Login | Password dimenticata? | Registrati

French GP: Dani Pedrosa on pole at Le Mans

In MotoGP

17 maggio 2009

French GP: Dani Pedrosa on pole at Le Mans

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) rode to his factory RC212V to a brilliant pole position at Le Mans this afternoon, marking himself down as a favourite for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix, round four of this year’s 17 race MotoGP World Championship.

The Spaniard timed his final charge to perfection, moving ahead of his rivals in the final seconds of the session, leaving them no time to counter-attack. His final and fastest lap outpaced Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by five thousandths of a second and third fastest Casey Stoner (Ducati) by seven hundredths of a second. This is the second year in a row that Pedrosa has scored pole at Le Mans.

Conditions were cool and cloudy for the afternoon qualifier, the best they have been all weekend, with the previous two practice outings spoiled by squalls of rain and drizzle that had track conditions changing throughout.

Pedrosa’s first pole of the year (he was second on the grid in Spain two weeks ago) continues an impressive run by the Spaniard who started the season injured and is still far from fully fit because his still-healing left knee prevents him from undertaking his usual training regime. Despite those difficulties the 23 year-old finished third in last month’s Japanese GP and second at Jerez, so he will be aiming to continue that progression tomorrow.

Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) was often the fastest man on track in the two free practice sessions and scored a solid second-row start in qualifying. Just three tenths off pole, the Italian didn’t manage to get the maximum out of his final run on soft tyres but is nonetheless confident of a good race tomorrow. With conditions changing constantly here at Le Mans, Dovizioso will leave his decision on tyre choice until the last moment before the race.

Local hero Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) gave himself some work to do this afternoon by falling in the early stages when he touched a still-damp white line while Braking for the Chemin aux Boeufs chicane. The Frenchman had to ride the rest of the session on his number two bike, though that machine was still fast enough to clock the second highest top speed of the session, at 290.3km/h. De Puniet ended up tenth fastest, putting him at the front of the fourth row.

Thirty stitches in his right arm didn’t stop Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) from putting in a typically determined effort in qualifying. Following the Jerez GP the Spaniard underwent surgery on his right arm to cure an arm-pump problem and is still recovering from the operation which aggravated a tendon in the arm. Not surprisingly, Elias is struggling with his physical endurance here and he knows that tomorrow’s 28 lap race will be one of the toughest of his career.

MotoGP rookie Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda) had his best result of the year so far at Jerez and was looking forward to getting back to action here so he could work on improving his front suspension set-up, which is currently holding him back. The ever-changing weather conditions didn’t help Takahashi here but his crew did make improvements during qualifying, which he ended in 15th.

Unaccustomed to starting from the back row of the grid, Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and his team are planning a radical change to the set-up of his RC212V for the race here. The San Marino rider was 16th fastest in qualifying, leaving him with plenty of work to do both in the morning warm-up and in the first few laps of the race.

Pagina 1 di 2