FIM 125cc Grand Prix World Championship Mugello, Italy May 30, 2009 Qualifying Results: 1. Bradley SMITH (Aprilia), 1:58.134 2. Scott REDDING (Aprilia), 1:58.431 3. Julian SIMON (Aprilia), 1:58.575 4. Sergio GADEA (Aprilia), 1:58.621 5. Marc MARQUEZ (KTM), 1:58.947 6. Andrea IANNONE (Aprilia), 1:59.121 7. Johann ZARCO (Aprilia), 1:59.178 8. Pol ESPARGARO (Derbi), 1:59.186 9. Sandro CORTESE (Derbi), 1:59.358 10. Danny WEBB (Aprilia), 1:59.478 34. Cameron BEAUBIER (KTM), no time recorded More, from a press release issued by KTM: KTM’s Marquez in row two for 125cc GP in Mugello In some impressive late qualifying track action, Red Bull KTM Moto Sport’s Marc Marquez proved he is up with the fastest on Saturday when he secured fifth place to put him on the second row for Sunday’s GP on the Mugello circuit in Italy. The 16-year-old Spaniard, who scored his first career pole in Le Mans at the last race to become the second youngest rider ever to be on pole, split a pack of Aprilias in the closing minutes of the session to finish 0,813 seconds off the pole sitter’s pace. Marquez has already had an eventful weekend. He came unstuck near the end of the practice session on Friday when he hit a bump going into one of the chicanes. This incident clearly failed to upset the courageous young Spaniard as he assumed his rightful position at the front of the pack during Saturday’s qualifying. Marc Marquez: “It took us a long time to come to grips with the right settings for this circuit. We evaluated two set-up options that were radically different from each other. Even though we hadn’t yet found all the right solutions I tried to push yesterday and I crashed after hitting one of the bumps. But today, everything seemed to come together. I was able to speed up and get a second row grid position. Now my aim for the race is to get a good start and hang on to the leading group!” Teammate Cameron Beaubier did make an effort to return to the track after doctors agreed he could ride on Friday. But the 16-year-old American came in after four laps when the team decided he should rest his injured wrist until the next race in Catalunya, Spain, in the middle of June. Beaubier damaged his wrist during a fall at the last race in Le Mans, France. Cameron Beaubier: I’m a bit disappointed I can’t ride here in Mugello. When I arrived on Thursday the doctors and physiotherapists were happy with the progress of my injured arm so we decided that I would try to race but after only two laps I realised that it was going to be too painful to ride because I fractured two bones in my left forearm when I crashed in Le Mans. There wasn’t much sense in gritting my teeth and risking an aggravation to my injuries for a 25th place in the race. That’s why we decided to give this race a miss and hopefully return fully fit for the next race in Barcelona!” More, from a press release issued by Blusens Aprilia: SCOTT REDDING IS SECOND AGAIN IN THE GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA ALICE AFTER LE MANS. HIS TEAM-MATE IN BLUSENS APRILIA, TITO RABAT, ENDS UP IN THE FOURTEENTH PLACE Mugello, 30th of May 2009. Scott Redding did an excellent performance in the practice session of the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice, the 5th test of the World Championship 2009, which is taking place in the Circuit of Mugello this weekend in great climatic conditions. The pilot of the team Blusens BQR had the second best timing of the day, thus he has been classified second, like he also did in Le Mans, where Redding was just 93 tenths away from the pole position. Scott has done very satisfying practices and has finished most of the laps at a rhythm of 1’59, which is thought to be the race rhythm too. In the last two he went down to 1’58; it has been thanks to the very last one with 1’58.431 that he has gotten to be in the second place. The British pilot hopes he will make the best out of this Gran Premio, since he fell in the previous one. On the other hand, Tito Rabat has not been very fortunate today during the whole session; he has been most of the time in the middle positions to end up in the fourteenth position. The Catalan pilot did not manage to be comfortable and did not keep a constant rhythm during the 40 minutes of the official practices and this is why he started in one of the back places. 45 SCOTT REDDING (2nd, 1’58”431, +0”297): “I am really happy because for the second time in a row I am going to start second and this is a great result. Luckily, the weather was good during the two days of practices for the first time this year and the conditions of the track were good, which allowed me to go fast. In the morning we had some problems and we decided to make a few changes both in the motor and the suspensions for the afternoon qualifying sessions. That was a terrific idea. The Aprilia has worked really well and I felt comfortable with it. It is in this circuit where the longest straight of the Championship is, so I am going to try to adapt to the motorbike to the max to avoid that my height (I am big) penalizes me. Because of this I have a slight pain in the wrists, but I rather deal with the pain and go as fast as I did today. My goal for tomorrow, taking into consideration what happened in Le Mans, is to be in the top five for the second time this year, as I already did in Jerez.” 12 TITO RABAT (14º, 1’59”974, +1”840): “Until now it has been a difficult weekend. This morning we have had quite a few problems to get ready, but they were solved for the afternoon session. Despite of that I did not manage to have a good rhythm to perform better practices. Tomorrow, in this demanding circuit where the blasts are so important, I am positive it will be a ‘group race’, so it is important that I start well in order to go with the front group, which I think is doable because of our good setting. My goal is to be in the top ten for the second time this season, as I did in the inaugural test in Qatar.”