Pedrosa fifth for China GP

From Respol Honda

Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden fought hard in a tough qualifying session at Shanghai Saturday afternoon, ending up fifth and tenth quickest for Sunday's MotoGP Chinese Grand Prix.

Pedrosa, who had been just five hundredths of a second off the fastest time during the three free practice sessions, will start from the second row of the grid after recording a time of 1:58.855. The Spaniard was trying as hard as ever, saving one major slide during the early stages of qualifying.

“We improved from the morning to the afternoon session," Pedrosa said. "We were lapping at a good pace on race tires but unfortunately we couldn't improve as much as we usually do with qualifying tires. It seemed like we lacked a bit of grip. I don’t know why, but a lot of riders crashed during this afternoon’s qualifying session.”

There were several fallers, Hayden one of them. The American slid off with 18 minutes to go while on a red-hot qualifying lap that would have put him much closer to the front of the grid. The tumble also lost Hayden some momentum because it took him a crucial five minutes to get back to his pit and collect his number-two machine. He ended the session just a fraction off a third-row start with a 1:59.507.

“Qualifying didn’t go to plan, really," Hayden said. "It was okay in the beginning, we were quite up front on race tiyres. With my first qualifier I went to first place for a second, then with my second qualifier I just had an easy front push in turn 11 and down I went. I had a pretty good lap going but just didn’t get it down.

"It was a pity because things were looking quite good on race tires – this morning I did over race distance and was quite happy. I’ve put myself in a nice hole starting 10th, I haven’t qualified off the front two rows in the dry since Barcelona last year. I’m going to need an awesome start, try to pick a few guys off and move forward.”

Latest race-day weather forecasts predict rain for the Shanghai area.

Qualifying Results
1. COLIN EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha 1:58.139
2. VALENTINO ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.355
3. CASEY STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team + 0.452
4. JORGE LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.572
5. DANI PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 0.716
6. LORIS CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.802
7. JAMES TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 1.115
8. CHRIS VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.186
9. RANDY DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 1.218
10. NICKY HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 1.368
11. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 1.420
12. MARCO MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 1.539
13. SHINYA NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.577
14. JOHN HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.601
15. TONI ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 1.794
16. ALEX DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 2.177
17. SYLVAIN GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 2.621
18. ANTHONY WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 2.699