Marquez tops Indy MotoGP Qualifying
An eighth pole of the season for Marquez gives him a good chance of continuing his winning run as he seeks a tenth successive victory on Sunday.
Dovizioso (Ducati Team) produced a good lap towards the end of Q2 to get within 0.225s of Marquez in second, whilst Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was a quarter of a second off pole as he completed the front row.
Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) impressed again in fourth, whilst Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) reached his usual target of a top five qualifying position. Aleix’s brother Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) was provisionally on the front row but was eventually pushed back to sixth.
Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) will line up on row three, provided Smith is fit to ride after a big high side at Turn 2 in the final minutes of Q2.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) heads the fourth row after topping FP3 earlier in the day. Whilst Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) made it through from Q1 to qualify 11th and 12th respectively.
Substitute rider Leon Camier did well as he rides in place of Nicky Hayden for the Drive M7 Aspar team, qualifying 16th from Q1.
Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) qualified 14th after surviving a big high side earlier in proceedings in FP3, whilst Broc Parkes (Paul Bird Motorsport) walked away from a Q1 crash and will start 22nd on the grid.
- Marc Marquez 93 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1’31.619
- Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1’31.844
- Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA 1’31.869
- Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1’32.113
- Valentino Rossi 46 ITA Yamaha Factory YAMAHA 1’32.160
- Pol Espargaro 44 ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1’32.243
- Andrea Iannone 29 ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 1’32.254
- Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1’32.331
- Bradley Smith 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1’32.343
- Stefan Bradl 6 GER LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1’32.514
- Scott Redding 45 GBR Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1’32.714
- Cal Crutchlow 35 GBR Ducati Team DUCATI 1’32.794
- Yonny Hernandez 68 COL Pramac Racing DUCATI 1’33.166
- Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1’33.294
- Colin Edwards 5 USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1’33.625
- Leon Camier 12 GBR IodaRacing Project ART 1’33.747
- Danilo Petrucci 9 ITA IodaRacing Project IODA-SUTER 1’33.837
- Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1’33.948
- Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1’34.244
- Hector Barbera 8 ESP Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1’34.332
- Karel Abraham 17 CZE Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA 1’34.369
- Broc Parkes 23 AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1’34.764
- Michael Laverty 70 GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM 1’34.814
Moto 2
Moto2™ qualifying practice saw Mika Kallio claim pole position for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, with Tito Rabat and Dominique Aegerter completing the front row, despite a big crash for Rabat towards the end of the session.
Marc VDS Racing Team rider Kallio’s 1’36.883 best lap early in the session gave him his second pole of the year, ahead of his teammate Rabat who pushed for the top spot late on but ultimately crashed with eight minutes to go. Rabat initially looked shaken after the high speed tumble but was able to walk away from the spill.
Sachsenring race winner Aegerter (Technomag carXpert) will aim for a second successive victory, this time from third on the grid on his Suter machine.
Johann Zarco (AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing), Simone Corsi (NGM Forward Racing) and Maverick Viñales (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) qualified on row two, with similar lap times just over half a second off pole.
Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia), Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) all secured row three starts, with Sam Lowes (Speed Up) in tenth.
An incident packed session also saw crashes for Robin Mulhauser (Technomag carXpert), Ricard Cardus (Tech 3), Alex De Angelis (Tasca Racing Moto2) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Gresini Moto2), whilst Josh Herrin (AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing) and Xavier Simeon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) fell after they tangled towards the end of the QP. None of the riders suffered any major consequence from the incidents.
Moto 3
Jack Miller secured top spot in qualifying for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix ahead of Efren Vazquez and Alex Marquez as Moto3™ builds up to the first race on the new layout.
Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) put in a 1’40.727 around the modified Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Grand Prix layout to secure his sixth pole of the year. Miller came away unscathed from an FP3 crash as he found his limit earlier in the day.
Vazquez (SAXOPRINT RTG) lines up second on the grid having earlier been the fastest rider in FP3. Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) completed row one just 0.001s behind Vazquez who himself was only 0.08s off Miller’s pace.
Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46) qualified fourth after having a lap cancelled for exceeding the track limits early in QP. Row two will also feature Juanfran Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) and notably Jorge Navarro (Marc VDS Racing Team) as he comes in to replace Livio Loi.
John McPhee (SAXOPRINT RTG), Francesco Bagnaia (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Alessandro Tonucci (CIP Mahindra) complete the third row, whilst Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was 10th and Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was 12th.
Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold) survived an early crash in qualifying after technical problems in FP3 and qualified 11th. Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Ongetta-AirAsia) ended the session with a highside but was not seriously hurt and will line up 15th on the grid.
Repsol HRC Report
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has secured his eighth pole of the season for tomorrow’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP, despite a mistake on his first exit in qualifying, with teammate Dani Pedrosa enduring a difficult session resulting in a start from the third row in 8th position.
The lap times have been dropping significantly in every session of the weekend, due to the revised track layout and new asphalt, and qualifying was certainly no exception. Marc made a small error on his first exit and ran wide, but his second flying lap gave him provisional pole. Then on his second run, his time of 1’31.619 (lap 6 of 8) secured pole position – a full three seconds faster than his fastest lap in FP1 (1’34.885).
Dani, still not 100% happy with his setting and lack of grip, recorded his best time on his first exit in qualifying with a time of 1’32.331 (lap 3 of 8), over four seconds faster than his best lap on Friday morning (1’36.419 ). However, two small mistakes on his second run prevented him from improving on his time.
Marc has begun from the front row in Indianapolis for the past five years and tomorrow he will be hunting down his tenth consecutive win this season. Dani will be looking to make his way through the pack and battle for victory at a track where he’s enjoyed top two finishes for the past four years.
Marc Marquez – 1st – 1’31.619 – “I am happy to have taken this pole position, because it is important to start well after the summer break. The fundamental thing is that we have a good pace for tomorrow. The tyre choice tomorrow will also be important, especially with the rear. We will see what the temperature is like and, from there, decide which compound to use. I am happy with how I am feeling, and we will try to give 100%, as always”
Dani Pedrosa – 8th – 1’32.331 – “In qualifying I wasn’t able to improve my best time with my second tyre, because I couldn’t do it on the three attempts I had at a hot lap. When you don’t improve on this second run, you are always going to have people move ahead of you on the grid. The times are very close and unfortunately for us we had a bad qualifying session. In any case, I will work with the team tonight and tomorrow morning to try to find a faster pace for the race, and look for a little more rear grip”
Yamaha Report
Despite a changeable forecast for this afternoon’s qualifying session it held dry for Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo to secure third place on the grid for tomorrow’s Indianapolis Grand Prix. Teammate Valentino Rossi made a big improvement from practice, dropping into the low 1’32’s to take fifth.
Lorenzo started the 15-minute qualifying session from the back, leaving the pit lane last to be ensured of a clear path for his first flying laps. He quickly found his pace and led the qualifying session when he set his first hot lap of 1’32.177 seconds with ten minutes to go. Lorenzo came into the pits with seven minutes remaining for fresh rubber before returning to the track for a last five-minute dash. With less than a minute on the clock the Spaniard achieved a personal best time of 1’31.869 seconds, leaving him third, just a quarter of a second from pole man Marc Marquez. He had one lap left to improve his time, but was forced to slow his pace due to a crash by Bradley Smith and will start tomorrow’s race from the first row of the grid.
Teammate Rossi left the pits early for his first outing. With eight minutes to go the nine-time world champion put in a time of 1’32.692 seconds, moving him up to eighth position, before moving back one place as the pace quickened. The nine-time world champion then came in for a fresh set of tyres with seven minutes left and started his second outing on track five minutes before the end of the session. With 10 seconds to go he set a 1’32.160 on his eighth and final lap, moving him up to fourth in the standings until he was surpassed by Alex Espargarò. His time puts him on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s race, just 0.541 seconds from the front.
Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd / 1’31.869 / 8 laps – “We tried a new setting during Free Practice 4 with the hard tyre but it wasn’t good. We have to understand what the problem was; if the tyre wasn’t right or if the setting wasn’t good. With the soft tyre the bike was working quite well and when we tried the hard tyre yesterday it was working really good. Tomorrow in the warm-up we will see if the feeling is ok with the hard tyre. During the qualifying I tried to put in a very good lap time. After the first try I was very satisfied with the lap. The second time I wanted to improve a little bit more but I came across so many riders waiting for a tow that I couldn’t ride like I did before. I went just two tenths of a second faster, but it was enough to give me this first row, which is a good position.”
Valentino Rossi – 5th / 1’32.160 / 8 laps – “I’m quite happy. It was possible to do a little better, especially because I was good this afternoon. During Free Practice 4 I was consistently fast, but starting from the top five is ok for the race. It would have been better to start from the first row, but it’s also ok from the top five. I’m quite happy because I’m riding the bike well. I have a good pace and we improved the setting a lot, but the rear tyre choice will be crucial. The soft and hard options are very similar, so it will be a very important decision for tomorrow’s race. Here, on the new tarmac, the track changes a lot with every practice session. It now looks like the softer tyre is becoming better while yesterday it was impossible to use, but the two options are very similar.”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director – “First and second row are good positions to be in for tomorrow’s race. Jorge was fast from the start and definitely on good form. Vale found some clear space for a good lap on his second outing so made a big jump up to the second row which was great. We still have some room to improve and we still need to decide on tyres so we’ll continue our work tonight and see what we can do for warm up tomorrow morning. We’ve worked hard this weekend to find a good pace for both Vale and Jorge so with a good start they can be competitive and fight at the front.”
Espargaro on second row for Indy battle tomorrow
Pol Espargaro will start the tenth round of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship from the second row of the grid after guiding his Monster Yamaha Tech3 MotoGP bike to sixth position during today’s qualifying. The young Spanish rider kicked off proceedings in a highly notable manner this morning by clinching fifth with a lap time of 1’32.797, only 0.275 from the top of the timesheet which saw him glide straight through to qualifying practice 2. Before this he expertly completed the FP4 session in second position. The 23 year old rider furthered his pace progression as he powered onwards in Q2 to set a best time of 1’32.243 on his sixth lap which resulted in being only 0.374 from the final front row and the best Yamaha position of Jorge Lorenzo. His qualifying result leaves Espargaro confident and prepared to complete a further points scoring rout tomorrow to build upon his hard fought seventh position in the World Championship standings in his debut season in the premier class.
On the other side of the garage, Britain’s Bradley Smith completed an effective qualifying campaign, despite falling on the final lap in qualifying practice 2 to place his Yamaha YZR-M1 on third row for tomorrow’s 27 lap sprint around the world famous Indianapolis circuit. Having began yesterday’s opening day of practice positively by clinching second in the first session, Smith continued the forward momentum today in FP3 to post a best time of 1’33.202, seizing eighth position and allowing him to pass straight through to the final fifteen minute qualifying shootout. This afternoon the Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider posted a best time of 1’32.343 deep into the session and only two tenths from fourth place, yet unfortunately fell on his final lap. Smith again wounded his previously injured finger, but will still be able to compete tomorrow. His time was strong enough to retain ninth and he will now aim to undertake a trademark forward start before undertaking a spirited performance to achieve a competitive result tomorrow.
Pol Espargaro – 6th / 1’32.243 / 8 laps – “Overall, I am quite satisfied with the second row as qualifying result today and I feel really confident for the race tomorrow. There are two open class bikes in front and I am convinced that I have a better race pace so with a strong start off the grid, we should be able to overhaul them and get into the top five which is what I am aiming for. As for tyres, we still haven’t made a full decision on what we will use for the race. The softer compound has really good grip but as the asphalt is aggressive here it may not last the full race distance. Therefore, we will evaluate the situation in the warm up tomorrow morning and make our decision then. Despite this, I am confident and happy with both compounds of tyres and really looking forward to the race where I hope to continue my strong run of results here.”
Bradley Smith – 9th / 1’32.343 / 7 laps – “It goes without saying that a fall is never the most ideal way to complete the session, but fortunately I am all ok for tomorrow’s race and have only reopened my finger. The cause of the fall was because I was asking a little too much of the rear tyre as it would have lasted a maximum of almost two laps, but I tried to do three. The time itself was acceptable and I am happy to be on the third row, even though I know I could have been faster. The team and I undertook some really positive work during FP4 to prepare ourselves for the race where I used the hard tyre which certainly felt comfortable. We have made no decision on the choice of compound for tomorrow, but we’ll wait and see how the grip levels are in warm up before tactfully deciding. Either way, I am happy with either choice of tyre as well as how the Yamaha feels and so am looking forward to getting a strong start plus having a positive race from the third row.”
Impressive 4th position for Espargaro at the Brickyard
NGM Forward Racing rider Aleix Espargaro impressed again scoring a second row position with 4th place. It was also a positive qualifying session for team mate Colin Edwards, who finished 15th in front of his home crowd and will start tomorrow’s race from the fifth row. The Texas Tornado celebrated the US round with a special camouflage leather and helmet as a tribute to the American troops.
Wasting no time, Espargaro put in a very good time in his first flying lap and he further improved at the end of the session with an impressive 1’32.113. Once again the Spaniard was the fastest open class bike of the qualifying session.
Team mate Colin Edwards was also quiet satisfied with his lap time of 1’33.625 that ensured him the 15th position on the grid. After having struggled during the morning session, Colin was able to find a better set up in the afternoon and he is quite confident for tomorrow’s race.
Aleix Espargaro – 4th / 1’32.113 / 7 laps – “I’m happy with today’s result. It has been a strange weekend. We did some chassis comparison and we worked a lot to improve the set up. It was important to start from one of the first two rows so I’m satisfied. Tomorrow it will be a tough race because, as we saw in the FP4, we are all very close so I expect a difficult race.”
Colin Edwards – 15th / 1’33.625 / 7 laps – “I’m reasonably happy with this qualifying. This morning we had too much weight on the rear so during FP4 we made some adjustments and the feeling improved a bit. I look forward to tomorrow’s race. The support of the crowd is amazing. I saw a lot of Texas flags along the track and tomorrow I will give my best to thank the fans for this great support.”
Gresini Honda Report
It was a qualifying day with light and shadow today in Indianapolis for the Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: Scott Redding has in fact entered into the Qualifying 2 for the first time this season, while Alvaro Bautista was not able to go beyond the fourth position in Qualifying 1, therefore missing to get into the decisive session for the first 12 positions on the grid.
Redding entered the Qualifying 2 session posting the fastest time during Q1, 1’32”829, ahead of compatriot Cal Crutchlow; then the English further lowered his limit in Q2, down to 1’32”714, thanks to which he ensured the eleventh position, his best qualifying of the season after the 13th place obtained in Austin and in Argentina.
His teammate, Bautista, took part at the qualifying after a spectacular high side during the third and final free practice session, this morning: the Spaniard, who was already struggling yesterday with rear grp issues, will start tomorrow’s race from the fifth row with the 14th fastest time, 1’33”294.
Alvaro Bautista – (14th – 1’33″294) – “Luckily I’m feeling okay now, but this morning’s crash was really scary; I had a high side and I think I have been flying for several seconds… Hovewer, like I said I’m physically fit, I’m just disappointed because the feeling with the bike is not the best; we have been struggling a lot with rear grip and this is the cause of the crash I had in FP3. In this condition I cannot ride, because if I try to go a little bit faster I risk to crash, like it happened this morning. This is frustrating. For sure tomorrow we will face a tough race, but we will try our best, as always”.
Scott Redding (11th – 1’32″714) – “I’ve been feeling really good since the beginning of the weekend, and today it was really nice to get to the Qualifying 2 session for the first time this year. I’m happy also because in Q2 I improved my lap time again. Today I was able to push hard all the time, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race; we’re just struggling a little bit with front grip: after 5 or 6 laps, even if you can’t see tyre wear, you feel less grip and less confidence, so we will work tonight to find something to fix it. For the race we will use the medium rear tyre, because after 1 or 2 laps the softer one drops a lot; however, even with the medium compound my lap times are good and I don’t feel a big difference, so I’m confident. We will see how it goes tomorrow”.
Fausto Gresini – “Unfortunately Bautista is struggling a lot here in Indianapolis and definitely this morning’s crash penalized him further; consequently, Alvaro couldn’t do much, missing also to get into the Q2 for the first time this season. On the other hand, Scott is having a very positive weekend, crowned today with his best qualifying performance of the season. Right now it’s really a pity to see him so sacrificed on the straights, where he’s losing a lot of ground. This situation is not fair, but it will help him to grow and to be even stronger for the future”.
Ducati Report
Andrea Dovizioso put in a superb lap in the decisive qualifying session for the Indianapolis Grand Prix to clinch the second quickest time, thus guaranteeing himself a front row start for tomorrow’s race. The Italian rider finished the Q2 session with a time of 1’31.844, just two-tenths of a second away from Marquez’s pole time.
It is the second time that Dovizioso has obtained a front-row start this year, after the one at Le Mans, while it is also the 92nd time in the history of MotoGP that a Ducati will start from the front row.
Cal Crutchlow continues to have a difficult weekend, although today he made a significant improvement over yesterday, lowering his time by over one second. Cal had to take part in Q1 and after gaining access to Q2, had to settle for 12th place and a row 4 start tomorrow.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd (1’31.844) – “We needed that, the front row always helps! We have done a good job for the race and this weekend we have always been quick in all conditions. I am happy with the feeling and our speed, but I think in any case that the race will be a tough one so for the moment I’m enjoying the front row. I admit that following Marquez gave me a bit of a hand: I had the pace for a low 1’32 lap, but I followed him on his quick lap and I also got down under the 1’32 mark. Unfortunately after a few laps the tyres drop off quite a lot and for us it becomes more complicated. But we’ll see tomorrow: in any case starting up front helps a lot and I’ll try and take advantage of the situation as best as possible!”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 12th (1’32.794) – “We’ve obviously been having a difficult weekend again, but at least I made it into Q2. I think we made quite a big improvement today and as a result I’m more optimistic after today’s performance than what I was yesterday. I’m still a little slow over the initial first lap but I think we found a better feeling and a better overall pace. We need to make a few set-up improvements in the warm-up tomorrow morning and then I look forward to having a better race tomorrow.”
Drive M7 Aspar Report
Qualifying practice at Indianapolis saw two Englishmen (Redding and Crutchlow) progress from Q1 to Q2, when two Spaniards took over at the top of the timesheets as Marc Márquez overhauled Jorge Lorenzo for pole position. The reigning World Champion and runaway series leader gave Andrea Dovizioso a crucial tow on his final lap, allowing the Italian to edge out the unfortunate Lorenzo to the outside of the front row in third place, with Rossi and Pedrosa also outside contenders to deny Márquez his tenth straight win on Sunday.
It is rare for any rider to improve their lap times by six full seconds in just one day but that’s what happened to Nicky Hayden’s replacement in the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team today. Leon Camier has been the surprise package of the weekend so far, improving in every session during his first outing on a MotoGP bike to the point that he qualified sixth fastest in Q1, sealing sixteenth place on the grid for his premier-class debut. On the other side of the DRIVE M7 Aspar garage his team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama had a less satisfying day today, the Japanese rider citing a lack of traction and difficulty in turning for his disappointing 18th place on the grid.
16th Leon Camier 1.33.747: “I’m really happy today because we made a big step forward and I really enjoyed myself on the bike. We made a clear plan yesterday, which was to make the bike as easy for me to ride as possible. Everything is new to me so I have to learn as much as I possibly can this weekend. You can tell that this is an experienced team because they are able to help me go faster every time I go out and make the bike more and more comfortable for me to ride, Thanks to the hard work of the mechanics I am adapting quite quickly to the bike but I still have a lot to learn, such as the limits of the tyres and the suspension. We performed well today but the hardest part is still to come. Sometimes when you start out from scratch it is easy to make quick progress but you get to a certain point and things slow down. Anyway, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It’s too soon to predict a result, the goal for me is to get some more laps under my belt and learn as much as I can. I am sure that in the race I’ll learn more than the rest of the weekend put together.”
18th Hiroshi Aoyama 1.33.948: “I felt comfortable on the bike this morning but in the afternoon my feeling changed and I wasn’t confident for qualifying. We struggled for traction, I couldn’t get the bike to turn and that limited us. With no feeling for the bike I couldn’t ride it with conviction and we have qualified further back than we would like. We have to look at the positives, we still have a session to improve the set-up tomorrow and iron out the problems that we had today.”
Bridgestone Report
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium & Hard; Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Soft (Main), Hard (Alternative)
Weather: FP3 – Dry. Ambient 22-24°C; Track 34-38°C (Bridgestone measurement)
FP4/QP – Dry. Ambient 27-27°C; Track 36-40°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Marc Marquez continued his dominating qualifying form today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Repsol Honda rider setting a lap time of 1’31.619 to take his eighth pole position from ten rounds this season.
Having already shown impressive pace during long runs in the practice sessions, Marquez also showed his peerless pace over a single lap, ending the Qualifying Practice 2 session 0.225 seconds ahead of Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso who rode brilliantly to secure second place on the grid for the race. Third quickest in qualifying was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo who managed a best lap time of 1’31.869 to finish a quarter of a second behind Marquez. Both Marquez and Lorenzo used the combination of the medium compound front and rear slicks to set their quickest time, while Dovizioso used the soft compound rear slick paired with the medium compound front to set his personal best lap time.
Conditions were dry for all of today’s sessions with a peak track temperature of 40°C recorded at the start of Free Practice 4. The fine weather allowed riders to compare different tyre combinations during their race simulations, and the harder rear slick options; hard compound for the Factory Honda and Yamaha and medium compound for the Ducati and open-class riders were preferred by almost every rider. Rider feedback for the medium compound front slick, which was brought to Indianapolis for the first time this year has been overwhelmingly positive and this option will be the most widely used choice for the race.
The current weather forecast indicates a fair chance of rain tomorrow afternoon with similar ambient temperatures to today. The next MotoGP™ session is the twenty minute Warm Up session at 0940 local time (GMT-4) with the twenty-seven lap Indianapolis Grand Prix set to start at 1400.
Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department – “As we expected the grip level of the new Indianapolis tarmac improved today with more rubber laid down, which resulted in better tyre durability and quicker lap times. Although the softer rear slick options offer better outright performance over short distances, the feedback from the riders is that the harder rear options offer more consistent performance on the new circuit so I expect the majority of riders will choose this for the race tomorrow. Almost all riders confirmed today that the medium compound front slick offers the best balance between cornering performance and braking stability so this will be the most common choice for the race, although some riders experienced good feedback from the hard compound front. The weather forecast shows the possibility of rain tomorrow, but wet or dry I am confident our tyre allocation at Indianapolis will help the riders manage whatever weather conditions we have for the race.”
