Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa will start Sunday’s German Grand Prix from second on the grid after missing out on pole position by an agonisingly close 0.004s at the Sachsenring on Saturday. On a day when the lap times on race tyres were almost as fast as those on sticky qualifying rubber, Pedrosa put in a time of 1m 22.388s to just miss out on repeating his pole position at this circuit last year. The 21-year-old Spaniard’s best time on a race tyre in the one-hour qualifying session was 1m 22.561s, just two tenths of a second slower than his qualifying time, and came in a run of consistently quick laps that give promising signals for tomorrow’s 30-lap race.
Nicky Hayden endured some more tough luck today as both his qualifying runs were compromised. On the MotoGP World Champion’s first run he looked to be set for a good time but was forced to abort when a rider who had fallen ran across the track in front of him at the final corner. Then, on his second hot lap, the 25-year-old American made a mistake at Turn 10 which cost him the chance of climbing higher on the grid. Thus Hayden’s fastest time this afternoon was set on a Michelin race tyre. His lap of 1m 23.151s was only 0.767s behind the fastest time but, with the top 16 riders covered by less than one second, this puts him 14th on the grid meaning he’ll be looking for a repeat his demon start from the previous at Assen two weeks ago.
Round 10 of the MotoGP World Championship begins at 14.00hrs tomorrow at the 3.671km (2.280-mile) Sachsenring circuit after a 25-minute warm-up session in the morning.
Dani Pedrosa 2nd – 1m 22.388s“I’m happy to be on the front row because this is a tight track where it’s quite difficult to overtake, so to be up front is going to be important. Of course it would have been nice to be on pole position like last year, and we came very close, but I’m not disappointed with the result this afternoon. This morning was not so good and we tried a few things that didn’t immediately improve the machine. However, it helped us find a better direction in the afternoon and I was able to ride at a fast, consistent pace on race tyres, so I think our set-up is quite good – for the beginning of the race at least. The critical thing will be how things are going from the mid-point onwards because this is where we have struggled a little in some races. It looks like it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow which means it could be hard work in the race because there’s not a lot of time to take a rest at this track. Still, I’m looking forward to another good race tomorrow.”
Nicky Hayden 14th – 1m 23.151s
“This morning things were definitely going better and I was able to go quite a bit faster with some decent consistency. We needed that session after losing a lot of time yesterday. This afternoon we made some more setting changes but it actually made us go backwards a little bit and I couldn’t get into a good rhythm. And then I had problems on both my qualifying runs. On the first qualifying tyre I had a decent lap going but in the last corner Checa actually ran across the track in front of me and I had to abort the lap. He’s a brave man. He’d crashed and to be honest I’d have probably done the same to get back to the pits in qualifying, but I’d probably look first. The first two splits of my second lap were pretty good but then in Turn 10 I made a big mistake which ruined that lap, so my best time this afternoon was on a race tyre. It’s definitely not the grid position we need. Tonight we’ll look to make some changes to the machine and see what happens tomorrow. A good start’s going to be essential.”
Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager “Dani did a very good job this afternoon and his speed is looking promising on race tyres. He had a tough morning session and tried many setting changes without immediate success. But he managed to find a good direction for the afternoon and he was very close to pole position and has secured a front row start. Congratulations to him. Our rivals are looking strong but I think Dani has a good chance to run at the front in the race. Nicky made progress this morning though the race pace is not quite where we need it to be and we must work very hard to improve this for tomorrow. He’ll need another of the great starts we’ve seen him do many times.”
2007 Qualifying:1. Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 22.384s
2. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team 1m 22.388s
3. Marco Melandri - Honda Gresini 1m 22.397s
4. Randy De Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 22.539s
5. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 22.561s
6. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 22.605s
7. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 22.615s
8. Alex Barros - Pramac d'Antin Ducati 1m 22.897s
9. Sylvain Guintoli - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 1m 22.958s
10. Shinya Nakano - Konica Minolta Honda 1m 22.969s
11. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 23.039s
12. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m 23.056s
13. Colin Edwards - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 23.090s
14. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team 1m 23.151s
15. Carlos Checa - Honda LCR 1m 23.182s
16. Alex Hofmann - Pramac d'Antin Ducati 1m 23.199s
17. Michel Fabrizio - Honda Gresini 1m 23.491s
18. Makoto Tamada - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 1m 23.744s
19. Kurtis Roberts - Team Roberts 1m 24.209s
Qualifying Conditions: Weather: Sunny
Temp: 28ºC
Track: Dry / 38ºC
Humidity: 33%
2006 Race Result:
1. Valentino Rossi - Camel Yamaha Team 41m 59.248s
2. Marco Melandri - Fortuna Honda + 0.145s
3. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team + 0.266s
4. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team + 0.307s
5. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team + 8.764s
6. Shinya Nakano - Kawasaki Racing Team + 9.147s
7. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 16.608s
8. Sete Gibernau - Ducati Marlboro Team + 16.648s
9. Carlos Checa - Tech 3 Yamaha + 17.097s
10. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 17.786s
11. Toni Elias - Fortuna Honda + 27.425s
12. Colin Edwards - Camel Yamaha Team + 29.308s
13. James Ellison - Tech 3 Yamaha + 1m 02.029s
14. Jose L. Cardoso - Pramac d'Antin MotoGP + 1m 19.997s
Not Classified:Randy Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team + 18 laps
Makoto Tamada - Konica Minolta Honda + 20 laps
Kenny Roberts Jr - Team Roberts + 20 laps
Circuit length: 3.671km (2.280 miles)
Race Lap Record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1m 23.355s – 2006
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