MotoGP
Donington GP: Pedrosa in front row, Hayden starts fourth
24 giugno 2007 The session began at frenetic pace with riders conscious that dry track time was at an absolute premium after the rain. Dani was one of the early pacesetters along with Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V), Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and Alex Barros (Ducati). Pedrosa showed no signs of backing off after experiencing a huge wobble in the morning session at Craner Curves. Only Dani’s sheer ability on a bike kept him from parting company with his RC212V and with fifty minutes of the hour gone Dani was back on top of the standings from Barros, with Rossi lying third. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) was sixth quickest in these early stages, reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) fifth fastest, Checa and Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) both in the top ten. Rossi then turned in a lap of 1m 29.389s to go pole before a scorching 1m 29.061 from Stoner elevated the Aussie World Championship points leader to the top of the chart. Stoner would hold pole with this time set on race rubber until the final ten minutes of the session. At the halfway point it was Stoner from Rossi, then Checa and John Hopkins (Suzuki), with Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden lurking in provisional fifth and sixth spots. Series of laps on race rubber were the norm for most riders at this stage, until, as has become the usual pattern, Kawasaki was the first team to go for qualifying tyres with twenty minutes to go. Randy de Puniet snatched third on the green machine, but he was soon displaced by Pedrosa who recorded a 1m 29.363s time to put himself on the front row. Then with twelve minutes left on the clock half the field pitted to make their best bids for the front of the grid with sticky rubber. Rossi’s 1m 28.677s time set with nine minutes left looked good for pole, and try as his rivals might, not even Dani or Stoner could dislodge the former Champ from the head of the grid. Stoner had the best chance until he lost, and then skillfully recovered, the sliding front-end of his machine at Goddards while on course for a pole lap. The mistake cost him a massive 0.7 seconds. Nicky grabbed third with a 1m 29.02s time, Dani temporarily put his hands on second and it looked as if both Repsol riders would start from the front row until Colin Edwards re-arranged the grid with a pole lap of 1m 28.531s with just 50 seconds left on the clock. Dani, on the front row with a best lap of 1m 28.863s, said: “It would be good to repeat my result here in 2006, but today went well both in the morning and this afternoon. I had a slight problem with the qualifying tyre, but I’m on the front row and that’s the main thing. I hope the weather is good tomorrow, but wet or dry we did a good job so we look to be in good shape.” His team-mate Nicky heads row two as fourth fastest man with a time of 1m 29.025s. He said: “The session went pretty well and fourth is definitely my best qualifying position for a while so I’ve got to be happy with that. This has been the closest we’ve been for a while and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race. With a decent start I can at least get in there at the front, see what I’ve been missing and learn some stuff from the boys. So far every race this season they’ve just disappeared after the first corner and I haven’t really learned much but hopefully tomorrow I can go to school and stick right with them.” Carlos Checa qualified seventh with a best time of 1m 29.281s and said: “I think I can be competitive in the race here because like at Jerez top speed is not critical and I have a very good feeling in the dry. I didn’t get the best from my qualifiers – my time was only 0.2 seconds better than on my race tyre, which is very positive for tomorrow. Yesterday I had no feeling, today I’m back in the top ten after switching to the base settings we know work on this bike.” Marco Melandri managed ninth. The top nine riders being covered by just less than one second. The Italian said: “Today we worked on the dry setting but the forecast is for more rain tomorrow so I don’t really know what to expect for the race. In the fast sections I can let the bike run and I am fast but we’re still struggling to set the bike up for the braking. It's a problem we’ve had since the start of the season and it doesn’t allow me to ride as I like. It will be a tough race tomorrow – even more so if it rains, because the track here is very slippery.” His team-mate Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V), tenth on the grid, said: “We tried to make the most of the two hours we had on a dry track to prepare as best as possible for a dry race. We struggled a bit this morning because we couldn’t get the tyres up to optimum temperature. In the afternoon the situation improved and we’re ready if it’s dry tomorrow. Unfortunately we had a technical problem at the end and only got the chance to use one qualifying tyre, which means I was unable to set a good lap. I’m disappointed by that but I’m hoping for a dry race tomorrow.” Shinya Nakano, in 11th, said: “More changeable weather conditions! But it’s been dry. This morning we tried three new tyres for the first time and we struggled a little. This is our first time here with the 800cc Honda and my first time here on Michelin tyres in the dry, so it took time to adjust. We made some gearbox adjustments too. We normally do this on the first day, but the conditions have been so different we needed to do it again. I am a little disappointed with the final grid position, but we have closed the gap a little and that’s important.” Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V), the sole KR rider this weekend, qualified 19th. He said: “This afternoon we got closer to the guys the machine has been running with lately. A lot of that’s just me learning where I’m going. I’m still missing the line sometimes, going in a little late, because I’m trying to do it all so fast. I don’t know how the weather’s going to be tomorrow. I think either way we will be up a little higher than we are in qualifying, just by being able to think about the track tonight. Wet or dry, we’re going to have to put our heads down and race for it. Everyone’s on the same track.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd. "Today went pretty well and I'm very pleased to be on the front row for the race because this is always important. The practice sessions were ok and stayed dry which meant we could find a good set-up and work up to a fairly consistent race pace, though I had a big moment this morning when the temperature was colder. The qualifying laps at the end of the afternoon session were a little difficult for me and I made a few little mistakes with both qualifiers which may have cost me a shot at pole position. With my second qualifier I tried to do a second fast lap and the time was quite good until the last split when the tyre began to go off - but this was not a big surprise because they're only designed to do one lap. I hope it stays dry tomorrow but we've had the chance to practice in both wet and dry conditions so we should be ready whatever happens with the weather. There are a few riders with a good pace here so it will be an interesting race. I'm looking forward to tomorrow." Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 4th."The session went pretty well and fourth is definitely my best qualifying position for a while so I've got to be happy with that. It felt good to be fastest this morning too, although I didn't really improve a lot this afternoon and I'd have liked to have gone a little bit quicker. Also I only improved by two tenths on my second qualifying tyre and you've got to do more than that to get on the front row. Regardless, this has been the closest we've been for a while and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race. With a decent start I can at least get in there at the front, see what I've been missing and learn some stuff from the boys. So far every race this season they've just disappeared after the first corner and I haven't really learned much, but hopefully tomorrow I can go to school and stick right with them. I've felt pretty good straight away this weekend. The chassis changes really have not made a huge amount of difference - we just tried a lot of different stuff in the two days of testing after Barcelona, and not just settings. We took away some of the traction control and now the bike's working well and seems to suit me better so that I can control it more with the throttle. A really big thanks to the guys on my team for working so hard and making a few changes on the bike to give me a better feeling." Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 7th. “I think I can be competitive in the race here because like at Jerez top speed is not critical and I have a very good feeling in the dry. I didn’t get the best from my qualifying tyres – my time was only 0.2 seconds better than on my race tyre, which is very positive for tomorrow. Yesterday I had no feeling, today I’m back in the top ten after switching to the base settings we know work on this bike.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 9th."Today we worked on the dry setting but the forecast is for more rain tomorrow so I don't really know what to expect for the race. In the fast sections I can let the bikes run and I am fast but we're still struggling to set the bike up for the long braking. It's a problem we've had since the start of the season and it doesn't allow me to ride as I like. It will be a tough race tomorrow - even more so if it rains, because the track here is very slippery." Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 10th."We tried to make the most of the two hours we had on a dry track to prepare as best as possible for a dry race. We struggled a bit this morning because we couldn't get the tyres up to optimum temperature. In the afternoon the situation improved and we're quite ready if it is dry tomorrow. Unfortunately we had a technical problem at the end and only got chance to use only one qualifying tyre, which means I was unable to set a good lap. I'm disappointed by that but I'm hoping for a dry race tomorrow." Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 11th. “More changeable weather conditions! But saying that I have been pleased that it’s been dry. This morning we tried three new tyres for the first time and we struggled a little. This is because this is our first time here with the 800cc Honda and my first time here on Michelin tyres in the dry, so it took time to adjust. We made some gearbox adjustments also, we normally do this on the first day, but the conditions have been so different we needed to do it again. I am a little disappointed with the final grid position, we are still not up with the top group, but we have closed the gap a little and that is important. When you have a bike that works well around Donington, it’s one of the most exciting tracks to ride around, so it should be a very thrilling race!” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 19th.“We made a lot of improvements today. The wet yesterday hurt us, because I’m still trying to get used to this bike, as well as the track. I’ve been here twice in ten years … once in ‘97 and once in ’04. It’s kind of tough having to relearn the track in just one day. But this afternoon we got closer to the guys the machine has been running with lately. A lot of that’s just me learning where I’m going. I’m still missing the line sometimes, going in a little late, because I’m trying to do it all so fast.” “I don’t know how the weather’s going to be tomorrow. I think either way we will be up a little higher than we are in qualifying, just by being able to think about the track tonight. I like this track. It’s just getting the corner speeds and stuff down. You’ve got to figure that out. Wet or dry, we’re going to have to put our heads down and race for it. Everyone’s on the same track.” Chuck Aksland – Team Manager “Bike-wise, we’re running what we’ve had all year. There won’t be any significant changes until the new chassis comes. Kurtis is doing a good job. He picked up a lot of time from this morning to the afternoon in the dry sessions. I think he was just starting to get confidence with the race tyres when we had to throw in the qualifying tyres. That puts a whole different element in. On race tyres, he generally picked up the pace. We’ll see how he goes tomorrow.” Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: Will not race at the British GP and is replaced by younger brother Kurtis. |
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