FIM MotoGP World Championship New Jersey Motorsports Park Millville, New Jersey September 3 Qualifying Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:33.138 2. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:33.258 3. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:33.318 4. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:33.947 5. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:33.990 6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:34.026 7. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:34.054 8. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:34.360 9. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:34.592 10. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:34.637 11. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:34.676 12. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:34.727 13. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:34.791 14. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:34.870 15. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:34.955 16. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:35.502 17. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:36.167 More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Álvaro Bautista will start tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix from the third row of the grid after qualifying in eighth place this afternoon at Misano. Rizla Suzuki’s Spanish racer equalled his best qualifying position in MotoGP so far, at the Misano World Circuit in Italy. He went one better than his ninth at Indianapolis last week as he continues to show that the recent potential shown by the Suzuki GSV-R is starting to come to fruition. Bautista’s best time of 1’34.360 from his 29 laps could have been even better, but he got caught in traffic at the end of the session when he was on his final run and was left a bit frustrated that he was unable to climb further up the grid. Beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine was the order of the day as air temperatures rose to 29ºC. Current championship leader Casey Stoner took pole position, his eighth of the season, with reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo second and Dani Pedrosa in third making up the front row. Tomorrow’s 28-lap race will not only see Bautista aiming to get in amongst the front runners early on and make a serious attempt at a high-placed finish, but it will also be the first time that the one-off Rizla ‘Micron’ paint-scheme that will adorn the Suzuki GSV-R will be seen and raced. The new livery will be launched tomorrow morning before Bautista takes to the track at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) for the 13th round of the season. Álvaro Bautista: “This morning we made some changes to the gearbox, but after the practice we switched back to the settings from yesterday. In the qualifying I started with the harder tyre in the hot conditions to see if it worked well. It was not too bad and I was riding at 35.0 on most laps, but the exit from the corner with hard gas caused me to slide and go wide. We changed to the softer rear we had been using in the morning and I had a good feeling with that compound, and could ride mid 34s all the time. At the end I couldn’t make a best lap because there was a bit of traffic and some slower riders that I couldn’t get past, so I lost the chance to make a good lap-time. I think we have a good set-up for tomorrow and the grid position is even better than last week, so if I get a good start I think I can push right up there. I want to stay with the front guys for the maximum amount of time as possible and make a race and get a result like Indy or even better!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s strange that Misano has seen our best qualifying result of the year so far, but in-fact we are a bit disappointed by the result. Álvaro made a steady rhythm at 35.0 with the hard rear tyre and then we compared it to the soft rear tyre from this morning, and he immediately made his qualifying time of 34.3, which at the time was good for fourth. Having put on fresh tyres we were all hoping Álvaro included that a 33 something was possible, but a combination of traffic and a couple of errors took the chance away. We still need to improve the qualifying performance, but it is getting better and as always the points are in the Grand Prix tomorrow. We’re looking forward to the race!” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: New Misano pole position record for Stoner, on race tyres Round 13: San Marino GP Qualifying Misano World Circuit, Saturday 3 September 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Medium, Hard Casey Stoner secured his eighth pole position of the season in Misano today, and in doing so set a new circuit pole position record. The old record was set by the Australian in 2008 in the era of tyre competition on Bridgestone’s high-grip qualifying tyres, but now in the Official Tyre Supplier era there are no qualifying tyres meaning that Stoner’s new record was set on race rubber. The primary aim of race tyres is to have sufficient durability to last race-distance in contrast to the outright of grip offered by qualifying tyres over only a handful of laps, so for Stoner to set a new pole record clearly indicates the ongoing development of Bridgestone’s MotoGP tyres during the three years of single tyre supply. Furthermore Jorge Lorenzo, who will start tomorrow’s race from second on the grid, and Dani Pedrosa in third were also both faster than the existing pole record, highlighting what has so far been a very fast weekend. This is the first time that Bridgestone have selected asymmetric rear slicks for Misano and the laptimes attest to the performance advantage they offer. The top seven riders all lapped faster than the existing lap record too during qualifying. The top three all set their fastest laps on the harder option front slick and the softer rear, which looks to be the primary combination for the race. The second row for tomorrow’s race comprises Ben Spies, Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso. Again today conditions were fine and dry, and more of the same is expected tomorrow when the 28 lap MotoGP race will start at 1400hrs local time. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division “We saw yesterday that the laptimes were fast but for the top three to beat the pole position record, which was set back in 2008 by Casey on our qualifying tyres, is very impressive particularly as qualifying tyres are no longer used in the single tyre era so these times were set on race tyres. This means that machine and tyre development are so important. Clearly tyre performance here this weekend is good, particularly of the harder front and both rear slick options. I am pleased that a new pole record has been set as it demonstrates that we are working hard to continue to improve tyre performance even in the current era of single tyre supply, and not resting on our laurels. We have said in the past that our competition is the stopwatch, and this today is a definite victory for us. It is only the fifth outright pole record that has fallen since the start of single tyre supply in 2009 without a modification to a circuit or its tarmac, so I am very satisfied after today, and of course must congratulate Casey, Jorge and Dani in particular for their performance. Casey achieved his theoretical fastest time as he was fastest in every sector of his best lap, but Jorge’s theoretical best puts him only 0.035second adrift. All three are very close in laptime so I anticipate a good and close-fought race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Edwards storms to superb seventh in Misano qualifying Colin Edwards delivered another fantastic qualifying performance for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in Misano to boost his hopes of recording a top six finish in tomorrow’s 28-lap GP Aperol di San Marino E Riviera di Rimini. The 37-year-old missed a second successive second row start by just 0.028s and Edwards will start round 13 of this year’s World Championship from seventh position having once again finished top non-factory rider. Edwards was in stunning form earlier today when he ended practice in a confidence-inspiring fifth position, the Texan benefitting from geometry modifications to the front-end of his YZR-M1 machine to lap almost a second faster than he ma naged yesterday. With a quarter of this afternoon’s qualifying session remaining, Edwards jumped into the top five with a lap of 1.34.356. He was able to shave a further 0.3s off that lap but it wasn’t quite quick enough to secure him a third top six start on the grid this season. Edwards is now optimistic that he can battle for the top six in tomorrow’s race as he looks to cement his position as the leading non-factory rider in the overall rankings. British rider Cal Crutchlow had an eventful qualifying session, which took place in slightly cooler conditions than yesterday. Temperatures still peaked at 29 degrees and like team-mate Edwards, Crutchlow was able to knock almost a second off his Friday pace to finish this morning’s third practice session in ninth position thanks to wheelbase alterations to his YZR-M1 machine. Crutchlow was lapping inside the top 10 and looking to improve his pace of 1.34.791 when he suffered two late crashes. He tumbled out at Turn 3 on his first soft Bridgestone rear tyre and having returned to the pits to jump on his spare Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine, he crashed again in the closing moments of the session while looking to better his 13th position. Both times he escaped injury and the spills haven’t dented Crutchlow’s confidence and the 25-year-old remains positive that he can compete for a top 10 result on the 2.626 miles circuit tomorrow. Colin Edwards 7th 1.34.054 29 laps: “I’m really happy with today and it was a shame all our hard work didn’t quite get us on the second row. We knew what the problems were yesterday and we changed the geometry on the front-end to create some stability throu gh the high-speed sections. Once again I got to say a big thanks to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew because they rolled out an awesome bike for me. They did their job and I had to do mine and thankfully I did. There’s not much between fourth and seventh and to be just over a tenth behind Ben (Spies) on the factory Yamaha proves what a good job we’ve done. I’m now looking forward to the race tomorrow. I’m going to run the soft rear tyre and I’m pretty sure it will be perfect, but I just can’t make the hard rear option work. It feels pretty rigid and I just tense up when I’m on it. I’ve got to be looking at the top six though it is not going to be easy at all when you look at the calibre of those guys in front of me and the bikes they are riding. I just need to make sure I get a good start and try and stay out of trouble in the first couple of corners because there’s been a few incidents there.” Cal Crutchlow 13th 1. 34.791 23 laps: “The position on the timesheets looks like it was a bad session and it could definitely have ended a lot better without the two crashes. But this morning I was a second faster than yesterday and felt really comfortable on the bike after we made some overnight changes that improved the front. I think I was eighth on the timesheets when I had the first crash, so I know I could have been in the top 10 on the grid. The first crash was at Turn 3. I’d just gone out on my first soft rear and there wasn’t enough heat in it, so it high-sided me and then turned into a low-side. It wasn’t a big problem and we put a new soft rear tyre in the spare bike. But the only front I had left was 25-laps old. I was on for a really good lap and the front pushed because it had close to race distance on it and I crashed again. That’s pretty annoying but they were both my mistakes and I hold my hands up for that. I’m still positive that I could have been much higher up on the grid and I am confident I can be inside the top 10 tomorrow. I need to apologise to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew for giving them a bit of work, but it makes me more determined to give them a decent result tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: FIFTH ROW FOR DE PUNIET, SIXTH ROW FOR CAPIROSSI The starting grid for the Misano Grand Prix was finalized during this afternoon’s qualifying session. Randy De Puniet turned in the fourteenth-best time (1:34.870). The Frenchman lost the front and fell just a few laps into the qualifying session, losing the opportunity to post an good lap. Loris Capirossi finished the session in sixteenth place (1:35.502), and he’ll start from the sixth row. Marco Rigamonti – Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “It’s a shame, Randy was going well on the bike we started qualifying with, but risked a bit too much in a corner and went off the track. Then with the second bike, he had a hard time finding his confidence because the setup was a little different. We hoped to be able to start from the third row, but we weren’t able to drop the last two or three tenths. We’re confident for tomorrow, although it will be hard because there will be many riders to battle with.” Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Rider 14th best time in 1:34.870 “I’m dissatisfied and angry for how things went. I fell on the eighth lap, when I was going quite well, maybe on my way to a very good time. I wasn’t able to find the same feeling on the second bike, especially with the front. We made additional changes, but there wasn’t enough time left for me to improve my time. I very well could have started from the third row, but unfortunately the early fall hurt my qualifying session a lot.” Loris Capirossi – Pilota Pramac Racing Team 16th best time in 1:35.502 “Today went the usual way: the final piece was missing. We’re all very close, and then when the time comes to cut away a tenth or so, I’m never able to do it, for different reasons. When I try to lower my time, I try to be more aggressive, but this bike doesn’t work with force. Instead, it becomes difficult to ride. It’s hard; I’ve been riding a certain way for 22 years, and changing now isn’t easy. We have a pretty good race pace, so tomorrow we’ll try to make some changes and see what happens.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha MotoGP Team: Lorenzo Storms to Misano Front Row Start Jorge Lorenzo delivered a scorching pace at the Misano circuit today to take second place on the grid in qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of San Marino. The reigning World Champion had continued to benefit from the hard work of his crew in the final morning free practice, holding second for most of the session to finally finish third just 0.323 from first. Lorenzo dominated the afternoon’s qualifying session, starting as the fastest rider from the outset before dropping to second with a gap of 0.578 to pole with 11 minutes to go. An extra burst of speed saw him drop the gap to a mere 0.120 seconds behind Casey Stoner on pole. Ben Spies had a more challenging qualifying than his team mate today, spending the final free practice and subsequent qualifying working to improve rear grip levels on his YZR-M1. A last minute effort saw him deliver a fourth place grid start just off the front row, 0.809 from pole. The team will now work overnight to find an improvement for warm up to provide the best possible set up for the race. Jorge Lorenzo Position : 2nd Time: 1’33.258 Laps: 30 “Today has been a good day for us. We wanted pole position but the first row is a good start for tomorrow. We have tried some things today and in QP we could almost always be in front. The bike is very good after all the great work of my crew and we have a fast pace. I think we can be competitive tomorrow and try to finish in front of Casey so that’s our aim. The weather conditions are being very tough this weekend, it might even rain tomorrow. The race will be very difficult in all aspects.” Ben Spies Position : 4th Time: 1’33.947 Laps: 30 “It was honestly a lot tougher than expected this afternoon. I wasn’t really happy with it We’re trying a lot of stuff with the bike and I don’t feel all that bad riding wise, we just don’t have the right setting yet and we’re not comfortable at a few spots on the track. Some are really good, some are really bad. We had to ride way over the limit to be where we were today. I’m glad we got it done and got on the second row but I’m not happy about how many risks I had to take to get there. The bike’s there, we can see it, Jorge’s going fast and I feel good, we just have to get my setting comfortable. We’ve got all night to work on it and see what we can do for tomorrow. ” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Second place is good, Jorge has a very good pace and he’s happy with the bike so we are ready to race. Our tyre choice has been sorted so we don’t have to gamble anything. Jorge is riding very consistently as the Jorge we know, he is very smooth and looking good so we are looking forward to the race to see what we can achieve.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “First row is a good starting point for tomorrow, Jorge has a really good pace which is important. We are working to find a better set up for Ben and are still looking for some more grip for the rear. We are going to prepare something to try for tomorrow morning’s warm up. The weather for tomorrow is also a big question mark!” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Stoner secures eighth pole of the season with Pedrosa third and Dovizioso sixth Today in San Marino, Casey Stoner took his 30th MotoGP career pole position and 8th of the 2011 season, and with it he broke his own record set here in 2008 by two tenths of a second. It was a very hot qualifying session with air temperatures reaching 29 degrees and a track temperature of 39 degrees. Stoner spent the early part of the session working on set up for the hard tyre, when he switched to the soft tyre he was able to record the fastest lap seen at Misano with a 1’33.138 on lap 18. Dani Pedrosa also spent most of the session working on tyre set up, the Spaniard will be hoping for a strong start and will try to match the race pace of Casey and Jorge ahead of him. Andrea Dovizioso, who made some steps forward in qualifying is happy to start from the second row and will be aiming for another podium finish in front of his home crowd. Weather predictions show chances of rain for tomorrow’s race so set up work in the morning warm up session will be critical. The twenty eight lap race will take place at 14h00 local time. CASEY STONER 1st 1’33.138 “It’s been a pretty good weekend for us here, steadily improving the bike each session. We struggled a little with the hard tyre this afternoon, trying to find the correct balance but then we made an improvement and got the bike feeling better. Then when we put the soft tyres on, we got a great lap in but the bike wasn’t working too well in the front, which is something we need to improve for tomorrow. It will be a tough race, Dani and Jorge are both running very well so I’ll try to get a good start but there are a few more overtaking opportunities here at Misano, it’s not a track with only one line. The weekend on a whole is going well, tomorrow we’ll have to decide on tyres depending on what the weather is doing, hopefully it will cool down a little which would be nice!”. DANI PEDROSA 3rd 1’33.318 “I’m happy with the qualifying session, I spent most of the time working on the tyres, swapping from the soft to the medium compound, trying to find the right one for tomorrow; normally before the qualifying session you have almost decided, but here it’s been more difficult because of the weather and track conditions. We were working on that a lot this afternoon and in the last couple of laps I was pushing to be on the front row. We’ve made it, which is very important here because the first corners are very tight, and the times between the three of us are very close, so that’s positive. For race pace, Casey and Jorge are still slightly faster than me, but we will look for something more on the settings tonight and try to be with them tomorrow for whole race”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 6th 1’34.026 “This morning we worked on the set up, reducing the issue of the pitching we had yesterday. This afternoon we improved the rhythm with the hard tyre in preparation for the race. Our target was to start from the first two rows, so the final result is not too bad. Tomorrow it will crucial to make a good start and try to stay with the front riders. Casey and Lorenzo are really strong and Dani is very fast off the start so it will be important to stay with them if we want to gain some points on Lorenzo and control Dani. We will continue working but the good point is that we are more competitive in the race pace than in using the soft compound for the qualifying. With these high temperatures and humidity the race will be really tough tomorrow. I hope that the Italian spectators will give me an extra boost”. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: TOUGH QUALIFYING SESSION FOR ELIAS AT HOT MISANO CIRCUIT Misano, 03 September: After yesterday’s first opening day the LCR Honda racer Toni Elias made several set-up changes to the front geometry and rear suspension of his RCV but could not translate his hard work in a brilliant performance today at San Marino and Riviera di Rimini GP qualifying session finishing 17th (1’36.167). The Spaniard, who was hoping for a further improvement on the asphalt where he already experienced positive results in the premier class, had to deal with rear grip issue in a hot closely contested 60-minute qualifying session which saw Stoner setting a fastest lap time of 1’33.138. Elias: “I am very frustrated and I can not believe I will start from the last spot on the grid on the circuit where I achieved good results in the past 4 years. This morning we have found a little adjustment which helped me to drive out of the corners and in this afternoon session we have been trying to improve rear suspension and chassis set. Basically we have been trying to improve the weight transfer loading the rear tyre to chase the correct temperature but we could not achieve what we were expecting and I am not comfortable with our overall package. Tomorrow I must take a good start trying to follow the group because I do not want to race alone because it’s gonna be very tough”. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: CHALLENGING QUALIFYING SESSION FOR ROSSI AND HAYDEN AT MISANO Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden finished eleventh and fifteenth, respectively, in today’s qualifying session for the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. The Italian managed to find a setup for the race that is better than what he used on Friday, but he experienced bad luck on his final lap when another rider blocked his way. After a promising morning session, Nicky Hayden had a harder time than expected in qualifying, and tomorrow he’ll start from the fifth row of the grid and try to make up ground. Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 11th (1:34.676) “Today went a bit better. We changed the setup a little compared to yesterday, and then we stuck with that, making small steps. There were no longer parts of the track where I lost a lot of time compared to the others, as we reached a steady level around the entire lap, although of course we’re still not as fast as we’d like to be. I was a little unfortunate on what would have been my fast lap, because after three good sectors, I came upon De Puniet going slow in the final hairpin before the last two left-handers, and there alone I lost half a second. Otherwise I could have done a 1:34.0 and started from the third row, which is what we had set out to do. Anyway, I’m not too bad in terms of pace, so we’ll see what we can do in the race tomorrow.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 15th (1:34.955) “This morning wasn’t bad to start with. I had used tyres from yesterday and was able to find a rhythm and do some decent laps. As has been the case lately though, things got worse in the afternoon. I was pushing the front, and I had a lot of front chatter, even with the soft tyres. It’s tough for Ducati here at their home, with the team trying hard and all the fans wanting to see us do something. I’ve got to believe the bike is better than fifteenth, so I’ve got to do a better job myself. It’s not the day we hoped for, and we’ll try to do better in the race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: STONER ON POLE AGAIN FOR HONDA, PEDROSA A CLOSE THIRD Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) continued his remarkable form at Misano today, claiming his eighth pole position of the season in gruelling Italian heat. Tomorrow the Australian’s aim is to score his fourth consecutive victory to further tighten his grip on the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. Stoner will be joined on the front row of the grid by team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) who qualified a close third fastest this afternoon. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) will start from the second row after recording the fifth and sixth fastest times. Stoner who has won seven of the 12 races so far this season comes to Misano on the back of successive victories at Laguna Seca, Brno and last Sunday at Indianapolis. With six races to go he holds a 44 point advantage over reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), who was second quickest this afternoon, just 0.120s shy of his rival. The pair traded blows during qualifying, both taking their turns at the top, just as they had done during the first three practice sessions Stoner was fastest in FP1, then it was Lorenzo in FP2 before Stoner moved ahead once more in FP3 this morning. Despite his domination of recent races and his speed at Misano, Stoner refuses to write off Lorenzo and expects the Spaniard to keep fighting to defend his crown until the very end. As always, race-long tyre performance will be the key here, with Stoner working hard with his crew to get the best out of the harder option Bridgestone rear tyre. He rode his best qualifying lap with his first softer rear, because when he went out with his second softer rear, he found the tyre was gripping so much that it made the front tyre push through the turns. With just 0.180s separating the top three, Pedrosa expects a hard-fought battle for victory. Second at Indianapolis last weekend and winner here last year, the Spaniard is hopeful that he can challenge both his team-mate and Lorenzo tomorrow. Pedrosa finished this afternoon just six hundredths of a second behind his compatriot and believes he can put up a good fight tomorrow. Simoncelli performed well this afternoon in preparation for his home race. The former 250 World Champion who hails from Cattolica, just a few kilometres from the Misano racetrack had been seventh this morning, but improved to fifth fastest to make sure of a row-two start. Simoncelli, who has been working to solve front grip and fuel consumption issues, sits between Ben Spies (Yamaha) and fellow Italian Dovizioso. Dovizioso is another local (from Forli, a short drive up the autostrada) and will be doing everything in his powers to repeat the emotional podium result he scored at Mugello in July. The Italian knows that he is stronger on race pace than when he is hunting one-off fast laps during qualifying, so he is hopeful of being able to chase the top three and see how the later stages of the race work out. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) was both satisfied and frustrated with tenth place today happy because he is in better physical shape than he has been for some while and because he is feeling more and more confident on the bike, frustrated because he was determined to make the third row for his team’s home race. The former 250 World Champion missed out by just 0,045s. Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V) was also frustrated, at a track where he has podium form in the premier class and where he won the Moto2 race last year. Elias and his crew have been working to improve machine balance to better load the front tyre but so far the perfect set-up eludes them. Today’s Moto2 qualifying session was another head-to-head for World Championship rivals Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing-Kalex) and Marc Marquez (Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol-Suter). Although Marquez has out-qualified Bradl at the last four events and won four of the last five races, the Spanish teenager ended this afternoon 0.256s behind his German rival who still holds sway at the top of the points table. Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing Moto2-Moriwaki) completed the front row, a further 0.256s off pole. Bradl’s first pole position since June’s Dutch TT comes at a vital stage in his championship duel with Marquez. His once gaping title lead has diminished race by race, including a 15 point deficit at Indy last weekend where he crashed in qualifying and had to fight through from way back. Despite that result Bradl and his crew believe they found a significant settings improvement at Indy which they hope will stem Marquez’s advance. The difference between the pair stands at 28 points with six races remaining. Perhaps Marquez’s attack today was somewhat blunted when he slid off during the early stages of qualifying. He quickly recovered to chase down Bradl’s time, reducing the gap from more than three tenths of a second. On his final lap he was fastest through the first sector, but couldn’t maintain that pace through the rest of the lap. In the sweltering conditions Marquez wasn’t the only faller Indy podium finisher Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX-FTR), Randy Krummenacher (GP Team Switzerland Kiefer Racing-Kalex) and Andrea Iannone (Speed Master-Suter) also slid off, Iannone going down on his final run when he was fighting to join Bradl and Marquez on the front row. Takahashi was delighted with third place on the grid, giving the former Moto2 winner his first front-row start since June’s Catalan GP at his team’s home race. Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team-Suter) was a close fourth fastest to lead row two, missing out on a front-row start by just 0.024s. Tomorrow Redding will be joined on the second row by local hero Alex De Angelis (JIR Moto2-Motobi) and Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing-Tech 3). Brno Moto2 winner Iannone was seventh quickest to head row three. MotoGP rider quotes Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda: pole position 1m 33.138s “It’s been a pretty good weekend for us here, steadily improving the bike each session. We struggled a little with the hard tyre this afternoon, trying to find the correct balance, but then we made an improvement and got the bike feeling better. Then when we put the soft tyres on, we got a great lap in but the bike wasn’t working too well in the front, which is something we need to improve for tomorrow. It will be a tough race, Dani and Jorge are both running very well so I’ll try to get a good start, but there are a few more overtaking opportunities here at Misano, it’s not a track with only one line. The weekend on the whole is going well. Tomorrow we’ll have to decide on tyres depending on what the weather is doing, hopefully it will cool down a little which would be nice!” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda RC212V: 3rd 1m 33.318s “I’m happy with the qualifying session. I spent most of the time working on the tyres, swapping from the soft to the medium compound, trying to find the right one for tomorrow; normally before the qualifying session you have almost decided, but here it’s been more difficult because of the weather and track conditions. We were working on that a lot this afternoon and in the last couple of laps I was pushing to be on the front row. We’ve made it, which is very important here because the first corners are very tight, and the times between the three of us are very close, so that’s positive. For race pace, Casey and Jorge are still slightly faster than me, but we will look for something more on the settings tonight and try to be with them tomorrow for whole race.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 5th 1m 33.990s “I am quite strong here, but we need to be stronger because the front three are extremely fast. However, I am confident because I think I can fight with Spies and Dovizioso. We will make some more slight changes to the settings in the morning and try to improve the bike under braking. I am sure with a harder front compound I would have had less problems, but this is the situation and we have to adapt. As for fuel consumption, which was our biggest worry yesterday, we have improved today and should be able to finish the race.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 6th 1m 34.026s “This morning we worked on the set-up, reducing the issue of the pitching we had yesterday. This afternoon we improved the rhythm with the hard tyre in preparation for the race. Our target was to start from the first two rows, so the final result is not too bad. Tomorrow it will be crucial to make a good start and try to stay with the front riders. Casey and Lorenzo are really strong and Dani is very fast off the start so it will be important to stay with them if we want to gain some points on Lorenzo and control Dani. We will continue working, but the good point is that we are more competitive on race pace than we are in using the soft compound tyre for qualifying. With these high temperatures and humidity the race will be really tough tomorrow. I hope that the Italian spectators will give me an extra boost.” Hiroshi Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 10th 1m 34.637s “I am satisfied that we have made notable progress my only disappointment that I couldn’t put the perfect lap together to break onto the third row. I have got my confidence back with the bike and my physical condition is much better. Starting from tenth place makes me think I can have a good race because my pace is quite good.” Toni Elias, LCR Honda MotoGP: 17th 1m 36.167s “I am very frustrated and I cannot believe I will start from the last spot on the grid on the circuit where I’ve achieved good results in the past four years. This morning we have found a little adjustment which helped me drive out of the corners and in this afternoon’s session we tried to improve our rear suspension and chassis set-up. Basically, we have been trying to improve the weight transfer to load the rear tyre and get the correct temperature, but we could not achieve what we were expecting and I am not comfortable with our overall package. Tomorrow I must make a good start and try to follow the group because I do not want to race alone. It’s going to be very tough.” Moto2 rider quotes Stefan Bradl, Viessmann Kiefer Racing-Kalex: pole position 1m 37.828s “I’m very happy with pole position. We had a tough weekend at Indy where we worked very hard to make the bike better. Finally we found something in the bike, something very important that helps me feel the limit better when I’m on a fast lap. It helps me, it makes life easier out there! Here I’ve felt comfortable since the first laps, so we can use the tyres as we like. It makes me happy to come back so strong after Indy. Marquez improved a lot at the last few races and maybe we reacted a bit late. Indy showed us that we had to do something and now we’ve done it. Now let’s see what happens in the race. My target is to finish in front of Marquez and I expect a big battle.” Marc Marquez, Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol-Suter: 2nd 1m 38.084s “The main thing is that we have a good pace for the race, but this weekend it looks like Bradl is so strong. My team has worked really hard and very well, as usual, so I would like to say a big thank you to them. Tomorrow in the race I will do my best, but before that we have warm-up, when we will see if we can learn anything that can help us in the race.” Yuki Takahashi, Gresini Racing Moto2-Moriwaki: 3rd 1m 38.340s “I have a very good feeling today, I am so happy with this front row, especially because this is the home race for my team, so this is very important for them too. The last five or six races have been so hard. We know that this can happen in Moto2, because everyone is so close that even if you miss a tenth or two you can be a long way off. Now I hope that we can continue in this same way for the rest of the season. Tomorrow I will try my best to make a good race.”