The North American rider is third and team mate Dani Pedrosa, hindered by another rider in his fast lap, sets the fourth fastest time and will be starting from the second row. The fight for the victory in the MotoGP class tomorrow will surely be evenly-matched and intense after what we have been able to see today at the Portuguese track of Estoril.
In the morning it was Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda Team rider and current leader of the standings, who had taken the top position of the third free session's time sheets, while his closest rival in the fight for the title, Valentino Rossi was second and Dani Pedrosa third. In the afternoon's decisive qualifying session, the situation changed and it was Valentino Rossi who set the fastest time of the session, not without a strong opposition from Hayden, who was third, and Pedrosa, who finished fourth. Second and covering the back of the Italian was his team mate Colin Edwards. Dani Pedrosa, who was clocking a fastest time in his last lap, found Casey Stoner on his line, thus being unable to finish the lap with which he was trying to clinch the pole position. Tomorrow, Nicky Hayden will start from the front row of the grid and Dani Pedrosa from the second after clocking the fourth fastest time. The weather is however the big doubt and an element that may eventually be determinant since the forecasts are predicting rain for the whole day.
In the 250cc, David De Gea had again a good performance today. The Repsol rider had set the fifteenth fastest time in the morning, almost two seconds behind the fastest time of the session, and in the afternoon, De Gea and his team made a great job with the bike's set-up allowing him to climb up in the sheets and shorten the gap to the leading rider -Locatelli-, to eighth tenths. De Gea was thirteenth and will start tomorrow from the fourth row of the starting grid. Team mate Shuhei Aoyama, hindered by the intense traffic of slower riders on the track while he was on his fast laps, ended-up in ninth position.
Bad day for Briton Bradley Smith in the eighth-of-a-litre class. Despite being thirteenth fastest this morning and twelfth yesterday, Smith wasn't able to make a good practice in the afternoon's timed session dropping back to twentieth. Bradley will have to make a very good start tomorrow in order to continue with the series of good results achieved in the latest races.
Standings MotoGP:1. V.Rossi (Yamaha) 1'36.200
2. C.Edwards (Yamaha) 1'36.478
3. N.Hayden (Honda) 1'36.549
4. D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1'36.569
5. C.Stoner (Honda) 1'36.702
250:1. R.Locatelli (Aprilia) 1'41.511
2. H.Aoyama (KTM) 1'41.570
3. M.Simoncelli (Gilera) 1'41.596
4. J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 1'41.642
5. H.Barberá (Aprilia) 1'41.730
9. S.Aoyama (Honda) 1'42.075
13. D.de Gea (Honda) 1'42.384
125: 1. A.Bautista (Aprilia) 1'45.322
2. H.Faubel (Aprilia) 1'46.011
3. L.Pesek (Derbi) 1'46.128
4. J.Simón (KTM) 1'46.136
5. M.Pasini (Aprilia) 1'46.336
20. B.Smith (Honda) 1'47.571
Track Conditions:Weather: Sunny
Humidity: 20%
Temperature: 25ºC
Track Temp: Dry 36ºC
Wind: 6 Km/h
Nicky Hayden, 55 laps, 230 Km:"On my second qualifier I had a good lap going - that Michelin was a little bit softer - and it felt pretty good, but I got into turn six a little deep and went straight on. So on my last qualifying lap I felt a bit of heat because I knew I couldn't afford to just completely let it hang out - I had to get in a good solid lap to try to get on the front row. For that lap I went back to the tyre I knew, which was a medium qualifier, and it felt good - I got in a decent lap. I'd hoped to have gone a little bit faster but this is definitely the best my bike has felt for a few races and I'm enjoying riding more this weekend than I have in a while. Tomorrow's race is going to be a shoot-out and I think all the fans at home should get ready for it and take the phones off the hook because it's gonna be a good one".
Dani Pedrosa, 55 laps, 230 Km: "We did another good practice today and we were able to put in some quick lap times on race tyres. After qualifying we are at the front of the second row and this is a pretty good position to be in. I had some traffic in qualifying which meant I couldn't set my fastest lap, but this is normal sometimes. I think the last time I had traffic in qualifying was at Barcelona so I can't complain about it. I appreciate that Casey came to the garage to say that he made a mistake and to apologise to me, so everything is fine. The race is very long so we'll have to take care with the tyre choice - we still have to make the final decision. I'll be looking for a good start tomorrow and to fight at the front."
Shuhei Aoyama, 45 laps, 188'19 Km: "Today has been bad. There was so much traffic on the track. First I touched a slower rider and then I made a mistake in my fastest lap. Everything went wrong; I just wasn't able to make one good lap. My feeling with the bike is OK. I know that I can go much faster but there was just no way. We even managed to improve the set-up from compared to yesterday and I'm feeling good on the track as well, so let's hope that things will work out better tomorrow during the race."
David De Gea, 44 laps, 184 Km:"The truth is that things have worked out much better today. I have been able to improve my la times every time I got on the bike. I'm happy, but I know that I can do better. I was hindered by another rider in the last section of my fast lap and I think that I had a good pace that would have boosted me up in the time sheets. But, well, I've only been eight hours on the bike, this is the just my second time after having been racing on a four-stroke machine so I can really be happy. Every time I get on the bike I get more and more used to it. I want to thank the whole team, the mechanics, my chief of mechanics and the people from Repsol for putting their trust in me. I hope to be able to give them a reason to be happy tomorrow and even more in Valencia."
Bradley Smith, 37 laps, 154'73 Km:"The crash this morning unsettled me a little bit but then I went out again and set a good lap time, improving on yesterday. We were trying to improve the bike a little bit more but we made some mistake. It was not a big problem but a problem, and that's why I couldn't go so much faster in the next session. This is actually why I finished twentieth but I think we have sorted the problem now, looking at telemetry and other things. We will try to improve again during the warm-up. The race is later, and that's nice because I can watch the races before, and learn where I can pass, because I need to pass many riders tomorrow and go from there."
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