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MotoGP 2009 - Round One - Day Two |
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MotoGP 2009 - Round One - Day Two |
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After a dominant performance in the first MotoGP qualifying session
of the year, Casey Stoner will line up on pole for the Commercial
bank Grand Prix of Qatar. The 2007 FIM MotoGP World Champion and Ducati Marlboro rider will attempt to make it three consecutive season-opening victories in Qatar on Sunday, having qualified in style at the floodlit Losail International Circuit. The Australian, who took the win in the opening races of the year in 2007 and 2008, was in hot form again in the first qualifying session of the new single tyre supplier era, setting a 1’55.286s best time near the end of the session to keep him nearly half a second ahead of the chasing pack. The ‘best of the rest’ was World Champion Valentino Rossi who registered his best time on his penultimate lap, a 0.473s margin behind Stoner. The Italian therefore starts his title defence second on the grid, a big improvement on his seventh place in qualifying at Qatar last year. Rossi’s team-mate, 2008 poleman Jorge Lorenzo, completes the front row courtesy of his 1’55.783s time, itself just 0.024s behind his Fiat Yamaha colleague’s best. Like Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso was taking part in his first qualifying practice on Bridgestone tyres and the Italian youngster ended up in fourth spot. The new Repsol Honda rider will get away from the head of the second row on his factory debut as he attempts to match or improve on his impressive fourth place at Losail last year. Loris Capirossi, meanwhile, who starts his 20th World Championship season this weekend, will be on his compatriot Dovizioso’s shoulder having put himself fifth on the grid with the new and improved Suzuki GSV-R. Another experienced rider, Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards, completes the second row having lapped within a second of Stoner. Randy de Puniet of the satellite LCR Honda team posted a best effort of 1’56.358, just over a second off pole position pace, to qualify seventh, joined on the third row by Rizla Suzuki man Chris Vermeulen and San Marino rider Alex de Angelis of the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. Pramac Racing’s Mika Kallio completes the top ten as the best rookie qualifier. Dani Pedrosa qualified in 14th position on his Repsol Honda RC212V, handicapped by his left wrist and knee injuries but still giving himself a chance of scoring points on Sunday. Comeback star Sete Gibernau is also riding injured with an ongoing shoulder injury sustained in training in the winter, and he will start his first race in more than two years in 15th position. A huge high-speed highside crash for Nicky Hayden on turn two at the end of the session saw him unable to move up from 16th on the grid on his Ducati debut and he was stretchered away for medical attention. The American has hurt his back but his participation in the Commercial bank Grand Prix of Qatar has not been ruled out. MotoGP Qualifying / Grid 1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'55.286 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'55.759 3. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'55.783 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda 1'55.977 5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'56.149 6. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'56.194 7. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'56.358 8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'56.493 9. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'56.790 10. Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Racing 1'56.852 11. Marco Melandri (ITA) Hayate Racing Team 1'56.962 12. Toni Elias (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'57.225 13. James Toseland (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'57.510 14. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'57.729 15. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Grupo Francisco Hernando 1'57.899 16. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'58.215 17. Yuki Takahashi (JPN) Scot Racing Team 1'58.784 18. Niccolo Canepa (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'58.999 -- Suzuki Report Rizla Suzuki's has Loris Capirossi qualified in the middle of the second row for tomorrow's Qatar Grand Prix, as he recorded the fifth fastest time during this evening's qualifying session. Capirossi (1'56.149, 18 laps) had already made his intentions known by clocking the third quickest time in the final free practice session earlier in the evening. He worked with his crew to modify his race set-up on his Suzuki GSV-R and is positive he has a good bike and tyre combination for tomorrow's 22-lap race. Capirossi could have been further up the grid, but was held up by four slower riders on his final lap and missed the opportunity of a possible front row start. Team-Mate Chris Vermeulen (P8, 1'56.493, 19 laps) looked liked joining Capirossi on the second row, but a couple of tiny mistakes on his final lap of the session cost valuable hundredths-of-a-second leaving Vermeulen directly behind Capirossi in the middle of the third row. Vermeulen found the harder option compound of the Bridgestone control tyre to his liking this evening and is confident of a strong race tomorrow. Today's qualifying was held in similar conditions to yesterday, with track and air temperatures both at 25ºC. Ducati's Casey Stoner will start from pole position with reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi alongside him. Tomorrow's 22-lap race is the first round of the 2009 season and the only night race on the MotoGP calendar. The race will get underway at 23.00hrs local time (20.00hrs GMT), when both Rizla Suzuki racers will be aiming to get the season off to a good start. Loris Capirossi: "It has been not too bad overall because we have improved a lot and went one second quicker than we did at the last test here. The bike is working well and we have found a good setting. We worked a lot on engine braking and mapping today and the whole team worked really hard to make everything happen. We tried to use all the time to its best extent and we are able to confirm that the bike is much better here than last year. I want to thank the whole factory for all the hard work they have put into the bike for this year. I think our qualifying is not too bad, but the race will be very hard and we will need to fight a lot to get a good result!" Chris Vermeulen: "It has been a much better day for us today. We really got the tyres sorted out today and we know what we are going to be running tomorrow. We will certainly be using the harder ones - both front and rear. We found that the softer rear had a bit more potential for pure lap-time speed, so we saved a couple of those for the qualifying session. We were able to do three or four laps on each tyre and that suited me. It felt like the bike was working well and the last tyre was going really well, but I just missed doing a final lap by a couple of seconds. The lap that I did my best time on was not a perfect lap and I was hoping to get one more lap in and iron out those mistakes. Starting from the third row is a lot better than it was last year and I'll try and get a good start and stay with the front group and see what happens at the end of 22-laps!" Paul Denning - Team Manager: "We have made the steps forward from yesterday that we hoped we would. Both the guys are able to ride with more aggression and confidence. Clearly the front row was in sight for Loris, but it is difficult to make it round the last corner with four bikes in front of you! Nonetheless, he is focussed on the race tomorrow and the middle of the second row isn't a bad place to start. "Chris has improved massively from yesterday evening, and but for a couple of mistakes on his last lap, he could easily have been on the second row alongside Loris. As it is we have seen time-after-time that he races better than he qualifies. We will go into the race tomorrow night to achieve our target of a good solid start to the season for both riders." -- Yamaha Report Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo will share the front row for tomorrow’s season-opening Grand Prix in Qatar, having qualified second and third in tonight’s session at the Losail International Circuit. The pair were split by just 0.024 seconds tonight and beaten only by Casey Stoner, with Rossi and Stoner having now been first and second in all three sessions. Despite the single-tyre rule having spelled the end of one-lap qualifying tyres, tonight’s session proved to be exciting nonetheless with most riders, including Rossi and Lorenzo, choosing to keep one of the softer compound Bridgestone tyres to use at the end of the 45 minutes for a couple of flying laps. Tomorrow’s 22-lap race will see the riders using the harder compound Bridgestone rubber and Rossi, who has had a good race pace all weekend, is confident of being able to mount a strong challenge. Lorenzo meanwhile has posted his fast times on the softer tyre and now needs to make a few changes together with his team and use the warm-up well in order to refine his setting and find a better feeling with the race tyre. The race will begin at 2300 local time, CET 2200. Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 1'55.759 Laps: 19 “I am really happy to be on the front row here because we know that this isn’t one of our best tracks. We also knew that Stoner would be strong and, although this is definitely true, we’re not too far off and the gap is closing all the time. Starting second is going to be very important here because there is a question mark over the tyres on this surface. The asphalt is still very dirty which is hard on the tyres and I think that the last few laps are going to be quite entertaining! There are a couple of places on the track where we can still be faster so we will have a look at the data and I hope we can make another step in the warm up and fix a couple of small problems. There is definitely a question mark over the last six or seven laps though and I think we could be sliding about a bit. Anyway, everyone is in the same position, with the same tyres, and it could make it quite fun; let’s wait and see.” Lorenzo - Position: 3rd Time: 1'55.783 Laps: 19 “After being on pole here in my first MotoGP race last year, I am happy to be back on the front row at least! It is going to be important I think because it will be a hard race. During the test here I was faster with the hard tyre but for some reason we have the opposite situation this time and I am much faster with the soft tyre. With the hard tyre we have a few issues still, which is a problem because this is the tyre we need to use for the race. Now we need to work hard to try to solve the problem tonight. Tomorrow I won’t be thinking about winning, just about doing the best I can and taking as many points as is possible in the circumstances. Of course you never know what will happen in a race!” Rossi's Team Manager “The first row was our main target so we’re pleased with this result. We were also able to make a few more adjustments and improve the setting, so we’re happy with how we’ve used the reduced track time we’ve had. The gap to Stoner is still there but we will try a few more things in the morning to try and close it a bit more, then the rest will be up to Valentino!” Lorenzo's Team Manager “Tonight’s session was not so bad, and it’s good for everyone in the team to see Jorge on the front row here again. We know that he can be fast with the soft tyre but we still need to improve the pace with the hard tyre because at the moment we still have some problems, mainly on the entry to the turn where the bike is still understeering. We have some ideas and the warm-up is going to be very important to improve things so that Jorge can ride to his full potential tomorrow night.” -- Bridgestone Report Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner again topped the timesheets throughout qualifying on the second night in Qatar. Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi starts tomorrow’s grand prix from second, whilst teammate Jorge Lorenzo clinched third spot on his penultimate lap. All riders recorded their fastest qualifying lap on Bridgestone’s medium compound front tyre and soft compound rear tyre. Repsol Honda’s newcomer Andrea Dovizioso will start fourth tomorrow, whilst the Rizla Suzuki duo of Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will start fifth and eighth respectively. Four satellite teams also appeared inside the top ten. Colin Edwards will start tomorrow from sixth for Monster Yamaha Tech3, followed by LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet in seventh. Alex de Angelis will start ninth for San Carlo Honda Gresini and MotoGP debutant Mika Kallio rounds out the top ten on his Pramac Racing Ducati machine. Based on previous race and test experience at the Losail circuit, Bridgestone selected the soft and medium compounds as the two options for this grand prix. All 18 riders have now used both soft and medium compound front and rear slicks, and with track-time on both options they will now be able to make their compound decisions for the race. Many opted for medium compound fronts and medium rears for the second practice session, but for qualifying every rider chose the medium Bridgestone front tyre and the soft Bridgestone rear. The weather was kind to the field today, with a brief rain shower falling between the second practice session and qualifying at 2100hrs, and another light shower falling as the chequered flag brought MotoGP qualifying to an end. Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development “Every rider tried the medium compound front tyre today, which in the hotter conditions gave more stability on corner entry and mid-corner. For the qualifying session, everyone used the medium compound front, and chose the soft compound rear to deliver their quick laps. I would say that from the two specifications of compound, every rider will now know what their race choice will be. “The track conditions were the same for today’s practice session as yesterday’s, but by the end of the qualifying session the track was much cleaner. But I think for the race tomorrow the track conditions will have changed again. As part of the new tyre regulations, riders have used fewer tyres in the last two days than they would have done in previous years and they still have sufficient tyres for tomorrow’s race so I am happy with the way these regulations are working.” -- Minor Categories Although some unseasonal and unexpected intermittent rain did not affect the MotoGP session, it did cause a 25 minute delay in the start of the 250cc qualifying practice. Álvaro Bautista wants to fight hard for the 250cc World title this year and he will start the first race of 2009 in the quarter litre class in pole position, whilst the current World Champion Marco Simoncelli misses out due to injury. Bautista took full advantage of Simoncelli’s absence, after the Italian withdrew following free practice 2 due to his wrist injury, the Spaniard registering a best effort of 2’00.677 right at the end of the session to beat his rivals. The late finish saw the 250cc riders round off the evening’s action at 1.15am local time, with Bautista heading the grid despite a late challenge from Scot Racing Team’s Hiroshi Aoyama -who was second by a 0.1s gap. Also on the front row are Bautista’s new Mapfre Aspar team-mate Mike di Meglio, on his 250cc debut as 125cc World Champion, and Pepe World Team’s Héctor Barberá, on the comeback trail from a serious back injury. Row two is filled by Héctor Faubel (Valencia C.F. – Honda SAG), another 250cc debutant in Gabor Talmacsi (Balaton Racing Team), last year’s Qatar race winner Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) and Alex Debon (Aeroport Castelló-Blusens). 1 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Aprilia 2'00.677 280.228 2 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Scot Racing Team 250cc Honda 2'00.777 276.285 0.100 3 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc Aprilia 2'01.113 273.833 0.436 4 Hector BARBERA SPA Pepe World Team Aprilia 2'01.174 279.720 0.497 5 Hector FAUBEL SPA Valencia CF - Honda SAG Honda 2'01.636 274.250 0.959 6 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Balaton Racing Team 250cc Aprilia 2'01.693 278.350 1.016 7 Mattia PASINI ITA Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia 2'01.699 279.575 1.022 8 Alex DEBON SPA Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens Aprilia 2'01.713 278.925 1.036 9 Thomas LUTHI SWI Emmi - Caffe Latte Aprilia 2'01.738 276.356 1.061 10 Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera Gilera 2'01.839 278.709 1.162 11 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Aprilia 2'01.872 275.229 1.195 12 Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT SAG Honda 2'02.062 275.159 1.385 13 Jules CLUZEL FRA Matteoni Racing Aprilia 2'02.113 272.796 1.436 14 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Scot Racing Team 250cc Honda 2'02.408 274.669 1.731 15 Lukas PESEK CZE Auto Kelly - CP Aprilia 2'02.567 275.721 1.890 16 Shoya TOMIZAWA JPN CIP Moto - GP250 Honda 2'03.590 271.971 2.913 17 Alex BALDOLINI ITA WTR San Marino Team Aprilia 2'03.592 274.459 2.915 18 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia 2'04.895 273.141 4.218 19 Axel PONS SPA Pepe World Team Aprilia 2'05.240 267.194 4.563 20 Vladimir LEONOV RUS Viessmann Kiefer Racing Aprilia 2'06.329 260.680 5.652 21 Bastien CHESAUX SWI Racing Team Germany Honda 2'07.096 261.311 6.419 22 Aitor RODRIGUEZ SPA Milar - Juegos Lucky Aprilia 2'07.701 272.108 7.024 The opening qualifying session of the 2009 125cc FIM MotoGP World Championship season, held earlier in the evening, saw Julián Simón lap ahead of his rivals to take pole. Returning to the single cylinder class this year and fastest in every 125cc session so far this weekend, Simón’s 2’06.974s best effort towards the end of the session put him on pole, just ahead of his new Bancaja Aspar team-mate Bradley Smith. Englishman Smith missed out on repeating his 2008 Qatar pole position by just 0.133s. Joining the pace-setting Aspar pair on the front row are Italian rider Andrea Iannone (Ongetta I.S.P.A.) and another Spaniard, Nico Terol (Jack & Jones Team), who were respectively 0.614s and 0.807s down on Simón’s pole time. The second row of the grid for the first race of the year on Sunday night will feature Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten), last year’s Qatar race-winner Sergio Gadea (Bancaja Aspar), Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) and Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team). After the three respective warm-up sessions on Sunday evening, the 125cc riders will dispute the first race of the year at 8pm local time, followed by the 250cc race at 9.15pm and the MotoGP spectacular at 11pm. 1 Julian SIMON SPA Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc Aprilia 2'06.974 226.557 2 Bradley SMITH GBR Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc Aprilia 2'07.107 231.065 0.133 3 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. Aprilia 2'07.588 226.130 0.614 4 Nicolas TEROL SPA Jack & Jones Team Aprilia 2'07.781 224.578 0.807 5 Sandro CORTESE GER Ajo Interwetten Derbi 2'07.835 226.462 0.861 6 Sergio GADEA SPA Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc Aprilia 2'08.147 226.130 1.173 7 Stefan BRADL GER Viessmann Kiefer Racing Aprilia 2'08.148 228.571 1.174 8 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Derbi Racing Team Derbi 2'08.380 228.378 1.406 9 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Red Bull KTM Motorsport KTM 2'08.417 228.910 1.443 10 Jonas FOLGER GER Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. Aprilia 2'08.424 223.094 1.450 11 Scott REDDING GBR Blusens Aprilia Aprilia 2'08.681 226.843 1.707 12 Joan OLIVE SPA Derbi Racing Team Derbi 2'08.904 227.464 1.930 13 Danny WEBB GBR Degraaf Grand Prix Aprilia 2'08.971 225.752 1.997 14 Johann ZARCO FRA WTR San Marino Team Aprilia 2'09.016 219.869 2.042 15 Esteve RABAT SPA Blusens Aprilia Aprilia 2'09.076 229.934 2.102 16 Takaaki NAKAGAMI JPN Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. Aprilia 2'09.264 219.869 2.290 17 Randy KRUMMENACHER SWI Degraaf Grand Prix Aprilia 2'09.276 226.320 2.302 18 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Ajo Interwetten Derbi 2'09.280 229.250 2.306 19 Simone CORSI ITA Jack & Jones Team Aprilia 2'09.293 226.747 2.319 20 Lorenzo ZANETTI ITA Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. Aprilia 2'09.702 225.894 2.728 21 Efren VAZQUEZ SPA Derbi Racing Team Derbi 2'09.987 229.640 3.013 22 Cameron BEAUBIER USA Red Bull KTM Motorsport KTM 2'10.248 221.765 3.274 23 Lorenzo SAVADORI ITA Fontana Racing Aprilia 2'10.590 225.234 3.616 24 Luca MARCONI ITA CBC Corse Aprilia 2'11.573 224.066 4.599 25 Jasper IWEMA NED Racing Team Germany Honda 2'11.864 224.578 4.890 26 Lukas SEMBERA CZE Matteoni Racing Aprilia 2'11.938 223.880 4.964 27 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA JPN Loncin Racing Loncin 2'12.557 211.930 5.583 28 Alexis MASBOU FRA Loncin Racing Loncin 2'12.610 209.830 5.636 29 Michael RANSEDER AUT Haojue Team Haojue 2'12.676 213.523 5.702 30 Luca VITALI ITA CBC Corse Aprilia 2'15.014 223.602 8.040 31 Matthew HOYLE GBR Haojue Team Haojue 2'15.586 205.753 8.612 |
