Final Qualifying Czech Grand Prix, Brno, Czech Republic

2007-08-18 16:09
The much-awaited hour of MotoGP qualifying at the first Grand Prix after the summer break proved to be business as usual for Casey Stoner (Ducati) who took his third consecutive pole position. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) joins him on the front row as second fastest qualifier and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) as third quickest.

In bright, dry conditions, with the track
temperature at 35 degrees, riders filtered out
onto the imposing 5.043km of Brno tarmac. Chris
Vermeulen (Suzuki) made the early running before
a fired-up Hayden dislodged him from the top of
the timesheets, putting in a 1m 58.848s lap to
show his desire to get up to the sharp end of the grid and stay there.

Loris Capirossi (Ducati) then notched up a 1m
58.074s lap to take the early provisional pole
slot from Nicky and establish himself as one of
the contenders for at least a front row start. At
the halfway point of the session, the order was
Capirossi, Stoner, John Hopkins (Suzuki) and then Nicky and Dani.

Dani then got into the groove to move up to
third, relegating Nicky to fifth as the duo
worked on finding the best set-up with a raft of
new HRC parts and settings developed by the
factory before and during the month-long lay-off before this Grand Prix.

The surprise of the session was Yamaha rider
Sylvain Guintoli who was fastest yesterday and
proved to be a quick man today too when he moved
up to second fastest with just over 20 minutes to
go. But Vermeulen laid a claim on second just
minutes later until Guintoli responded by
snatching pole with a swift 1m 58.044s lap.

Suzuki man Hopkins then grabbed the top slot with
a 1m 57.857s lap before Stoner deprived the
American of his brief tenure at the front with a
1m 57.066s lap. The pace was getting hotter and
both Dani and Nicky were ready to respond.

Stoner's time was already 0.875 seconds better
than Rossi's pole time of 2006 and as Nicky moved
up to second with 15 minutes left to run,
qualifying rubber was ready to be fitted and
riders prepared to make the most of these super-sticky tyres.

Capirossi showed his hand by climbing to third
place with ten minutes to go and the gritty Toni
Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V), riding while only
60% recovered from the broken leg he suffered at
Assen in June, moved up to eighth.

With Dani lying second and Nicky fourth, both
Repsol riders were poised to make the most of
this strong position and as Stoner romped to a 1m
56.884s time, the first rider to dip into the
fifty-sixes, Nicky showed he was right in the
hunt for pole with a 1m 57.164s effort which
consolidated second for the reigning World Champion.

With two minutes left on the clock Dani took
third with a 1m 57.1798s time. Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) struggled to fifth on the grid, while
Hopkins fell in the final minute making efforts to get on terms at the front.

Two Honda men then had a hold on the front row,
but there would be no other Honda riders in the
top ten. Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda
RC212V) managed 11th, Carlos Checa (LCR Honda
RC212V) 12th, the tough Elias 14th and Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) 17th.

Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) sat out
this session and will not ride in tomorrow's
22-lap race after suffering a herniated disc in
his back. The Italian will rest and prepare for
the Misano, Italy event in early September.

Nicky Hayden, just 0.280 seconds shy of pole,
said: "This weekend, even though we haven't put
in the one quick lap in every session, we've been
reasonably close to the pace and perhaps a bit
better than it looked on paper. I quite enjoyed
my qualifying laps. My first run went pretty well
and on my second one I hung it out a little bit
further and was able to go a couple of tenths
faster - it was fun. For the afternoon session we
changed the bike geometry around which seemed to
help us. We'll see what happens in the race
tomorrow, but nonetheless that's my first front
row of the season so I'll try to get a good start
and turn it into a good result."

Dani Pedrosa said: "In qualifying we improved our
position quite a lot and the Michelin qualifying
tyres worked very well. I'm happy to be on the
front row of course and this gives us a good
chance to get away at the front in the race. We
still need to make the final decisions on which
race tyres to choose, based on what we learned
today. A good start is going to be essential
tomorrow and I hope that we can find a package
that will let us fight with the front group and
challenge for the win. It's going to be a tough
race and I'm looking forward to it."

Nakano, in 11th, just over a second off the pole
time, said: "We've gone much better than
yesterday. To be honest we expected a difficult
session or two with the new parts as it obviously
takes time to find the perfect set-up. Today was
an improvement as we've found a much better
balance between the front and rear of the bike,
so I'm feeling more comfortable. The improvement
from the engine is very noticeable: it's provides
smoother acceleration and better engine braking.
Overall, this makes the bike much easier to ride.
The only problem we have now is a little
chattering still from the front-end of the bike."

Checa, 12th fastest, said: "The warmer weather
today helped the tyre performance and a hotter
race day will even be better. On race tyres I was
running times in the top seven, but I couldn't
improve on the final qualifying tyre. There was
some traffic plus I didn't have enough mid-corner
speed today. We tried many adjustments and made
some small gains, but the set-up is still not
perfect. The top speed and engine response is
much better but we still need to find some
solutions. I think we have a good tyre choice for
the race and a strong top ten finish should be achievable."

Elias, in 14th, said: "I am quite satisfied with
my qualifying but I hope for a better result in
the race. Today I had much more pain in my
injured leg because of the stress I put on the
leg yesterday. I know it will be a very difficult
race and I have only put in four laps in a row in
practice and qualifying and the race tomorrow is
22 laps! I worked very hard on my condition in
the month before Brno but I know I cannot expect too much from the race."


Roberts, who qualified 17th fastest, said: "We've
been on the new chassis since Laguna, but doesn't
make up for the lack of horsepower. That's been
an issue all year. We can only do so much with
what we have, and we're doing it. I prefer the
feel of the new chassis. It holds a corner line a
little better. We still need more, but it's an improvement."

A philosophical, but understandably disappointed,
Melandri said: "I'm very sorry to give up on this
race. I really wanted to try qualifying but the
pain was too much. The movement on my helmet
while braking put pressure on the compressed
nerve and sent too much pain down my left arm.
Riding like that would be dangerous for myself -
and the others. Now I'll get ready for Misano."

Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) took pole in the 250cc
class with fellow Aprilia rider Alex Debon second
on the grid, Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda
RS250RW) qualified third fastest with Alex de
Angelis (Aprilia) completing the front row in fourth.

Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda RS250RW) will start
from sixth on the grid and Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW) and
Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) will join
the Japanese man on row two as seventh and eighth
fastest qualifiers. Takahashi is 1.2 seconds off the pole time though.

Dovizioso said: "I'm very satisfied about the lap
time I made today on race tyres, we have been
very fast considering that this isn't our
favourite track. So for that reason this result
make me confident. I'm happy about the team's
work and the improvements made session after
session, there is still some work to do in order
to find increased the grip but for the rest I
think we are quite ok. Tomorrow it will be a
long, difficult and tiring race. For me, for the
team and for the final standing I have to win and I'll try until the end."

Takahashi said: "I'm very happy to start from the
second row, it was my aim and I reached it.
Tomorrow it is very important to start well. In
the second part of the Championship and to gain
points as many points as possible for the general
standing. The bike is quite good, there still
some work to do on suspension in order to improve
the bike and find a little better set-up. I'm
confident, physically I have recovered a lot in
this summer break and I want to demonstrate that tomorrow."

Simon said: "I think we could have gone a little
faster but it was not to be. Improve a few things
and we can go faster. I'm pleased though because
I did my best and looking forward to tomorrow
we'll try a few new things in warm-up so I feel
comfortable on the bike. Then I can tackle the race in a strong frame of mind."

Aoyama said: "I had some problems in the
afternoon with the rear-end settings, right up to
the end of the session - both tyre and suspension
- but we made some changes and things went
better. I don't know what type of race it will be
tomorrow but I'm sure it won't be easy as the
times set were all pretty similar."

Hungarian hotshot Gabor Talmacsi took pole in the
125cc class with Hector Faubel second fastest man
with Mattia Pasini (all Aprilia) third on the
grid and Lukas Pesek (Derbi) completing the front row.

Local man Pesek headed the timesheet early in the
session with a 2m 08.201s time from yesterday's
session with Faubel in touch with a 2m 08.413s
best. Then Pesek fell with 16 minutes left and
Talmacsi posted a 2m 07.434s lap time to snatch pole.

Faubel then went faster until Talmacsi recorded a
2m 06.861s lap to make the number one grid slot
his own with two minutes of the half-hour session
left. Britain's Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda
RS125R) qualified 13th and Alex Masbou (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) from 15th.

Smith said: "I only found a fast lap time over
the last four laps of final qualifying. No matter
what I tried yesterday I could not get the bike
to turn, even changing lines and braking points,
I could do nothing to improve that. The bad
weather overnight left the track in a different
condition and I could not run as fast. At the
places I normally run fast and have good braking
points I was slower than expected. We changed the
front forks and raised the rear-end a bit and
that helped me. I can't do anymore, I'm riding hard."

His team-mate Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda RS125R)
qualified 18th and said: "This morning everything
was feeling OK but in the qualifying session I
had a few problems with front-end chatter and I
couldn't get the bike to turn fast enough. I only
improved my time by a tenth of a second from
morning practice. The engine is OK but I can't
make use of anyone's slipstream. We have the
warm-up to check the improvements to the
front-end and I'm sure the team will find a solution."



Honda rider quotes GP CZ Brno from qualifying.

MotoGP.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 2nd. "This weekend,
even though we haven't put in the one quick lap
in every session, we've quietly been reasonably
close to the pace and perhaps a bit better than
it looked on paper. This afternoon the warmer
temperature helped us, the tyres worked better
and straight away we were able to get down into
those 1m 58s laps where we need to be. I quite
enjoyed my qualifying laps. My first run went
pretty well and on my second one I hung it out a
little bit further and was able to go a couple of
tenths faster - it was fun. For the afternoon
session we changed the bike geometry around which
seemed to help us. We'll see what happens in the
race tomorrow, but nonetheless that's my first
front row of the season so I'll try to get a good
start and turn it into a good result."

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd. "In qualifying
we improved our position quite a lot and the
Michelin qualifying tyres worked very well. I'm
happy to be on the front row of course and this
gives us a good chance to get away at the front
in the race. The warmer conditions also helped
our performance as expected this afternoon,
though we must continue to work on our race
settings tonight and tomorrow morning. We still
need to make the final decisions on which race
tyres to choose, based on what we learned today.
A good start is going to be essential tomorrow
and I hope that we can find a package that will
let us fight with the front group and challenge
for the win. It's going to be a tough race and I'm looking forward to it."

Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 12th. "The warmer
weather today helped the tyre performance and a
hotter race day will even be better. On race
tyres I was running times in the top seven, but I
couldn't improve on the final qualifying tyre,
there was some traffic plus I didn't have a
enough mid-corner speed today. We tried many
adjustments and made some small gains, but the
set-up is still not perfect. The top speed and
engine response is much better but we still need
to find some solutions. I think we have a good
tyre choice for the race and a strong top ten finish should be achievable."

Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda:
11th. "We've gone much better than yesterday. To
be honest we expected a difficult session or two
with the new parts as it obviously takes time to
find the perfect set-up. Today was an improvement
as we've found a much better balance between the
front and rear of the bike, so I'm feeling more
comfortable. The improvement from the engine is
very noticeable: it's provides smoother
acceleration and better engine braking. Overall,
this makes the bike much easier to ride. The only
problem we have now is a little chattering still
from the front-end of the bike. This chattering
effectively limits the corner entry and
mid-corner speed, while the improved motor makes
things easier for us than before on the corner
exit. This chatter means I cannot push as I would
like in the corner, but we have some options to
try and a different tyre to look at tomorrow. We
are hoping that tomorrow's weather conditions and
track temperatures should be similar to today, which would be better for us."

Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 14th."I am quite
satisfied with my qualifying but I hope for a
better result in the race. Today I had much more
pain in my injured leg because of the stress I
put on the leg yesterday. I know it will be a
very difficult race and I have only put in four
laps in a row in practice and qualifying and the
race tomorrow is 22 laps! I worked very hard on
my condition in the month before Brno but I know
I cannot expect too much from the race."

Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 17th. "We've been on the
new chassis since Laguna, but doesn't make up for
the lack of horsepower. That's been an issue all
year. We can only do so much with what we have,
and we're doing it. I prefer the feel of the new
chassis. It holds a corner line a little better.
We still need more, but it's an improvement. One
problem is Michelin brought us three or four bike
turn. There's so much now: how the motor's
working, the tyres, the construction all affect
the way the bike turns. And ours is different
every week. It's hard to get a base line and get
consistent, when we keep having these surprises thrown at us."

Chuck Aksland - Team Manager Team Roberts. He was
having a good qualifying run when he got behind
Anthony West. I think he expected Anthony would
pull him along a bit, but in hindsight it
probably held him up. That's part of what he's
referring to ... if he'd had a bit of horsepower
to get around Anthony he'd have a better time.
Still, we've improved things for the tyres we
have here. It's a big part of the game. We
started with a lot of different compounds and a
lot of different rear-tyre constructions. Some
are working better than others. That seems the
biggest area we could improve things, apart from
horsepower. It seems every racetrack we go to
there's something different and we start from
zero again. But he's closing the gap, he's closer
to other satellite Hondas, and he's doing a good
job. All the signs point to the new chassis being
better. On Monday we should have plenty of time
to confirm we are going the right way. Hopefully
we'll be able to work through a range of tyres
too, to give us a baseline in that area.

Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: "I'm very sorry to
give up on this race. I really wanted to try
qualifying but the pain was too much. The
movement on my helmet while braking put pressure
on the compressed nerve and sent too much pain
down my left arm. Riding like that would be
dangerous for myself - and the others. Now I'll get ready for Misano."



250cc:

Andrea Dovizioso, Kopron Scot Honda: 3rd."I'm
very satisfied about the lap time I made today on
race tyres, we have been very fast considering
that this isn't our favourite track. So for that
reason this result make me confident. I'm happy
about the team's work and the improvements made
session after session, there is still some work
to do in order to find increased the grip but for
the rest I think we are quite ok. Tomorrow it
will be a long, difficult and tiring race. For
me, for the team and for the final standing I
have to win and I'll try until the end."

Yukio Takahashi, Kopron Scot Honda: 6th."I'm very
happy to start from the second row, it was my aim
and I reached it. Tomorrow it is very important
to start well. In the second part of the
Championship and to gain points as many points as
possible for the general standing. The bike is
quite good, there still some work to do on
suspension in order to improve the bike and find
a little better set-up. I'm confident, physically
I have recovered a lot in this summer break and I
want to demonstrate that tomorrow."

Julian Simon, Repsol Honda: 7th "These were
tough training sessions where the riders
were very fast. Those at the front beat the
record for the circuit. Both the mechanics and I
did all we could. I think that we could have gone
a little faster but it was not to be. Improving a
few things we can go faster. I am pleased
because I did my best and looking forward to
tomorrow we will try a few new things in the
warm-up so that I feel comfortable on the bike
and can tackle the race in a better frame of
mind. I am very motivated, the holidays have been
good for me and tomorrow I am dying to get among
the leaders and fight for a podium finish."

Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 8th."This morning
the result was not so good, but the sensations on
the bike were better. Perhaps I could have gone a
little faster seeing the times I set. I had some
problems in the afternoon, right to the end of
the session, with the rear end settings - both
the tyre and the suspension - but we made some
changes and things went better. I do not know
what type of race it will be tomorrow but I am
sure it will not be easy as the times set were all very similar."

Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT-SAG:
19th."I'm satisfied with today's result and the
work we did to improve the bike set-up. This
morning, there wasn't much grip out there and I
was kind of short on mileage as yesterday the
rain prevented us to do everything we had
planned. Despite all of this, I finished the
session just 3.5s off the pole position time, in
a relatively good position. Tomorrow I hope I can
do a good start and join the battle for points as soon as possible."

Eugene Laverty, LCR Honda: 25th."I know I can go
much faster than this and hopefully we can find a
front set-up to handle the bumps here, that is my
big problem. I've learnt the track no problem,
but as soon as I try to go faster I struggle with the bumps."


125cc.

Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: 13th."I only found a
fast lap time over the last four laps of final
qualifying. No matter what I tried yesterday I
could not get the bike to turn, changing lines
braking points, I could do nothing to improve.
The overnight bad weather left the track
different condition and I could not run as fast.
At the places I normally run fast and have good
braking points I was slower than I expected. We
changed the front forks and raised the rear end a
bit and that helped me. I cant do anymore, I'm riding hard."

Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda: 18th."This morning
everything was feeling OK but in the qualifying
session I ad a few problems with front end
chatter and I couldn't get the bike to turn fast
enough. I only improved my time by a tenth of a
second from morning practice. The engine is OK
but I cannot make use of the slipstream. We have
the warm up to check the improvements to the
front end and I'm sure the team will find a solution."

Mike Di Meglio, Kopron Scot Honda: 19th."This
afternoon I went fast at the beginning of the
session and in fact I lowered my lap time
quickly. Sure we have improved but not enough, it
won't be easy starting from 19th place tomorrow.
We had a small carburation problem but that's OK
now. The engine is good enough to pass other
riders from the slipstream. I normally don't like
the track, it's very bumpy but this weekend I
feel I can make a good result here. All I need is
a good start and get with the fast group."

Alexis Masbou, FFM Honda:15th. "The summer break
was very positive. I had time to relax and
feel much more confident and detached for this
Grand Prix. We worked on the Honda¹s chassis and
if that bothered me during the first sessions it
worked out as an advantage in the end. In fact I
realised that I was using the full potential of
this new set-up, because even if the bike felt
easier to flick between the corners, I still
found it wouldn¹t turn as I would have liked. In
the last session I thought things over in my
mind, we worked on the front end again and
eventually it all worked out. In the warm-up
tomorrow morning I will concentrate on riding
several laps at the same pace as my qualifying
time. I hope to obtain a good race result on this
racetrack, which I really appreciate and which
puts the accent on corner entries, which is my good point!"

Mike Di Meglio, Kopron Scot Honda: 19th. "My
qualifying was so - so much as the weekend. I
don't really know why I'm not faster, maybe I'm
thinking I don't want to crash again even though
my injuries have healed. We had a small
carburation problem but that's OK now. The engine
is good enough to pass other riders from the
slipstream. I normally don't like the track, it's
very bumpy but this weekend I feel I can make a
good result here. All I need is a good start and get with the fast group."

Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: 28th."I started the
morning free practice only looking to find the
best possible set up for the race. I found a good
setting very quickly and was aiming to run low 2m
11s times but I was into 2m 10s. So after that I
came in changed tyres made a few carburation
adjustments. I only beat my best time by one
tenth of a second but made a mistake at T3, which
is normally my fastest section so I am very
confident I can run faster times tomorrow. The
bike is good, engine chassis and tyres. I need
one of my fast starts because it's a long way to the first corner."

Danny Webb, Molenaar Honda: 30th. "I am so
frustrated with today, free practice and
qualifying. In the morning I had an electrical
problem that caused the engine revs to drop off
for a few seconds then fire up again. The team
changed some things on the bike for the
qualifying session but the bike stopped at turn
one on the first lap out. We got the bike back to
the box quickly and changed the entire ignition
system and the kill switch. But all that cost me
time and I only got in four flying laps. The time
is better than yesterday and now the problems are
fixed I am confident thebike will be good for the warm up and race."

Dino Lombardi, Kopron Scot Honda: 34th. "The
problems I had yesterday still persist. This
morning I improved my time by about two tenths of
a second and I thought to improve today but on
the contrary I wasn't able to. I hope only to
have a good start tomorrow and don't lose the
contact with the group in order to try a recover."

Source: Honda Pro Image

Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story