MotoGP Qualifying Results: 1. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha, 1:27.897 2. Sete GIBERNAU, Honda, 1:28.182 3. Marco MELANDRI, Honda, 1:28.295 4. Alex BARROS, Honda, 1:28.394 5. Nicky HAYDEN, Honda, 1:28.415 6. Colin EDWARDS, Yamaha, 1:28.656 7. Troy BAYLISS, Honda, 1:28.720 8. Max BIAGGI, Honda, 1:28.726 9. Makoto TAMADA, Honda, 1:28.976 10. John HOPKINS, Suzuki, 1:29.231 11. Loris CAPIROSSI, Ducati, 1:29.731 12. Shinya NAKANO, Kawasaki, 1:29.742 13. Carlos CHECA, Ducati, 1:29.816 14. Ruben XAUS, Yamaha, 1:29.890 15. Alex HOFMANN, Kawasaki, 1:30.151 16. Kenny ROBERTS, Suzuki, 1:30.260 17. Toni ELIAS, Yamaha, 1:30.342 18. Shane BYRNE, Proton, 1:31.026 19. Roberto ROLFO, Ducati, 1:31.180 20. James ELLISON, Blata, 1:31.791 21. Franco BATTAINI, Blata, 1:32.684 More, from a press release issued by Gauloises Yamaha: ROSSI TAKES FIFTH POLE OF THE SEASON AT ‘HOME’ CIRCUIT Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix from the front of the MotoGP grid after clocking his fifth pole position of the season in this afternoon’s qualifying practice at Donington Park. The Italian smashed his own pole record at the Nottinghamshire circuit by almost a second when he clocked a time of 1’27.897 on his 27th lap of the afternoon session. Rossi’s effort put him over half a second clear of his rivals just two minutes from the end of the session, with Sete Gibernau (Honda) reducing the gap to 0.285 seconds on the final lap. After setting the pace in yesterday’s first free practice sessions, Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards was unable to continue his dominance today, slipping to sixth place on the grid but securing a valuable second row start. The American continued to work from the excellent base set-up he found yesterday and put in a scorching race pace during the morning session, when he was second fastest behind Rossi. However, a rear tyre experiment in the afternoon did not go as Edwards had hoped and he lost a handful of positions in the late push for times. Rossi and Gibernau will be joined on the front row of the grid by Marco Melandri (Honda), whilst Alex Barros and Nicky Hayden (both Honda) start immediately ahead of Edwards on row two. VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 1’27.897 30 laps) “For sure this is a very special pole position because I live here and I am having a lot of fun. I think for tomorrow everybody will wake up and hope for good weather because yesterday we lost a lot of time because of the rain. Today the situation was better, it was a few degrees warmer and when the conditions are like this it is a great pleasure to ride at Donington Park. With the MotoGP bike it is incredible, one of my favourite tracks, and I always go very well here. I am happy because I was able to do a great lap almost one second faster than last year. The bike is quite good and the feeling is not bad, also with the race configuration. For sure the race will be hard but we will try to fix a few last things in the morning and I hope to do well.” COLIN EDWARDS (6th; 1’28.656 29 laps) “My race pace this morning was really good consistently around 1’29.2 and I’m pretty happy with that. This afternoon I did a 1’29.6 on a tyre that had 24 laps on it so we know we’re in good shape for the race. I was hoping to push into the 1’27s on a soft tyre but I tested a different construction rear for seven laps at the start of the session and it gave me a little chatter on the front end, which damaged my confidence a little bit. It’s my own fault but after that I found it hard to push the front as much as I had done in the morning and didn’t quite get the lap time I had hoped for. Anyway, it makes no difference whether I am on the front row or the second row if you can get a good start you pretty much end up in the same place by the first corner.” DAVIDE BRIVIO GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “It has been a very good weekend for us so far. Valentino set pole position with a great lap and to knock nine tenths off the previous record is a very good achievement for the whole team. Unfortunately Colin didn’t get the grid position he deserved after the way he has ridden all weekend, but his race pace is very good and I don’t think the second row will be a problem for him it is just a matter of getting a good start. Both our riders have a good pace and if it stays dry as we all hope then we feel confident that both Vale and Colin will be at the front.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: DUCATI MARLBORO MEN ENDURE TOUGH DAY AT DONINGTON Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa endured a difficult qualifying session at cool, cloudy Donington this afternoon. The pair were 11th and 13th quickest for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, the ninth even of this year’s 17-race MotoGP season. “It’s been a really difficult day,” admitted Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo. “Unfortunately the new spec tyres that Bridgestone brought here aren’t perfect for this circuit. I’d like to thank both Loris and Carlos for riding really hard, despite the difficulties. We know that Bridgestone are working incredibly hard, and we know that when you are developing tyres or motorcycles, not every step is always a forward step. In racing, you have bad days, so we must learn from this to keep moving forward in the future.” CAPIROSSI ON FOURTH ROW Loris Capirossi will start tomorrow’s British GP from the fourth row of the grid, after clocking 11th-best time in today’s one-hour qualifying session. “We’re in a difficult and frustrating situation,” said the Ducati Marlboro Team rider. “I did a 17-lap run at the start of this afternoon’s session and it seems like we’ve got an endurance problem. Our only answer for the race is to run hard tyres, which, of course, will slow us down. It’s difficult for the tyres to get up to temperature and I’m not getting much feedback, so I can’t really feel what’s going on. I don’t want to accuse anyone because I can see how hard Bridgestone are working. They’ve brought many different new tyres here – new compounds and new constructions – but the situation is as I’ve just stated. Anyway, our aim is always the same: to keep working to get to the front of the pack.” CHECA OUT OF LUCK ON FAST RUN Ducati Marlboro Team man Carlos Checa also struggled to get close to the front this afternoon, then ran into some bad luck on his best run, when his number-one bike suffered a technical glitch. “I’ve not always been the best at exploiting the extra grip of qualifying tyres,” said Checa. “But today I felt I’d worked out how to gain some more speed, then my bike had a technical problem just two corners from the end of what should’ve been my fastest lap! Of course, a few tenths here and there doesn’t make a lot of difference when you’re 13th, but we must learn from everything today to improve the bike and the tyres. My main problem at the moment is getting the bike turned into the corners. It’s a front-rear balance thing, maybe the tyres or maybe the tyres and the bike. It means I can’t carry good rolling speed into the corners.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: NAKANO AND HOFMANN SET FOR TOUGH DONINGTON ASSIGNMENT Kawasaki riders, Shinya Nakano and Alex Hofmann, will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix from twelfth and fifteenth positions respectively. On the compact Donington layout the 30-lap race promises to be a difficult task, after both riders could not maximise their qualifying performances today. Both Nakano and Hofmann set their fastest times using race tyres, with their soft compound Bridgestone qualifiers not producing the expected increase in performance. After slicing almost one second from his morning free practice time on race rubber Nakano was expecting a similar improvement on his one qualifying run. Hofmann was also frustrated by the slower times on qualifying tyres. However, the positive outcome today was the evaluation of a race tyre compound that appears to offer stable race distance performance. The tyre specification was tested in practice at last week’s USGP, but found to be unsuitable for the Laguna Seca circuit. But the special demands of the Donington surface and layout appear more favourable, and Nakano in particular is confident of consistent race times. Kawasaki technicians have made detailed refinements to rear suspension set-up in an attempt to optimise tyre performance. Both riders will also benefit from today’s successful test of revised traction control systems, which offer more rider friendly throttle control on the unique combination of fast and slow sections at Donington. Hofmann had a scary moment on his final lap while pushing for a faster time with a spectacular, 180 kph highside through the Craner Curves. Fortuitously Hofmann bounced back into the seat of his Ninja ZX-RR before taking a wild ride across the grass. Shinya Nakano: # 56 – Twelfth – 1’29.742 “Today was a special situation, our qualifying tyres didn’t work as expected and were slower than the race tyres. On a positive note I tried a race tyre this afternoon that should be okay for tomorrow, although our times are a long way from the front group. But 30 laps is a long way here, hopefully the race distance will work in our favour.” Alex Hofmann: #66 – Fifteenth – 1’30.151 “I had a very scary moment on the final lap with a huge high-side in the Craner Curves and I was off across the grass at 180 kph. I still don’t how I didn’t crash. Qualifying was frustrating because my times were faster on race tyres, there was nothing extra from the qualifiers which made it difficult to get a decent grid position. We have worked hard to get a rear end set-up that will be kind to the tyres for the race distance, but it’s wait and see over 30 laps at this track.” Ichiro Yoda: Technical Director “The track surface and layout at Donington requires a very special tyre configuration and, in conjunction with Bridgestone, we have found a good direction for the future over the past two days. Today we tried a rear tyre that we tested at Laguna Seca but have not raced before and it appears to be our best choice for the race distance here. The latest update to the traction control system should also make 30 laps here less stressful for the riders.” Harald Eckl: Team Manager “I thought the Ninja ZX-RR would be a more competitive package at Donington, but it appears that in dry conditions here our tyre options are not ideal. It was a surprise that both Shinya and Alex could not go faster on qualifying tyres compared to race rubber. If it rains heavily tomorrow perhaps the cards will fall our way.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Rossi back on top at Donington Park After recording his worst result of the season so far with third place in Laguna Seca two weeks ago, Valentino Rossi was firmly back on top of the MotoGP pile with a stunning new pole record at Donington Park on Saturday afternoon. In warmer temperatures than yesterday’s free practice and with dry track conditions Rossi beat his own previous best at this circuit by almost a full second as he scorched to a lap of 1’27.897, some 0.285 seconds quicker than his closest challenger Sete Gibernau. Sunday’s race will be the third time Rossi has started from pole position at this racetrack and on each of the previous two occasions he has gone on to take victory. “I think for tomorrow everybody will be waking up and hoping for good weather because yesterday we lost a lot of time because of the rain,” said Rossi. “Today the situation was better, it was a few degrees warmer and when the conditions are like this it is a great pleasure to ride at Donington Park. With the MotoGP bike it is incredible, one of my favourite tracks, and I always go very well here. I am happy because I was able to do a great lap almost one second faster than last year. The bike is quite good and the feeling is not bad, also with the race configuration. For sure the race will be hard but we will try to fix a few last things in the morning and I hope to do well.” Whilst second place for Gibernau represented a huge improvement on his qualifying performance from Laguna Seca, where he started from 13th on the grid, the Spaniard is sure to come under pressure from the men behind him, with the top fourteen qualifiers all lapping inside Colin Edwards’ circuit record this afternoon. The closest of those is Gibernau’s team-mate, Marco Melandri, who clinched third place to secure his sixth front row start of the season. Alex Barros will start his milestone 250th Grand Prix from fourth place and the Brazilian is joined on the second row by American pair Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards, who took first and second place respectively in the last round. Hayden is looking to become the first rider to follow up a debut success with a consecutive victory since Kenny Roberts in 1999. Troy Bayliss backed up his improved results at Laguna Seca with the seventh fastest time in today’s qualifying session, with Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada joining the Australian on an all-Honda third row. After lapping third fastest yesterday Suzuki rider John Hopkins was unable to repeat his performance today and slipped to tenth on the time sheets, signifying a fourth row start in front of the large support provided by his English family and friends. Loris Capirossi and Shinya Nakano complete the fourth row of tomorrow’s grid for the ninth round of the championship. Dani Pedrosa suffered mixed emotions at the end of qualifying practice for the 250cc race, crashing his Honda just moments after the chequered flag had confirmed his fourth pole position of the season and a new pole record. The Spaniard was unhurt but visibly annoyed after running onto the white line on the outside of the track at the entrance to the famous ‘Fogarty Esses’ and losing control of the rear wheel. Pedrosa’s crash came at the end of an entertaining but accident-strewn session, which also saw local rider Chaz Davies, Sebastián Porto, Simone Corsi, Radomil Rous, Steve Jenkner and Gabriele Ferro hit the deck, fighting off the challenge of Jorge Lorenzo for pole position. The Spanish pair are joined on the front row by Alex de Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso, with Porto heading up the second row from Randy de Puniet, Hector Barberá and Hiroshi Aoyama. Casey Stoner, who lies second in the championship and 37 points behind Pedrosa, qualified tenth fastest whilst fellow Australian Anthony West will start just five places further back in the maiden race for the 250cc KTM machine. Mika Kallio set his sixth pole position of the season in the 125cc class, dominating the session virtually from start to finish before ending with a fastest lap of 1’37.295. The Finnish rider was 0.101 seconds clear of Mattia Pasini, currently a joint leader of the series with Gabor Talmacsi, who qualified seventh. Marco Simoncelli and Thomas Lüthi complete a front row of four riders who have all led the championship at some stage this season. More, from a press release issued by Camel Honda: ALEX BARROS WILL START 250th CAREER GP FROM FOURTH The second day of practice at Donington Park saw the yellow Honda riders stand out in the qualifying session. Alex Barros set the fourth fastest time and will start the British GP from the second row in a special occasion for the Brazilian: the 250th GP of his career – an all-time Grand Prix record. Troy Bayliss was seventh quickest and from the third row on the grid he looks forward to tomorrow’s race. The Australian has begun to show some real feeling for his Honda and the sinuous bends on the English circuit. Now everything depends upon the weather. All the forecasts predict rain for tomorrow and the massive amount of work put in on these two days of practice could prove useless ultimately if the teams have to search for the all-crucial wet settings in the twenty-minute morning warm-up. Sito Pons Camel Honda “I’m quite satisfied, our team will undoubtedly have a chance in tomorrow’s race. Both Alex and Troy have found a set-up they like, and also have the pace of the front-runners as well as good starting positions. The only real unknown now is the weather because the forecasts suggests certain rain. If that’s the case we will quickly need to pick out some good wet settings in the morning warm-up, then we’ll see.” Alex Barros Camel Honda 1’28.394 4th position “I’m calm and content because I know we’ve done some good work this weekend, covering all the areas we had planned to, and taking away any doubts we had about the set-up. This morning and this afternoon too we finished off choosing the rear tyre, and we are ready for the race. I’m a bit sorry for having made a couple of mistakes on both my fast laps which probably lost me a couple of tenths but it’s not a big thing, I think I’ve got a good grid spot anyhow. Tomorrow will be my 250th GP and it would be great if I could celebrate it alongside my team after a good result.” Troy Bayliss Camel Honda 1’28.720 7th position “We’ve worked well and I’m reasonably optimistic about the race tomorrow, even if we could have gone slightly better with the qualifying tyres. Nevertheless we have lapped at a fast pace, and there are lots of riders separated by just a few tenths. The third row isn’t bad, but it’s important to get a good start to tag along with the front group, especially at this track.” More, from a press release issued by Telefonica Movistar Honda: OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR SETE AND MELANDRI Both Movistar Honda riders to start from front row at Donington Park BRITISH GRAND PRIX – MOTOGP OFFICIAL QUALIFYING Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri will start what looks like being a very close British Grand Prix from the front row of the grid tomorrow. Things could become even more difficult if the weather forecasts prove to be correct and the rain finally arrives but for today at least the riders were able to enjoy good track conditions in both practice sessions and took the opportunity to seal excellent grid positions. Both Movistar riders lapped inside the previous pole record here, set by Rossi last season with a time of 1’28″720. Sete Gibernau stopped the clock at 1’28″182 on his 28th lap his latest and fastest of the session – whilst Melandri was just a tenth of a second slower than his team-mate. Sete will start tomorrow’s race looking to finish off a positive weekend in the best possible fashion whilst Marco is targetting another podium finish to continue his best MotoGP season yet. SETE GIBERNAU (2nd, 1’28″182): “Yesterday the rain robbed us of a lot of time but today we were able to enjoy two hours of good weather and we managed to make the most of it to work on the bike. The first step was to seal a place on the front row of the grid and that is what we did. The bike and my feeling have got gradually better and I’m hoping that the result we have been looking for finally arrives at this circuit and that this can be my best Grand Prix of the season.” MARCO MELANDRI (3rd, 1’28″295): “It was important to get back on the front row after the race at Laguna Seca. We worked well with the tyres and suspension, which allowed me to set a good rhythm and a good fast lap, although I made a small mistake on my last lap. This is like a second home race of the season for me and I’m very highly motivated. I hope to get a good start, learn as much as I can from Valentino and Sete during the race and fight for another podium.” FAUSTO GRESINI, Team Manager: “It was a very positive day and it’s important to be back with our two riders on the first row. Considering the characteristics of the track it’s very important here to start from the front. Marco had a good pace and improved his feeling every session. Sete has done a good job and I expect a good race for tomorrow. If it’s going to rain, it will be much more complicated”. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Hopkins secures top-10 start for Suzuki and highest place for Bridgestone Team SUZUKI MotoGP racer John Hopkins maintained his recent excellent run of form during today’s qualifying for the betandwin.com British Grand Prix. Hopkins (P10, 1’29.231) secured his fifth top-10 start of the season after a hard fought session held in warm and dry conditions at Donington Park in England. Hopkins used his now trademark attacking riding style all afternoon to put his Suzuki GSV-R on the front of the fourth row. He was also the best placed rider using Bridgestone tyres. Kenny Roberts Jr (P16, 1’30.260) struggled all day to find the levels of grip that he needed to give his bike the competitive edge and will be looking to make a good start to tomorrow’s race and make up some early places. Pole position went to current Championship leader and reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi. Round nine of the MotoGP World Championship begins at a different start time tomorrow. The red light will go out and the race will get underway at 15.30 local time (16.30CET). John Hopkins: “Basically we’ve got the bike to a pretty good set-up where we can run consistent times. We’d like to be a little bit faster at the moment on race pace but I would have to say that unfortunately the tyres are holding us back and we’re limited with what times we can do. As you can see, all the Bridgestone riders finished in a bunch at the end of the session. “Normally the Bridgestone qualifiers are really awesome, they’re good everywhere but unfortunately this was one track where they didn’t work as well. Right now we’re still struggling a little bit with grip but hopefully we can overcome that overnight, and go out and have an excellent race tomorrow.” Kenny Roberts Jr: “I tried hard during qualifying but nothing came in terms of feel, grip or lap time. I couldn’t really get any benefit from the qualifiers we used over a race tyre. I actually went out on a race compound at the end of the session and put in my fastest lap time! It’s a shame because normally the Bridgestone qualifier is one of its strong points but something in the Donington surface and the compound didn’t quite match.” “If it’s wet tomorrow I hope the Bridgestone’s work as well as they did in Shanghai!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “John did a great job again, running a 29.6 on a race tyre early on in the afternoon. His crew have adjusted his bike in the fourth session to where I genuinely feel there is almost nothing left in the bike’s setting to get more performance. It’s turning well, it’s stopping well and it’s accelerating quite well. I feel that John’s capability is a lot higher than his position shows. “Normally we would expect to find perhaps a full second better performance on the Bridgestone qualifiers compared to hard compound race tyre, but unfortunately the grip was the same at this track from the qualifier or the racing tyre. “Kenny recognises the steps that the GSV-R has taken but hasn’t been able to take advantage of them at this track. He has complained about a lack of feeling and a lack of grip. We are working hard with Bridgestone to find the right solutions. “We will see what the weather brings tomorrow, in terms of wet, dry or in-between. Either way we hope it will work for us and Bridgestone and that we will be competitive.” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Information: GIBERNAU AND MELANDRI SET TO CHALLENGE FOR WIN Team Movistar Honda RC211V riders Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri will start the British Grand Prix from the first row of the grid. Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) may have secured pole, but both Honda the Honda riders look to be in the sort of form that will put them in contention for a victory here at Donington Park tomorrow. All Honda’s MotoGP men are among the top ten qualifiers and Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V) in ninth is just over one second shy of the pole time of 1m 27.897s – nearly a whole second faster than the 2004 pole time. With track temperature at only 25 degrees on an overcast day, the final session began with Colin Edwards (Yamaha) topping the timesheet, with Alex Barros (Camel Honda RC211V) another man using his vast experience of this tricky track to show early pace. Max Biaggi (Repsol Honda RC211V) showed his hand early on too as third fastest in the first ten minutes. But at the mid-point of the hour-long session the order was Rossi, Melandri, Biaggi, Barros, Edwards, Troy Bayliss (Camel Honda RC211V) and then Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V). Gibernau was the first rider to really up the pace with 12 minutes to go when he shot to the top of the table before Rossi again raised the stakes at the ten-minute mark. Barros could have bested them both, had he not been baulked by a slower rider while on a quick lap. But as the clock ticked down to the final five minutes it was Melandri who put in a time of 1m 28.482s to take the advantage before Rossi made his 1m 28.897s time. The mark that would remain the target. Nicky Hayden had a good go at beating it when he briefly went to second with four minutes to go, but he lost the opportunity to improve further when he ran out of time to exploit the grip of another qualifying tyre. In the final minute Melandri again hoisted himself to second with Barros lying third before Gibernau steered his RC211V around Donington’s 4.023km of twists and dips with a 1m 28.182s lap that was good enough for second on the grid. Gibernau said, “Yesterday the rain robbed us of a lot of time but today we were able to enjoy two hours of good weather and we managed to make the most of it to work on the bike. The first step was to seal a place on the front row of the grid and that is what we did. The bike and my feeling have got gradually better and I’m hoping that the result we have been looking for finally arrives at this circuit and that this can be my best Grand Prix of the season.” Melandri said, “It was important to get back on the front row after the race at Laguna Seca. We worked well with the tyres and suspension, which allowed me to set a good rhythm and a good fast lap, although I made a small mistake on my last lap. This is like a second home race of the season for me and I’m very highly motivated. I hope to get a good start, learn as much as I can from Valentino and Sete during the race and fight for another podium.” Barros, heading row two as fourth fastest qualifier said, “I’m content because we’ve done some good work this weekend. We covered all the areas we planned to. This morning and this afternoon too we finished off choosing the rear tyre, and we are ready for the race. Tomorrow will be my 250th GP and it would be great if I could celebrate it alongside my team after a good result.” Nicky in fifth on row two said, “We had a little problem at the end of the session and didn’t end up using the last qualifier. Overall the bike feels better but we’re really going to have to come up with something for tomorrow. We’re going to have to be ready to dig deep in the race because my pace is a little off. But I have confidence that we’ll be able to come up with something.” Troy Bayliss, in seventh said, “We’ve worked well and I’m reasonably optimistic about the race tomorrow, even if we could have gone slightly better with the qualifying tyres. Nevertheless we’ve lapped at a fast pace, and there are lots of riders separated by just a few tenths. The third row isn’t bad, but it’s important to get a good start to tag along with the front group, especially at this track.” Max on row two in eighth said, “Of course I’m not so happy with the result because this year I’ve had such problems in qualifying. My entry speed into the corners is just too slow – this is the problem we have. I always seem to be riding with this feeling of chatter all year. It’s much more of a problem than last year and we just don’t seem to have an answer at the moment. I will have another tough race tomorrow starting from this position.” Makoto Tamada in ninth said, “The feeling with the bike with a qualifying configuration is improving and I can push my bike more and more. I have to improve in the first part of the circuit. In the other sectors of the track I consider myself competitive. During my fastest lap I made a small mistake braking into the penultimate turn to the right and this lost me some precious time. Tomorrow morning, during the 20 minutes of warm up, we’ll make some final adjustments.” Dani Pedrosa (Team Movistar Honda RS250RW) had to work hard for his fourth pole position of the season. The Spaniard crashed without injury in the final moments of today’s timed session, but had done enough to wrest the advantage from Jorge Lorenzo (Fortuna Honda RS250RW) who qualified second just 0.130 seconds short of Dani’s 1m 31.834s time. Alex de Angelis (Aprilia) qualified third fastest with Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Racing Team Honda RS250RW) completing the front row in fourth. Casey Stoner (Aprilia), who lies second to Dani in the World Championship standings, could only manage tenth on the grid. With three Hondas on the front row and six in the top ten, this race could be a chance for Dani and Dovi to tighten their grip at the top of the table and take some of the sting out of Stoner’s Championship challenge. Dani said, “On a fast lap a rider in front of me looked behind to see me and then stayed on the same line. I had to change my line to pass him, went onto the rumble strip and crashed. But the weekend is going well. It will be a tough race and if it ends up raining anything can happen. It won’t be easy.” “I have good feel from the machine and I feel good myself,” said Lorenzo. “But the important part will be the race tomorrow. I’m confident I can record my first win in 250s here. I didn’t make the most of my qualifiers but I’m happy with my race pace.” Hector Barbera (Fortuna Honda RS250RW) qualified seventh fastest on row two with Hiroshi Aoyama (Team Movistar Honda RS250RW) lining up next to him as eighth fastest qualifier. Yuki Takahashi (Scot Racing Team Honda RS250RW) was ninth fastest overall. Mika Kallio (KTM) was the fastest qualifier in the 125cc class, with Championship points leader Mattia Pasini second quickest, Marco Simoncelli third fastest (both Aprilia) and World Championship challenger Thomas Luthi (Elit Grand Prix Honda RS125R) completing the front row in fourth. This is Kallio’s fifth pole start of the season and the Finn was in command here throughout qualifying. But his rivals are close in touch with the front row qualifiers covered by just 0.34 seconds. Fabrizio Lai (Kopron Racing World Honda RS125RW) marked this Grand Prix with a return to form after a lull with fifth place on the grid, heading row two. The Italian knows he needs a boost and this could be the race where he puts his title challenge back on track. He said. “I have returned to being competitive after a couple of poor races. I’m not at the very front but I lost the front row start for nothing just because I lost time passing Iannone. The bike was perfect in practice and I’m sure I will make a good race tomorrow.” Luthi said, “Fourth is not so bad. It’s the front row that’s important. The traffic was chaotic, but it was in the middle of this chaos that I set my fastest lap. We’ve had no real problems all weekend and only minor adjustments to make to the bike. Tyre choice for the race is the only decision we’ve yet to make.” Tomoyoshi Koyama (Ajo Motorsport Honda RS125R) equalled his best qualifying performance of the season so far with eighth on the grid, Mike Di Meglio (Kopron Racing World Honda RS125R) equalled his best so far with the ninth fastest time, while Alex Masbou (Ajo Motorsport Honda RS125R) sped into the top ten in tenth. HONDA RIDERS QUOTES: MotoGP: Sete Gibernau, Movistar Honda MotoGP: 2nd : “Yesterday the rain robbed us of a lot of time but today we were able to enjoy two hours of good weather and we managed to make the most of it to work on the bike. The first step was to seal a place on the front row of the grid and that is what we did. The bike and my feeling have got gradually better and I’m hoping that the result we have been looking for finally arrives at this circuit and that this can be my best Grand Prix of the season.” Marco Melandri, Movistar Honda MotoGP: 3rd: “It was important to get back on the front row after the race at Laguna Seca. We worked well with the tyres and suspension, which allowed me to set a good rhythm and a good fast lap, although I made a small mistake on my last lap. This is like a second home race of the season for me and I’m very highly motivated. I hope to get a good start, learn as much as I can from Valentino and Sete during the race and fight for another podium.” Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 4th: “I’m calm and content because I know we’ve done some good work this weekend, covering all the areas we had planned to, and taking away any doubts we had about the set-up. This morning and this afternoon too we finished off choosing the rear tyre, and we are ready for the race. I’m a bit sorry for having made a couple of mistakes on both my fast laps which probably lost me a couple of tenths but it’s not a big thing, I think I’ve got a good grid spot anyhow. Tomorrow will be my 250th GP and it would be great if I could celebrate it alongside my team after a good result.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda Team: 5th “We made quite a bit of progress today really. The squad has done a real good job in really thinking about things and have come up with some good stuff which makes the bike feel a lot better. From that standpoint I’m happy. My problem is that everyone else has improved quite a bit as well – it’s what happens here – and we still have quite a bit to do. We had a little problem at the end of the session and didn’t end up using the last qualifier. Overall the bike feels better but we’re really going to have to come up with something for tomorrow. We’re going to have to be ready to dig deep in the race because my pace is a little off but I have confidence that we’ll be able to come up with something by 15.30 tomorrow.” Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 7th position: “We’ve worked well and I’m reasonably optimistic about the race tomorrow, even if we could have gone slightly better with the qualifying tyres. Nevertheless we have lapped at a fast pace, and there are lots of riders separated by just a few tenths. The third row isn’t bad, but it’s important to get a good start to tag along with the front group, especially at this track.” Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda Team: 8th “Of course I’m not so happy with the result because this year I’ve had such problems in qualifying. It’s very unusal for me. I can’t believe I can’t go faster than the third row. With the race tyre we are not so far off but with the qualifier we hit much trouble – I just can’t use it properly. My entry speed into the corners is just too slow – this is the problem we have. I always seem to be riding with this feeling of chatter all year. Much more of a problem than last year and we just don’t seem to have an answer at the moment! I will have another tough race tomorrow starting from this position.” Makoto Tamada – Konica Minolta Honda: 9th: “My goal was to conquer a better position on the grid; I consider my self satisfied mostly because of the work developed in the second day of work. In the afternoon we concentrated to prepare the bike with a race configuration and this permitted us to obtain useful information for tomorrow afternoon. The feeling with the bike with a qualifying configuration is sensibly improving and I can push my bike more and more. I have to improve in the first part of the circuit, because yesterday’s fall has left its mark. In the other sectors of the track I consider my self well enough competitive. During my fastest lap I committed a small mistake in braking while entering the penultimate turn to the right and this made me lose some precious time. Tomorrow morning, during the 20 minutes of warm up, we’ll make the last adjustments to the setting of the bike, to definitely have the possibility to compete with the group of the bests.” More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Yamaha: Qualifying practice / DIFFICULT DAY FOR TEAM FORTUNA YAMAHA The FORTUNA YAMAHA team went through a tough second day of action at the British Grand Prix for different reasons today. Today the weather was less of an obstacle than it had been yesterday and the rain finally stayed away from Donington Park. In any case the track conditions at the famous English circuit, colder than usual at this time of year, caused a high number of crashes in each of the three categories. RUBEN XAUS will start tomorrow’s race from the fifth row of the grid. This afternoon he set the fourteenth fastest time, 1.993 slower than Rossi’s pole time. The FORTUNA YAMAHA team rider could have improved on his position if it wasn’t for a crash in the closing stages of the session that ended what looked like being his fastest lap of the day. Despite that, Xaus has demonstrated notable progress from the first session yesterday and is in optimistic mood ahead of tomorrow’s race. TONI ELIAS, meanwhile, is still struggling with the physical effects of the injuries he sustained in the French Grand Prix. Tomorrow he will undergo a painkilling injection to reduce the pain in his left hand. Today he ran off track just after putting on a qualifying tyre, preventing him from ending the session in the way he had hoped. Despite that, the Spaniard was happy with the race pace he managed to put together, if not his qualifying lap time. Ruben Xaus (11): 14th (1.29.890) + 1.993 (lap 25/29) “The performance of our factory colleagues in blue shows that this is a good bike. The problem is that for the past 15 years I have ridden in a completely different manner to what the Yamaha demands. To go fast on this bike you have to start by going slower. You have to open the gas only a little bit, be smooth and sweet”¦ but I have always been a fighter, a scrapper”¦ and it seems that these characteristics don’t suit this bike, which is not helping me to go fast. It’s a shame that I crashed on the last lap because I could have broken into the top ten but tomorrow I’ll try to be fighting as close to the front as possible and keep working as hard as always.” Toni ElÃas (24): 17th (1.30.342) + 2.445 (lap 22/29) “The hand is still quite painful. I hope the pain gets less and less as the season goes on. This afternoon I already had an injection but I could still feel the pain. The gap between myself and the top riders is partly because of the injury but also because of a few technical problems which I’m confident we can sort out between now and tomorrow’s race.”
