| QUALIFYING 1 REPORT | 10/04/2010 | | Rossi and Lorenzo on front row for Qatar season opener | | |  | The first MotoGP qualifying session of 2010 saw Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo in strong form, taking the second and third spots on the grid behind Casey Stoner to set up an exact rematch of last year's Qatar race.
World Champion Rossi had struggled a little yesterday but was much happier on his bike today after some set-up changes this morning, finding better rear grip and an improved race pace as a result. Mid-way through the session he moved into the lead for a short while before Stoner bettered his time and edged him back into second. With the hour gone the Italian was up on the clock on his final flying lap but he dropped a few tenths when passing two riders on the fourth sector and had to settle for second, 0.355 off Stoner's time.
After his confidence-inspiring opening day yesterday, Lorenzo took a small step back this evening and found he had less feeling in the rear than previously. He was nonetheless able to put up a spirited fight for grid positions and was happy to qualify third, considering his recently broken hand and lack of testing. The 23-year-old admits that he still has some pain when braking but is more concerned in tweaking his set-up tonight to put him in the best possible shape for tomorrow night's race, which starts at 2300 local time (2200 CET).
Valentino Rossi - Position: 2ndTime: 1'55.362Laps: 25
"I'm really happy about the work we've done today on our set up and now we have a good race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres. With the soft one the rear is still sliding a little bit too much, but I think for the race we are okay. My final flying lap was very fast but then I had to pass a couple of riders in the final sector and I lost some time, but anyway we have a good grid position so I am happy. A strong start is going to be very important and we will have to push hard on the first lap to try to stay close to Stoner, who is always very strong here. Honestly I think it will be tough to beat him but we will try our best!" |
|  | Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 3rdTime: 1'55.520Laps: 24
"Considering my situation I am really happy about my grid position and I think we can be proud of our work. Unfortunately today though we have lost some feeling on the rear and it was difficult to go as fast as yesterday. My hand isn't perfect and I still have some pain in braking but I am less worried about that than about the bike. We will use the warm-up to try to make some improvements and then I will just do my best in the race and try for the podium."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"We've done an okay job in this practice! We made some adjustments to the bike and it's a lot better than yesterday so Valentino's pace is much stronger now. The starting position is good and tomorrow we'll just try from the start to stay with Stoner and see how the race develops. It will be interesting!"
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager
"We're happy to be on the front row after Jorge's injury, it's a great achievement by him to be so close to Rossi and Stoner at this stage. We're not 100% happy with the bike set-up and we can still improve it for the race, even though it's going to be a tough challenge to match the leaders. Anyway we will make the most of the remaining time and try to be there."
Edwards and Spies eye top six in 2010 opener
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo Colin Edwards and Ben Spies are confident they can mount a dual challenge for the top six in the opening MotoGP race of 2010 at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar tomorrow night.
Edwards will kick off his eighth MotoGP campaign from the third row of the grid after a closely fought opening qualifying session of the season in Doha this evening.
In warm but windy conditions under the spectacular Losail International Circuit floodlights, Edwards declared himself delighted with set-up tweaks on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine that drastically improved turning performance.
The changes boos ted Edwards' confidence that he can emulate his fourth position in the 2009 Qatar MotoGP race having lapped at a consistent pace on Bridgestone's hard rear race tyre.
Edwards also impressed on soft tyres and surged into the top three in the final 20 minutes. But in a typically frantic final few minutes, Edwards dropped down to eighth despite setting his best time on his last lap. The 36-year-old though was only 0.174s from Randy de Puniet in fourth place.
Fellow American Spies will make his eagerly anticipated Monster Yamaha Tech 3 debut from 11th on the grid after the reigning World Superbike champion finished with a best time of 1.56.271. That was less than 0.5s away from fourth and the Texan is confident he can fight for a top six having set his best time of the session on hard compound tyres.
Tomorrow's race is scheduled to run over 22-laps and is the first in the 18-round world championship that concludes in Valencia on November 7. |
| Colin Edward - Position: 8thTime: 1'56.005Laps: 22
"I made the bike a hundred times better than yesterday. I was really worried after last night that I was going to struggle but I pretty much went back to last year's set-up and I'm happy with it. The bike just turned a lot better tonight and I had a lot more feeling from the front tyre on the brakes. Yesterday I was so lost it felt like I was riding somebody else's bike. I'm confident for the race because I did some good laps on the hard tyre. I'm a bit more consistent than those in front of me on race tyres, so I don't think I'm out of the hunt for fourth place tomorrow at all. At the end of the day I was really close to being fourth on the grid. I had a couple of little issues on the soft tyre but Bridgestone have still done a great job and I'm looking forward to the race because of the consistency I've got on the hard race tyres. As always I'll be giving it my all for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team." |
| Ben Spies - Position: 11thTime: 1'56.271Laps: 22
"It wasn't a good session really and I never got to use the advantage of the soft tyre. I didn't get it done and I never really put in a clean lap. But I am happy with the lap time we put in on race tyres. The positive is I did my fastest time on race tyres that had a lot of laps on them. The top four guys are obviously a little bit quicker on hard tyres. But the majority of the people that were quicker than me were on soft tyres, so we've just got to try to get a good start. I think the race pace I've got is still good, but I'm going to have a hard time passing people down this long straight. I'm right behind Colin on the grid and hopefully jump in behind him and go." |
| | 2010 MotoGP Qatar - Doha/Losail 10/04/2010 | | Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time | | 1 | Casey Stoner | Ducati | AUS | 1'55.007 | | 2 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | ITA | 1'55.362 | | 3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | ESP | 1'55.520 | | 4 | Randy De Puniet | Honda | FRA | 1'55.831 | | 5 | Loris Capirossi | Suzuki | ITA | 1'55.899 | | 6 | Andrea Dovizioso | Honda | ITA | 1'55.963 | | 7 | Daniel Pedrosa | Honda | ESP | 1'55.990 | | 8 | Colin Edwards | Yamaha | USA | 1'56.005 | | 9 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | USA | 1'56.163 | | 10 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | JPN | 1'56.227 | | 11 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 1'56.271 | | 12 | Mika Kallio | Ducati | FIN | 1'56.283 | | 13 | Alvaro Bautista | Suzuki | ESP | 1'56.450 | | 14 | Aleix Espargaro | Ducati | ESP | 1'56.652 | | 15 | Marco Simoncelli | Honda | ITA | 1'56.957 |
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