Eighteen thousandths of second that’s how much Dani Pedrosa pipped Jorge Lorenzo to take the pole position at Misano today.
The Repsol Honda rider needs to win both in Italy and at Aragon (a circuit that seems to favour more the Honda’s than the Yamaha’s) to take over in the standings and tomorrow’s race he’ll try to take off like a scalded cat and run away, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and Lorenzo, whose strong forte is usually the second part of the race.
Will we see a Brno last lap thriller? Misano is tighter and overtaking is more difficult, but everyone is counting on seeing Spain vs Spain, again.
After Cal Crutchlow’s breakthrough podium, many expect to see the Brit on the podium while lending a helping hand towards Lorenzo, but the Yamaha Tech3 rider denied that he received any new parts to help him the endeavour and he could find himself battling with Stefan Bradl who will gunning to take his first MotoGP podium during his 100 GP start.
Alvaro Bautista will try to get a good result because staying with Gresini for another season may depend on it.
Valentino Rossi was sixth and everyone was expecting something more since he tested a new chassis and swingarm at Misano two weeks ago, there is a small improvement and the Italian said it is easier to ride and corner entry is more stable, but can he last the race distance and will his tires go off as they usually do? Check out what some of the riders had to say after qualifying.
Dani Pedrosa – 1st “It was a pretty tight session and no time to rest as we had to test the tyres, suspension and find some settings, as well as finding some feeling for myself! At the end we managed a good lap to take pole, which is very important, as the first part of the circuit is very tight, so a good start is necessary.
The setting on the bike is good so I hope to have a good race tomorrow.
” Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd“The session was really hard as it was our first dry one.
I struggled at the beginning to get the pace as we only had that hour of dry conditions.
At the end I was able to get much better every lap and improved the bike a little bit.
In the end we missed pole by such a little time.
We are very close to Dani so I think everybody is waiting for a big battle tomorrow.
”Cal Crutchlow – 3rd“I am really happy to be on the front row again and I am particularly pleased for my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew because they did a fantastic job in giving me a great bike, despite the lack of time on track.
To be honest I felt a bit rusty, because after missing the whole of yesterday’s practice with the weather, Brno felt like a long time ago.
The start of the session was quite difficult and I was struggling for rear grip.
I spoke to Jorge and he said he was also having an issue getting temperature into the tyre but every minute the track was getting better and the grip was improving.
I’m happy to be on the front row and I am fast in all parts of the track.
If my four best sector times were put together I’d have been in pole position.
”Stefan Bradl – 4th “I am quite happy about this qualifying but I think it was hard for everybody because we had no data and no track time in the dry due to the bad weather of last 2 days.
The grip condition was not perfect but since the beginning we made a combination of the two bikes using data and adjustments of the last Monday test sessions in Brno and Aragon and at the end I decided to stay on one bike which was better for today’s surface situation.
We lost a bit of front-end feeling and we had to adjust it twice because I was losing too much in the entry of the corners.
At the end I could make a good lap time thanks to those adjustments but we still have to fix it properly.
In my last run I found some traffic and I probably waited too long for the tyre to warm up before my flying lap… Anyway I could enjoy this session and I think we are in a good shape for tomorrow”.
Álvaro Bautista – 5th“Today we were finally able to get a dry session in and make some changes to the bike that addressed the problems we’ve been having in recent races.
I feel like I have more confidence with the bike now and even though it is still moving around under braking it is not as bad as before and my feeling is better.
We were able to maintain a strong pace throughout the session and set the lap time without taking big risks.
The second row is positive and now I am feeling confident with the bike.
It will be important to start well and stay in touch with the lead group and get back to the level we were at a few races ago.
I want to thank all the guys because they have done a great job and I hope I can give them a great result at their home track.
”Valentino Rossi – 6th“Today went pretty well.
The work we did in the test was definitely positive, but we also tried a setup today that I really liked, and which allowed me to be faster.
That’s why we did the entire session riding at a pace that was closer to the others, improving exit after exit.
I thought I could have done even better and gone into the low 1:34s, but it’s okay anyway.
We’re on the second row, and we’re not far off on pace either.
We’ll try to refine a couple of things tomorrow in the warm-up because I think that the others will improve.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 7th“I can’t be satisfied with the work we did when I am only seventh on the grid.
We should have done a better job but I am still on the third row and I am convinced I can fight for the podium tomorrow.
It is going to be a very difficult race because we are going into the unknown a little bit with so much track time lost because of the weather.
It will be a bit of a gamble on the set-up but we did manage to gather a lot of good data this afternoon and I know we will be competitive.
”Ben Spies – 8th“It was unfortunate this afternoon, we just got off the line a little and hit a bump in turn one.
That was the bike with the set up we were comfortable with.
I had to go out on the other bike and there was no time to change the set up.
We still need to make some changes to the other set up for tomorrow as we know we had some things to work on before the crash.
I’m actually confident we can go pretty quick but with the way the weekend has been we haven’t had enough dry time yet to finalise a perfect set up.
”Jonathan Rea – 9th “I woke up this morning pretty stressed after yesterday’s missed sessions and then FP3 was also pretty useless so I’ve got to be happy with a 3rd row start and my goal was top 10.
I’m learning something on every single run and the team did a great job on translating my feedback to give me good settings on the bike.
I’m taking things step-by-step and the limit is still quite a way off, but I don’t really want to find that limit just yet, I’m taking my time.
I know tomorrow’s race is going to be tough, I just want go out, give my best and have a clean race.
I’m pretty nervous but when the lights go out I’ll be in race mode and we’ ll see what happens.
”Nicky Hayden – 10th“This morning in the wet was great.
Even without working on the setup, the bike was good right away.
Then the track dried out, but I didn’t go out with slicks because I didn’t want to take any risks.
The qualifying session went by really quickly.
We made a couple of little adjustments and got going better, but although I hate to use excuses, my hand was quite weak and painful.
When I went out for the last exit, there was a bunch of CRT traffic.
I thought I had time for one more flying lap to try and get on the third row, but the chequered flag was out when I came by.
We’ll see how things feel in the morning.
”Karel Abraham – 11th“The track in the morning was unfortunatelly half dry and half wet.
We did not get the chance to try something with bike setting.
If we are talking about the afternoon, we are almost satisfied.
In the very last lap, which was supposed to be the fastest one, I had the highsider on the front and I was very lucky not to crash.
I lost three or maybe four tenths, which we needed to catch Hayden or Rea.
On the other hand I feel good with this result because the crash could have had massive impact.
“ Randy de Puniet – 12th “This is turning out to be a very strange weekend, because we have hardly been able to ride.
Despite the condition of the asphalt not being very good in qualifying and the problems that we were having on corner entry, I felt good.
We have tried to solve our grip problems with the rear with engine braking.
We improved a lot in the qualifying run, so I am happy with that and the fact that we were the best CRT.
I think that we will have to improve a little bit more tomorrow.
I am very motivated for the race and my aim is to break away like at Brno to be the top CRT finisher.
”Héctor Barberà – 13th “It’s a special day: I get back on the track after two months of absence and I needed to find again the feeling to ride my Ducati.
Obviously, 13th place was not where I wanted to be, but I’m optimistic about the race.
Tomorrow I’ll grit my teeth and try to decrease my lap times by one second or more and to find the best setup possible.
I’m confident that we can do a steady step forward, achieving a positive result.
”Aleix Espargaró – 14th “Today I had difficulties finding my pace in qualifying.
We lost a lot of time this weekend due to the weather and today we still had work to do going into qualifying.
At the start of the session we had a lot of problems with rear grip.
I was unable to make the bike turn as I would have liked.
We tried a lot of solutions out.
In any case, I am calm because we are in a good position and I know that my team will continue pushing as much as necessary to give us a definitive solution.
Despite not being comfortable, my pace wasn’t bad and I think that with a small step forward we can be up there with Randy.
We have to look at the telemetry later and see what we are lacking.
”Michele Pirro – 15th“I am happy.
Unfortunately we had a problem with the clutch, but the guys did a great job to change it and get me back out on track.
I am a few thousandths of a second off the second fastest CRT, and the gap to the top guy is not that big, so if we can keep this up tomorrow there is no reason why I can’t at least fight to be the top CRT.
That would be a great result for us.
”Mattia Pasini – 17th “In the qualifying practice we finally managed to work with good track conditions.
We started off well, there was no problem with the bike.
Halfway through the session, however, I crashed out and there was no chance to bring our first bike back to the pitbox.
We finished the session using the second bike, but we didn’t improve the grid position.
I’m satisfied with the first half of the session, now we’ll try to take advantage of the warm up to improve a little bit more.
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