Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa was fast all afternoon at Indy. This is the first time any manufacturer other than Yamaha has been on pole since Mugello.
The weather was spot on so motorcycle racing fans here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were able to witness the full fury of the 800cc MotoGP as they navigate their way around the fabled Speedway. The usual suspects took control early with both Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo keeping their Fiat Yamahas around the top of the time sheets through the entire session.
Only Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa seems was able to keep the Fiat Yamaha riders from dominating the top spots, although Alex De Angelis did turn out to be a pesky surprise at the halfway mark when he put his Honda in the top four. Repsol’s Andrea Dovisioso tucked the front on the 47th minute but he was unharmed in the crash. He seemed stuck just inside the top ten for the majority of the session.
Things weren’t looking too bad for the American as Monster Yamaha’s Colin Edwards seemed to be a staple in the fifth position during the first half of qualifying. Meanwhile Ducati’s Nicky Hayden found himself outside the top ten for the majority of the qualifying session. But he would make a decent push later in the day.
At the halfway point, it was Lorenzo, in his Captain America get-up, who was fastest with an impressive 1’40.517 keeping him at the top of the scoring tower while Pedrosa (1’40.629) and Rossi (1’41.328) did their best to knock him off with 30-minutes remaining.
That’s when the lap times started to drop and the positions started to swap around a wee bit. In their push through the final half hour the trio traded places in the top three. First Pedrosa posted a 1’40.440 to take it over while Rossi chipped a few tenths off, narrowing the gap by finding a way to get another half-second off his time while his teammate was in the garage. But Rossi had still yet to break into the 1’40 barrier while Pedrosa was on an absolute tear and shaving his times-off lap by lap.
Colin Edwards was riding well, even moving into fourth on the time sheets with his 1’41.186 for a period of with 20-min remaining. The track was clear of the top six fastest riders at that time, leaving Edwards to have his way with the rest of the kids. Hayden fell even further back to 12th position, unable to do much better than his 1’42.231 until the 15-minute mark when the Kentucky Kid started putting things together.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden will start from the seocnd row, alongside fellow American Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 Yamaha.
Hayden pushed the Ducati to sixth position with a 1’41.683, just behind De Angelis and Edwards. A second row start would be a great place to try and earn his best finish of the season: If he could hold onto the spot with so much time still on the clock. About that time the top three were back on the track now too. Edwards had the Tech 3 team making adjustments in the garage in an effort to put together a last-minute push. Everyone looked fast and the crowd would cheer every time Nicky would flash by the start-finish line. But the real battle was still for pole position between Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Rossi. Then, with 12-minutes remaining, out of nowhere comes De Angelis pushing into third ahead of the mighty Rossi.
Oh yeah, there were some other professionals out on the course too. Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi made their presence felt by bulling their way into the top ten in eighth and ninth respectively. Meanwhile, Pedrosa and Hayden were back in the pits preparing for a final run of their own. With eight minutes remaining, Edwards came back out and set his sights on a front row start. Unfortunately, while pushing hard on his third lap the Texan low-sided and found his hopes of a front row start in serious jeopardy. Lorenzo uses the yellow flag as an excuse to come in and prep for the seven minute run to the checkered flag.
While everyone else struggled, Pedrosa was still going faster and faster. His best time with five minutes to go was 1’40.290, answering everything that Lorenzo had for him. Nicky waited for Dani to come through then tucked in behind him in an effort to pare a few tenths of his best time. All it seemed to do was push Pedrosa to post a 1’39.730 – the first rider to break the 40-second barrier.
De Angelis was in the pits with 3-minutes left, which allowed Rossi to work on re-taking the third spot. Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s James Toseland had spent most of the day at the bottomof the time sheets but he put a great series of laps together that ultimately have the former World Superbike champ in the top 10. His fellow bottom feeder Mika Kallio crashes the Ducati but he was languishing in 15th place so it didn’t have much effect on anything but his crew’s workload.
Toni Elias hooked up with Rossi in the final couple minutes only to crash out trying to keep pace. He was unharmed andhis 1’41.283 was good enough for 7th position. Rossi was still out and putting in a flyer with no time remaining. He crossed the line with a 1’40.609, reclaiming third position and joining Pedrosa and Lorenzo on the front row. This is the first race since Mugello that any brand other than Yamaha has been on pole. Alex De Angelis finishes fourth fastest followed by Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden.
Rider Quotes:
Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha)
"I'm happy about this qualifying session because we made a big step with our setting from this morning and even from the start of the session. Unfortunately, we couldn't improve any more in the final laps and it's now six or seven races since I've been on pole which is strange for me, because doing one fast lap is usually one of my strong points. The important thing however is that we're on the front row, we have a good race pace and we are ready to challenge for the win tomorrow."
Rossi may not have been the fastest in qualifying but the Doctor is always a threat to win from the front row.
Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha)
"We're on the front row and this is important, but honestly we don't have enough pace at the moment and I can't ride how I want to. We don't have quite enough grip to enable us to push to the maximum. We did a lot of work this afternoon but we're still not at our best and so now we all need to work to do because Pedrosa looks very strong and we need to close the gap to him. But we're confident that we can improve the package a bit more and set Jorge up for a great race tomorrow."
Colin Edwards (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha)
"I'm excited, I'm starting on the second row and I've got a good race pace and if I keep today's pace it should be an easy top five, maybe even a fight for the podium. I felt really comfortable and confident the whole session. I would like to say that I didn't do anything wrong when I crashed but I guess I did. I hit the one bump in turn six. With the suspension compressed, the bike leaned over and a big bump: The two didn't mix. It's kinda deceiving, you dont know where you are, the corner has a decreasing radius. I can't decide whether to go around the bump or inside it. I had just done my fastest lap and I felt I had more in it and I was already 0.2s faster on the first split so I thought a 1.40.4 was possible, but I didn't do it."
Nicky Hayden (Ducati MotoGP)
"It seems the story is always the same: even though this is my best dry qualifying result and second best grid position of the year I still feel I could have gone faster at the end and I'm not completely happy. I set a good lap chasing Dani but I think the tire went off right at the end because it started to spin up."
MotoGP Qualifying Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 1’39.730
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) 1’40.236
3. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) 1’40.609
4. Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda) 1’40.620
5. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha) 1’40.961
6. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1’41.067
7. Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda) 1’41.283
8. Andrea Dovisioso (Repsol Honda) 1’41.309
9. Marco Melandi (Hayate Racing) 1’41.530
10. James Toseland (Monster Yamaha) 1’41.620
11. Loris capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) 1’41.742
12. Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) 1’41.773
13. Niccolo Canepa (Pramac Ducati) 1’41.910
14. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) 1’42.038
15. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1’42.250
250 Qualifying
All afternoon, Simoncelli was fast but in qualifying he low-sided and found himself making up for lost time the entire session. But it was Mike Di Meglio on the Aspar Aprilia who posted the best time of the day, a 1'44.341 that earns him pole for tomorrow's race. Second fastest time went to Scot Honda's Hiroshi Aoyama followed by Marco Simoncelli.
250 Qualifying Results:
1. Mike Di Meglio (Aspar Aprilia) 1'44.341
2. Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Honda) 1'44.461
3. Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) 1'44.553
4. Hector Barbera (Pepe Aprilia) 1'44.625
5. Julues Cluzel (Matteoni Aprilia) 1'44.860
6. Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Aprilia) 1'44.955
7. Mattia Pasini (Toth Aprilia) 1'45.158
8. Alex Debon (Aprilia) 1'45.192
9. Rathpart Wilairot (Thai Honda)1'45.396
10. Hector Faubel (Honda SAG) 1'45.438
125 Qualifying
125 GP championship leader Julian Simon put his Bancaja Aprilia on pole position for Sunday’s race. The youngster is in firm command of the 125 title chase at this time and hopes to extend that lead with a win at the fabled venue. Germany’s Sandro Cortese on the Derbi will start between Simon and third fastest qualifier Nicolas Terol on the Jack & Jones Racing Aprilia.
125cc Qualifying Results:
1. Julian Simon (Bancaja Aspar Aprilia) 1’49.337
2. Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten Derbi) 1’49.387
3. Nicolas Terol (Jack & Jones Aprilia) 1’49.537
4. Pol Espargaro (Derbi Racing) 1’49.577
5. Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar Aprilia) 1’49.585
6. Simone Corsi (Fontana Aprilia) 1’49.628
7. Sergio Gadea (Bancaja Aspar Aprilia) 1’49.661
8. Efren Vazquez (Derbi Racing) 1’49.703
9. Marc Marquez (Red Bull KTM) 1’49.852
10. Joan Olive (Derbi Racing) 1’49.853
