely thrilled with my second qualifying lap though. My first two splits were quite good but then I made a little mistake and in the last part of the lap I didn’t put it together clean enough. I really didn’t improve my time from my first qualifier to my second one and with these boys that won’t cut it. Nevertheless I’m happy to be on the front row that’s four in a row and the bike, tyres and everything is working pretty well so I’m excited for the race. I know it’s going to be difficult tomorrow because there are a lot of guys going quickly but hopefully we’ve got a package that we can do something with. This afternoon I was able to put in some decent laps on a used race tyre so I’m excited for the race.” Dani Pedrosa>> Pole position, 1m 45.846s “I’m very happy to be on pole position and it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the front row so today went very well for us, all in all. We’ve spent today mostly working on race tyre selection and it looks like we’ve got good pace in all the conditions we’ve had so far this weekend. We’ll have to look at the weather for tomorrow to make our final selection of race tyre, but I think we’re looking pretty good, and hopefully the endurance will be there too because we’ve tested for that by putting in a lot of laps on the same tyre. We’re in a good position for the race, but anything can happen. The weather is looking like it will change and we’ve seen first corner incidents at this circuit before. I hope we get through the first corner cleanly and have a good race at Honda’s home track.” 250cc Julián Simón >> 7th, 1m 52.261s “Obviously I am not too satisfied. We have a good pace for the race; the engine is working fine and we managed to go faster on the T4 section where we lost time yesterday. But at the end of the timed session this afternoon, when we were going for the fastest lap and aiming to get a position at the front of the grid, I had an incident with Bautista and we ended up dropping back a lot. My first fast lap was OK and I was 5th, but on the second Bautista got in my way and he was going slow and that meant I could not improve my time. In the end 7th and on the second row; that is not what I expected to get today.” Shuhei Aoyama >> 1st, 1m 51.327s “I am very pleased as this the best result that I have got in training. It is very hot this weekend and that is not so good for the tyres and the engine. Moreover, it makes it more difficult to concentrate when riding. Yesterday I set a 1.51.8, although I do not know why that time was not recorded correctly, so today I tried to concentrate and open the throttle. I felt comfortable. Tomorrow it will not be so hot, and maybe it is something positive for me, the tyres and the engine. Therefore I will just be able to concentrate on doing the the best I can. I hope to get on the podium.” 125cc Bradley Smith >> 5th, 1m 58.752s “Starting 5th tomorrow is of course something positive. I am a little disappointed with this time because we are far behind Pasini, although compared with second position there is not too much difference. Moreover, on the last few laps I made some small mistakes, waiting and then starting to go fast, instead of keeping up a constant pace. But well, in the end I am in 5th position, which is a better result than many I got in the last few races. I am pleased with that, and tomorrow in the warm-up we will try to get a good pace and then push as much as we can in the race.” Esteve Rabat >> 14th, 1m 59.496s “The truth is that things went awfully. I got into a mess and the times I set were not so good, but the set up is fine. Tomorrow we will try to get off to a good start and see how things go. We do not have anything left to try out in the warm-up, although we will have to see what we have not done well today so that we can try to improve the bike, because there is no specific point where we lose a lot of time.”