Shooting out in front with the leading time in Saturday’s MotoGP qualifying session at Brno was Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa. The Spaniard captured his third pole position of the 2010 season with a time of 1'56.508 ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Ben Spies and Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.
 
Spies appeared to be on his way to snagging his first ever MotoGP pole after taking over the lead in the final minutes of the session. Although his time did not stand, the rookie can hardly be upset at his performance on the Czech circuit, which placed him second in the field by only three-tenths of a second. The Texan will start Sunday’s race alongside Pedrosa on the front row for the first time.
 
Championship leader Lorenzo managed to capture the final spot on the front row with a time that was 0.357 seconds adrift of Pedrosa’s pace. At the very end of the hour-long session the Yamaha rider crashed-out while pushing hard through Turn 11, though he luckily escaped injury.
 
Continuing to struggle with his Ducati machine, Casey Stoner put in a strong effort to secure fourth-place on the grid despite rear grip issues. Behind the Australian was Valentino Rossi, who was more than half a second away from pole and will start the race from fifth position. Rossi was also the victim of a late-session crash which occurred only moments after Lorenzo went down. The reigning champion was uninjured but extremely upset about losing control of his bike.
 
Beginning from the third row will be Spies’ teammate, Colin Edwards, followed by Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Páginas Amarillas Aspar’s Hector Barbera. Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi rounded out the top-10 times after being nearly a second and a half off the pole pace, and LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet will start Sunday’s contest from 11th on the grid in his return from injury.
 
Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista was absent from Saturday’s qualifying run after crashing in the morning practice. It remains unclear at this time if he will participate in the race.
 
2010 MotoGP Brno Qualifying Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1'56.508
2. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1'56.846
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1'56.865
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1'56.868
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1'57.059
6. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1'57.117
7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1'57.222
8. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1'57.635
9. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 1'57.960
10. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1'57.981
11. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1'58.089
12. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 1'58.169
13. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1'58.182
14. Marco Melandri (Honda) 1'58.430
15. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1'58.522
16. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 1'58.700
Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)

Moto2

Technomag-CIP’s Shoya Tomizawa will start Sunday’s race from pole position after putting in a strong performance in his qualifying run. The Japanese rider set a best lap of 2'03.452 ahead of Fimmco Speed Up’s Andrea Iannone and Gresini Racing’s Toni Elias to clench his second pole of the ’10 season.
 
Only 0.232 seconds behind Tomizawa was Iannone, who will be taking his fifth front-row start of the season after setting the second-fastest lap of 2'03.684. Behind Iannone was championship leader Elias, who was only 0.057 seconds behind Iannone in third. Roberto Rolfo of Italtrans STR and Yuki Takahashi of Tech 3 rounded out the top-five times in fourth and fifth respectively.
 
Further back in seventh was JiR Moto2’s Simone Corsi, who was just under a second away from Tomizawa’s pace and trailing Dominique Aegerter in sixth-place by more than a tenth of a second. Racing Team Germany’s Arne Tode, Mapfre Aspar’s Julian Simon and Marc VDS Racing’s Scott Redding rounded out the top-10 times, with Redding earning his best qualifying position to date in 10th.
 
2010 Moto2 Brno Qualifying Results:
1. Shoya Tomizawa (Suter) 2'03.452
2. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) 2'03.684
3. Toni Elias (Moriwaki) 2'03.741
4. Roberto Rolfo (Suter) 2'03.794
5. Yuki Takahashi (Tech 3) 2'04.145
6. Dominique Aegerter (Suter) 2'04.251
7. Simone Corsi (Motobi) 2'04.383
8. Arne Tode (Suter) 2'04.484
9. Julian Simon (Suter) 2'04.519
10. Scott Redding (Suter) 2'04.528
11. Jules Cluzel (Suter) 2'04.597
12. Fonsi Nieto (Moriwaki) 2'04.602
13. Thomas Luthi (Moriwaki) 2'04.605
14. Alex Baldolini (I.C.P.) 2'04.735
15. Alex Debon (FTR) 2'04.775