Pedrosa maintains momentum in qualifying for San Marino MotoGP
2010-09-05 14:47:35 Author: admin Source:
At the San Marino Grand Prix qualifying session in Misano, Repsol Honda's ace rider Dani Pedrosa once again kept the momentum rolling to add another brilliant and tactical pole position to his rather impeccable record in 2010. Pedrosa, thus, controls the pace for the race ahead of MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and 2007 MotoGP champion Casey Stoner in second and third respectively.
At the end of the hour the top five; Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Valentino Rossi and Ben Spies, were separated by just 0.524 seconds. Pedrosa’s final lap moved him a fraction of a second of Lorenzo and his performance completed an impressive two days of practice and qualifying for the team, which made a flawless start to the weekend. The team riders' were running one and two in the practice session on Friday with Pedrosa leading team mate Andrea Dovizioso.
Currently second-place in the championship, Pedrosa took full advantage of recent improvements to his bike to lead the onslaught amongst rivals in qualifying. His aim for the race is a fast, clean getaway and then a mistake-free race which will hopefully lead to his first back-to-back victories in MotoGP.
Lorenzo, on the other hand, could not quite match the Honda's pace and ended up parking his M1 on the front row of the grid. Still, it maintained his 100 percent record in qualifying after 13 GPs. His team-mate Valentino Rossi missed out by just seven hundredths of a second and will start his home race from fourth.
In a close-fought qualifying session, the soon-to-be champion took the lead with eight minutes to go but in the closing minutes Pedrosa was able to grab pole on a perfect lap. The championship leader is confident that he has the race pace to run at the front and he will be looking to make it onto the podium once again. Third place man Ducati's Casey Stoner felt comfortable on his GP10 since the beginning of the session, but suffered a front end crash at the midway stage. He then was able to continue, following a brief pitstop, and improve on his time to secure third behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo.
Rossi (spots a new helmet design, above), a winner here for the last two years, was consistently in the top four and went up to as high as third with 10 minutes to go. In the closing stages he seemed to have a shot at pole position but he was slowed by traffic and unable to capitalize, just missing out as Stoner held on to third.
Randy de Puniet produced a heroic performance in scoring a second-row start in only his third MotoGP event since he broke a leg at July’s German GP. The Frenchman who made his comeback at last month’s Czech GP posted sixth quickest time in qualifying, just two tenths behind Spies.
Third row is headed by Colin Edwards, Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli, although Dovizioso was hoping for better than a third-row start for his home race. The local made some big changes to his bike’s weight distribution with the aim of improving front-end feel, but as can often be the case with set-up changes, the adjustment made things worse instead of better.
Rookie Simoncelli, who hails from Cattolica (near Misano), is happy to be starting from the third row in ninth place, after taking a wrong turn and then a right turn on his settings. This is the former 250 champion’s seventh top-nine qualifying performance from the last eight races. Team mate Marco Melandri will lead off the fourth row, having qualified tenth fastest.
Results
1. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 1'33.948
2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1'34.256
3. Casey Stoner Ducati 1'34.397
4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1'34.470
5. Ben Spies Yamaha Tech 3 1'34.472
6. Randy de Puniet Honda 1'34.751
7. Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech 3 1'34.782
8. Andrea Dovizioso Repsol 1'34.826
9. Marco Simoncelli Honda 1'34.934
10. Marco Melandri Honda 1'35.018
