Valentino Rossi took his fourth pole postion in today’s last ever MotoGP qualifying session at Donington Park setting a best lap of 1.
28.
116 set in the final three minutes and couldn’t be bettered by Dani Pedrosa who took second, just 0.
095s from Rossi.
“For me, is a surprise, because unfortunately we don’t try the harder tire this morning, but we expect looking at the performance of the other guys to have a good grip this afternoon,” Rossi, who has a 14 point championship lead over Lorenzo, said.
“But when I put the harder tire on we were in trouble and I don’t have enough grip for push a lot and my lap time was quite bad.
So start in the box, we modify a little bit the bike.
We improve a little bit on the hard, but it was anyway not fantastic.
So we have to work on the setting.
But after we make another modify, put the soft and with the soft tire, great grip.
My bike turns and flowing good in the fast part, so we did a good job with the team and so happy about this pole position, because it’s a surprise.
So for tomorrow we wait for the weather condition, but anyway we start from the front.
”Dani Pedrosa:“We did a good job in both sessions today and I’m happy to qualify on the front row because, in reality, that’s more important than taking pole position.
On my last run at the end of the qualifying session I found some traffic on the circuit which caused me to lose my concentration and rhythm slightly, so I think I could have gone a little quicker.
But still, the middle of the front row is OK.
Our dry set-up is nearly there so we’ll aim to make just a few little improvements before the race.
The weather is looking changeable for tomorrow, though at least we’ve had some practice time in the wet yesterday.
If it’s raining I’d like to improve my riding and my pace a bit but the weather is out of our control so we’ll have to see.
It’s the last MotoGP race at Donington tomorrow and of course I’d like a good result to sign off with – preferably a win.
” Jorge Lorenzo was third, setting an impressive set of laps on hard tires and led most of the session but when he switched to the softer tires, could not find the right setting but managed to edge out fourth place Casey Stoner by 0.
044s.
“With the harder tyre, we’re definitely ready and I feel very good on the bike.
With the softer tyre and on my last run I wasn’t so fast, but we are not too concerned about this.
Anyway I feel confident on my M1 and I am enjoying riding here.
Tomorrow we don’t know about the weather but I was fast also in the rain yesterday so I know that I can be competitive even if the weather is bad.
I am really hoping for a good race here since it’s the last time we will come.
”It wasn’t and easy day for Stoner, this morning in FP2 he crashed and and halfway through qualifying crashed again and claimed his fourth position with his spare bike with a minute to spare before the flag.
“I’m a bit frustrated because I think we could have been on the front row today but considering everything, fourth place isn’t that bad.
It was actually a really difficult day for us, we had a few problems this morning, we have struggled to find the good feeling with the bike that we’ve had in the last few races, but we modified the set-up for the afternoon and things felt better, allowing me to go fast from the start.
We were trying a different configuration on each bike but unfortunately about halfway through the session, when we were trying something with the front, I crashed and damaged my number 1 machine and that obviously made things worse.
We didn’t have enough time left to transfer that setting onto the second bike so we managed to improve a little on the soft tyre but it still wasn’t enough.
We’ll have to see what happens tomorrow and to try to get as many points as possible.
I’d almost prefer it to rain because it would be better for my physical condition.
” Andrea Dovizioso will start in fifth on the grid and trying to end a 3 race DNF streak:“Starting from the second row is not a bad place to be and gives us a chance to get away at the head of the field so I’m satisfied with that.
A fast start tomorrow should give us a good opportunity to have a strong race.
Having said that, I really like this track and I was hoping to be in a slightly better situation going into tomorrow both in terms of grid position and race pace.
We still need to improve our speed and consistency and there is some work to do to take us closer to the frontrunners and be fully competitive.
We need to improve on the entry to the corner and also to work on traction, so we’ll look at the data we collected today and I’m confident my team can help me to make these improvements.
It could rain tomorrow too, so we’ll come in ready for anything.
” Colin Edwards will be starting in the second row and in sixth and 0.
749s from Rossi:“I’m happy with the way I rode but getting close to those guys at the front is getting tough.
They are running a pretty fast pace but I’m confident if I can get a good start that I’ll be able to stay with them for the race.
I’m moving in the right direction with the setting and the changes we’ve made to the front forks and experimenting with my body position has improved the front feeling.
But with no testing now it is difficult to get used to something so different quickly and I just need a bit more time to adapt because I know we can make the feeling much better.
I’m still not sure which race tyre I’m going to run.
I’d like to have the best of both compounds on one tyre.
We need the left side of the softer tyre and the right side of the hard one.
But deliberating that might be for nothing because I hear we’re probably going to be under water here tomorrow anyway on rain tyres.
We got some time in the rain yesterday so I’m happy I’ve got a set-up for rain or dry conditions.
I really want a good result with it being the last British GP at Donington Park.
I’ve had a lot of success here in the past and it would be good to sign off in style.
”Marco Melandri with his rebranded Kawaski will take his place in seventh on the grid and is another rider who is hoping for some rain in tomorrow’s race and was 1 second from Rossi, while Toni Elias is in eighth:“I’m pretty happy.
Obviously I would have preferred to be on the second row and I think we were capable of that today but the third row isn’t bad.
It is certainly I big improvement on Germany a week ago, where I started last! We started out well this morning and improved the setting of the bike even more this afternoon.
I feel comfortable, my rhythm is good so the target for tomorrow has to be to get a good start and try to stick with the front group for the whole race.
” James Toseland 9th clocking a best time of 1.
29.
270 on his penultimate lap of qualifying:“I’m happy but at the same time a little bit frustrated because we didn’t have a really good base setting this morning.
We were too hard on the front and rear.
I didn’t have much feel at all and I was only doing low 1.
32s, so to do 1.
29s this afternoon I’m really happy.
The new electronics are working brilliantly round here, particularly out of the slow hairpins at the end of the lap, so I’ve got say thanks to Yamaha for that again.
Obviously I’m desperate to get a good result tomorrow.
I want to make amends for the disappointment of last year and give the British fans something to cheer about.
The support out there today was amazing, and they deserve a good result.
I can promise them I’ll be giving it my absolute maximum.
At least I’ve given myself a good chance of battling for that top six tomorrow and that was always my target.
Today was definitely better than last year’s qualifying, although it couldn’t really have been much worse.
Randy de Puniet took tenth from Mika Kallio and Alex De Angelis in 12th while Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi will start in 13th and 14th.
Nicky Hayden Ducati’s other factory rider struggled throughout the session with a couple off track excursions and almost a near hit with a Repsol rider is 15th, ahead of Niccolo Canepa and Gabor Talmacsi.
MotoGP Donington Park Qualifying Results:1 V.
Rossi YAMAHA FIAT YAMAHA TEAM 1:28.
1162 D.
Pedrosa HONDA REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1:28.
2113 J.
Lorenzo YAMAHA FIAT YAMAHA TEAM 1:28.
4024 C.
Stoner DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM 1:28.
4465 A.
Dovizioso HONDA REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1:28.
7786 C.
Edwards YAMAHA MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 1:28.
8657 M.
Melandri KAWASAKI HAYATE RACING TEAM 1:29.
0658 T.
Elias HONDA SAN CARLO GRESINI 1:29.
1759 J.
Toseland YAMAHA MONSTER TECH 3 1:29.
27010 R.
De Puniet LCR HONDA MOTOGP 1:29.
43411 M.
Kallio DUCATI PRAMAC RACING 1:29.
59912 A.
De Angelis HONDA SAN CARLO GRESINI 1:29.
60013 C.
Vermeulen RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP 1:30.
09814 L.
Capirossi RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP 1:30.
15315 N.
Hayden DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM 1:30.
26816 N.
Canepa DUCATI PRAMAC RACING 1:30.
57217 G.
Talmacsi HONDA SCOT RACING TEAM MOTOGP 1:31.
193