Pedrosa takes Misano MotoGP pole

From motogp.com

Dani Pedrosa’s imposing form continued on Saturday at Misano as the Repsol Honda rider took his fourth pole position of the MotoGP season.

A blistering final lap of the hour-long qualifying session saw the Spaniard duck under the 1:34 barrier – the only rider to do so – with a best time of 1:33.948 cementing his place at the top of the timesheet.

“I’m happy to be on pole position because we were strong throughout practice and things have gone according to plan so far this weekend,” said the 24-year-old, for whom this is a fourth pole of 2010. “We are doing a very good job at the moment, improving at every round and now we have the chance to have another good race. I’ve never won two MotoGP races in a row and this is a good challenge for me - I really want to go for it.

“Today went well especially because this was a very tight qualifying session and, as I said yesterday, it was crucial to be on the first row of the grid to have the best chance of getting through the first corners cleanly, because they are very tight. It’s quite a tricky circuit and tomorrow it will be important not to make any mistakes - particularly on the brakes - in order to keep a high pace for the whole race distance. I think it will be very difficult to make a gap, but we’ll wait and see what the strategy is for the race.”

Following him was Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, who with 10 minutes of the session remaining had taken the lead. But the Fiat Yamaha rider eventually ended up 0.308 secs. off Pedrosa after his rival pushed back in front.

Lorenzo maintains his record of having started every race this season from the front line.

Lorenzo was highly satisfied with how his session went on Saturday. Following a difficult opening practice on Friday in which the Spaniard struggled to get comfortable on his M1 he found a far better set-up in the second session on Saturday morning.

"We have improved in every practice here and after the troubles of yesterday I'm happy about this session,” said Lorenzo. “I have a good pace now and I'm feeling confident about a good race.

“Unfortunately we couldn't profit as much as we might have with the softer tyre at the end of the session and our bike isn't the fastest here, but we have good corner speed so I hope we will be able to stay with the leaders."

Completing the front row was Ducati rider Casey Stoner after the Australian capped off an eventful session with the third quickest time. Stoner had taken the lead 20 minutes into the session but crashed immediately after at turn four, remounting his Desmosedici GP10 following some rapid front-end work from his crew. He improved his time to finish up just under half a second off Pedrosa with a best time of 1:34.397.

The 24-year-old did not feel happy with the performance of his Desmosedici GP10 in the opening practice session on Friday, but some modifications on Saturday morning brought about a noticeable improvement for Stoner.

“We definitely found something for the bike today,” he said. “This morning we went back to the old fork and immediately we knocked a second off the lap time and then we worked even better this afternoon.

“We tried something different in bike one, which I didn’t feel comfortable with, but bike two in general felt better and I immediately made a fast lap. When I wanted to try to improve my lap time a little bit I was trying to carry a bit more corner speed and lost the front in a small corner. Anyway, I’m not worried - we just have to improve the front feeling, especially with the number one bike because I had a better feeling with the second one today even though I crashed it.”

Valentino Rossi will head up the second row in his home race after the reigning World Champion set the fourth fastest time of the hour on his Fiat Yamaha M1 machine, while Ben Spies will be the highest satellite rider on the grid after placing his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine in fifth spot.

A commendable effort from the recovering Randy de Puniet saw the LCR Honda rider secure sixth place.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and San Carlo Honda Gresini pair Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri completed the top 10 in the hour.

The only other crash of the session happened just 10 minutes in when rookie Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) fell at turn four, and he eventually qualified in 12th on his Ducati.

MotoGP Qualifying Results
1. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda 1:33.948
2. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha 1:34.256
3. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati 1:34.397
4. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha 1:34.470
5. Ben SPIES (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:34.472
6. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda 1:34.751
7. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:34.782
8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda 1:34.826
9. Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:34.934
10. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:35.018
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki 1:35.096
12. Hector BARBERA (SPA) Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati 1:35.259
13. Hiroshi AOYAMA (JPN) Interwetten Honda 1:35.286
14. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati 1:35.303
15. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Ducati 1:35.438
16. Alvaro BAUTISTA (SPA) Rizla Suzuki 1:35.629
17. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Ducati 1:35.724