Valentino Rossi, always the consummate showman, clocked an incredible lap with three minutes remaining in Saturday’s MotoGP Qualifying session at Donington Park to bump into the front row and take pole position.
Stoner likes to establish his position right from the word go.
Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner got off to a flying start, setting a chart topping time of 1’28.909 five minutes into qualifying. While the sickly Australian was in the pit resting, Jorge Lorenzo was undertaking his usual qualifying marathon. After running lap after consecutive lap the Moroccan eventually bested the Ducati rider by a tenth of a second to slip into the lead.
Stoner was prompted to return to the track but was quickly sidelined after crashing his GP9 coming out of McLean’s. Unhappy with the setup of the bike, the Ducati Marlboro Team spent a sizable chunk of the session changing-up Stoner’s second bike to address his complaints.
Meanwhile, a solid riding Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda) overtook the front with 14 minutes remains on a time of 1’28.496, which immediately scuttled the freshly retired Lorenzo from the pit. On his first lap back out the raising Yamaha star retook the lead with a time of 1’28.402, which he would be unable to improve on for the remainder of the session.
Never count Rossi out until the end.
With ten minutes remaining the quieter-than-usual Rossi made some noise by edging out Stoner’s time by a tenth to slip into third. The former UK resident Marco Melandri moved into fifth on the Hayate Racing Kawasaki bike with seven minutes remaining, but was soon out-paced by both Andrea Dovizioso (Respol Honda) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).
With three minutes to go, Rossi somehow managed to find nearly an extra second to seal the pole position with a time of 1’28.116. Pedrosa would also improve on his own best time by two-tenths to move into second, with Lorenzo finishing out the front row.
American Nicky Hayden was looking out of form throughout the session and would wind-up in a disappointing 15th aboard the other Factory Ducati. The Rizla Suzuki team also struggled as a whole throughout qualifying.
Rain is being forcasted for tomorrow's race.
MotoGP Donington Park, Saturday Qualifying Results
1. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team), 1’28.116
2. Dani Pedrosa (Respos Honda Team), 1’28.211
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team), 1’28.402
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team), 1’28.446
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Respol Honda Team), 1’28.778
6. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), 1’28.865
7. Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing Team), 1’29.065
8. Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini), 1’29.175
9. James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), 1’29.270
10. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda MotoGP), 1’29.434
11. Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing), 1’29.599
12. Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini), 1’29.600
13. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), 1’30.098
14. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), 1’30.153
15. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team), 1’30.268
Donington Park: Record Lap
Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'28.714
Donington Park: Best Lap
Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'27.676
MotoGP Donington Park Post-Qualifying Rider Quotes
Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 1st, 1'28.116
“I am quite surprised to be on pole today because we had a couple of problems this afternoon! This morning unfortunately we didn’t try the hard Bridgestone tire but we weren’t worried because everyone else had good grip with it. But this afternoon when we finally tried it we found the grip to be not as we expected and our pace with it wasn’t so good. We made some modifications and improved it a bit, then we made a few more and used the soft tire again and then we were very quick. Like that I could ride the bike how I wanted and it felt great, fast and flowing so this was a good job from the team. We need to do some work to improve our pace with the hard tire, and then we just have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow. Whatever happens, we’re starting from the front and this is the most important thing.”
Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 2nd, 1’28.211
“We did a good job in both sessions today and I’m happy to qualify on the front row because, in reality, that’s more important than taking pole position. On my last run at the end of the qualifying session I found some traffic on the circuit which caused me to lose my concentration and rhythm slightly, so I think I could have gone a little quicker. But still, the middle of the front row is OK. Our dry set-up is nearly there so we’ll aim to make just a few little improvements before the race. The weather is looking changeable for tomorrow, though at least we’ve had some practice time in the wet yesterday. If it’s raining I’d like to improve my riding and my pace a bit but the weather is out of our control so we’ll have to see. It’s the last MotoGP race at Donington tomorrow and of course I’d like a good result to sign off with - preferably a win.”
Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 3rd, 1'28.402
“With the harder tire, we’re definitely ready and I feel very good on the bike. With the softer tire and on my last run I wasn’t so fast, but we are not too concerned about this. Anyway I feel confident on my M1 and I am enjoying riding here. Tomorrow we don’t know about the weather but I was fast also in the rain yesterday so I know that I can be competitive even if the weather is bad. I am really hoping for a good race here since it’s the last time we will come.”
Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team - 4th, 1’28.446
"I'm a bit frustrated because I think we could have been on the front row today but considering everything, fourth place isn't that bad. It was actually a really difficult day for us, we had a few problems this morning, we have struggled to find the good feeling with the bike that we've had in the last few races, but we modified the set-up for the afternoon and things felt better, allowing me to go fast from the start. We were trying a different configuration on each bike but unfortunately about halfway through the session, when we were trying something with the front, I crashed and damaged my number 1 machine and that obviously made things worse. We didn't have enough time left to transfer that setting onto the second bike so we managed to improve a little on the soft tire but it still wasn't enough. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow and to try to get as many points as possible. I'd almost prefer it to rain because it would be better for my physical condition”.
Andrea Dovizioso - Repsol Honda - 5th, 1’28.778
“Starting from the second row is not a bad place to be and gives us a chance to get away at the head of the field so I’m satisfied with that. A fast start tomorrow should give us a good opportunity to have a strong race. Having said that, I really like this track and I was hoping to be in a slightly better situation going into tomorrow both in terms of grid position and race pace. We still need to improve our speed and consistency and there is some work to do to take us closer to the frontrunners and be fully competitive. We need to improve on the entry to the corner and also to work on traction, so we’ll look at the data we collected today and I’m confident my team can help me to make these improvements. It could rain tomorrow too, so we’ll come in ready for anything.”
Toni Elias - San Carlo Honda Gresini - 8th, 1’29.175
“I’m pretty happy. Obviously I would have preferred to be on the second row and I think we were capable of that today but the third row isn’t bad. It is certainly I big improvement on Germany a week ago, where I started last! We started out well this morning and improved the setting of the bike even more this afternoon. I feel comfortable, my rhythm is good, so the target for tomorrow has to be to get a good start and try to stick with the front group for the whole race.”
Randy de Puniet - LCR Honda - 10th, 1’29.439
“Well… it hasn’t been an easy day for me and I always struggle to set my pace on this track especially in the last two corners. Since the beginning of this weekend we had some issues to understand why we could not keep the pace of the front group. We have been focused in the last part of the track because that’s where it seems we are losing too much time. We tried to improve the machine between the two sessions and I did my best to adapt my riding style to these corners to win some tenths. Honestly, we expected a third row start but I am still hoping for a top eight end”.
Alex De Angelis - San Carlo Honda Gresini - 12th, 1’29.434
“We’re having a problem in the slow section, which we expected after Sachsenring. Basically the bike wants to wheelie out of the slow corners and obviously with the chicane, followed by the two hairpins in that last section, that is where we are losing time. I got behind Lorenzo for a lap today and was able to follow him all the way around until that part, where he disappeared! If we can just sort the set-up out for those last two corners we will be ready – if not for the same result as Sachsenring then something close to it. If it’s dry that will be the target. If it is wet, I was constantly in the top eight yesterday in those conditions so there’s no reason why we couldn’t repeat that.”
Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 13th, 1’30.098
"I am really frustrated because I was looking forward to Donington as I've had some success here and the bike has worked well, but this weekend so far has been quite difficult. In the wet we had reasonable success, but it has been really tough for us in the dry today. We have struggled to make the bike turn how we would want it to and to keep the front end feeling and speed through the corners. That is something we will need to work on this evening, it's an issue we've had a couple of times this year and hopefully we can get it resolved for tomorrow. I know I don't really like the rain, but we might get lucky tomorrow and it will be wet - which would certainly help us this weekend. You never know what the weather will do at Donington so we will have to wait and see."
Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - 14th, 1’30.153
"I don't really have a lot to say about today! I would like to thank my crew for the fantastic job they did at lunchtime today when they changed an engine in about 25 minutes, which was great work. It has been hard work on the bike today as we tried to find the best solutions for here but we are still struggling a bit. We have a couple of issues to still sort out, but things were better this afternoon compared to this morning. Overall the situation does not look too good, but we are here to fight as hard as we can and we will continue to do our best tomorrow, it won't be easy but we will be trying!"
Nicky Hayden - Ducati Marlboro Team - 15th, 1’30.268
“It hasn’t been a very productive day for us at all. We’ve struggled a lot to get feel into the bike, especially on the left side it has been a problem getting enough heat into the tires to give me good feedback. My qualifying lap was only an improvement of about a second on my first run this morning, which was our first time on the track in the dry, and obviously that’s not good enough. I did a pretty poor job today at the end of qualifying and probably stayed out too long when I had another soft tire I could have come in and changed to, but time was running out. I also had a little clutch problem there at the end, which didn’t help but the bottom line is we haven’t been fast enough all day. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for rain tomorrow. I’ll be sorry for the fans if it does but selfishly we might need it!”
Gabor Talmacsi - Scot Racing Team - 17th, 1’31.193
“To be honest, I’m not able to tell you why I crashed. I’m going to check the data, but my feeling is that I was on the same line and at the same speed than in previous laps. I simply lost the front, and fell down. The team has been great – when I entered the garage, everything was ready and we lost no more than 15 minutes. In the last part of the session I did not find a situation suitable to get the time I wanted. One of the problems with us is the rear grip. The other is the braking when entering into the turns”.
