Michelin riders packed the second row of the grid in this afternoon’s damp qualifying session at gloomy Donington Park but today’s grid sequence will mean little for tomorrow’s race because the latest weather forecast predicts dry weather for Sunday.
Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin), Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) and Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) were Michelin’s top qualifiers 20today, taking fourth, fifth and sixth on the grid, Hayden using race tyres for his fastest lap. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) was ninth in qualifying. In this morning’s fully wet outing Dovizioso, Pedrosa and Hayden were first, second and third quickest. In the dry yesterday Hayden was second, Edwards fourth and Pedrosa sixth.
“We were expecting some better grid positions this afternoon but it seems like the race will be run in the dry,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’ s director of motorcycle racing. “We got some useful information in the dry yesterday, our tyres seem consistent and good for race distance, but we will have to wait and see if we can use those tyres tomorrow afternoon or if we will need to switch to something slightly softer if conditions are much cooler and there’s still some moisture on the track. Obviously morning warm-up will be important to get some more data. In this afternoon’s wet qualifying session we focused on race tyres, so some of our riders didn’t switch to softer tyres at the end of the hour. For example, Nicky used race tyres for his best lap, while Colin and Andrea used something softer.&rdq uo;
Qualifying Practice Classification:1.Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team), 1'38.232
2.Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team), 1'38.881
3.Chris VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), 1'39.018
4.Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda Team-Michelin), 1'39.270
5.Colin EDWARDS (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), 1'39.601
6.Andrea DOVIZIOSO (JiR Team Scot MotoGP-Michelin), 1'39.783
7.Anthony WEST (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'39.995
8.Ben SPIES (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), 1'40.244
9.Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team- Michelin), 1'40.350
10.Shinya NAKANO (San Carlo Honda Gresini), 1'40.417
11.John HOPKINS (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'40.539
12.Sylvain GUINTOLI (Alice Team), 1'40.595
13.Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda Gresini), 1'40.667
14.Randy DE PUNIET (LCR Honda MotoGP- Michelin), 1'41.110
15.Marco MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team), 1'41.379
16.James TOSELAND (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), 1'41.751
17.Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team), 1'41.873
18.Toni ELIAS (Alice Team Ducati), 1'42.933
