Pedrosa smashes lap record with stunning pole and Marquez on second row2013-06-16 20:36Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa has broken the lap record and was over half a second faster than his rivals as he stormed into pole position for tomorrow's GP of Catalunya. He clocked a lap of 1'40.893 on his 5th lap of 8, breaking the previous record of 1'41.186, recorded by Casey Stoner in 2008 when qualifying tyres were still in use, by 0.293s. This is Dani's second and successive pole position of the season and it comes on the weekend of his 200th GP start. He becomes only the 19th rider to reach this milestone in the 65-year history of grand prix racing. After being quickest in this morning's FP3 session, Dani's teammate Marc Marquez narrowly missed out on the front row by just 0.276s and will start tomorrow's 25 lap race from 6th position on the grid. Tyre choice will be crucial tomorrow as temperatures continue to rise. It is expected that the front tyre option will be the hard compound but the rear tyre is still not decided. The soft compound will lose grip quickly on the hot asphalt so riders may choose the hard compound for the first time this season. Dani Pedrosa 1st 1'40.893 “I am very happy, because we put in a great lap and took a great qualifying time. It was a fantastic pole position for me. We also broke the circuit record and were able to do so in front of the home fans. I am also happy about improving our race pace, as this is the most important thing. We hope to put on a good show tomorrow and take full advantage of the front row start" Marc Marquez 6th 1'41.842 "I am fairly happy and satisfied, because we achieved our objective of getting onto either the first or second row. In the morning I felt more comfortable, with the track temperatures lower than in the afternoon. When they rose sharply, we had more problems. Despite this, I think that we have done a good job. We will try to test out a few things in the warmup tomorrow and see if we can gain a little more confidence when the track is hotter" Qualifying Results 1 Dani Pedrosa 1'40.893 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 2 Cal Crutchlow 1'41.501 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 3 Jorge Lorenzo 1'41.566 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing 4 Alvaro Bautista 1'41.714 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini 5 Nicky Hayden 1'41.800 USA DUCATI Ducati Team 6 Marc Marquez 1'41.842 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 7 Valentino Rossi 1'41.959 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing 8 Andrea Iannone 1'41.963 ITA DUCATI Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team 9 Andrea Dovizioso 1'42.053 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team 10 Stefan Bradl 1'42.090 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP 11 Bradley Smith 1'42.548 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 12 Aleix Espargaro 1'42.878 SPA ART Power Electronics Aspar 13 Randy De Puniet 1'43.186 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar 14 Michele Pirro 1'43.330 ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team 15 Hector Barbera 1'43.659 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens 16 Colin Edwards 1'43.983 USA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 17 Karel Abraham 1'44.362 CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing 18 Danilo Petrucci 1'44.369 ITA IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project 19 Claudio Corti 1'44.603 ITA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 20 Michael Laverty 1'44.630 GBR PBM Paul Bird Motorsport 21 Yonny Hernandez 1'44.913 COL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport 22 Bryan Staring 1'45.441 AUS FTR Go & Fun Honda Gresini 23 Lukas Pesek 1'46.302 CZE IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project 24 Javier Del Amor 1'48.952 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens Circuit information First race 1992 GPs held 21 Laps 25 Race distance 118.175km / 73.425miles Track length 4.727km / 2.937miles Track width 12m Longest straight 1.047km / 0.651miles Corners 13 (8 right, 5 left) Pole position Left Circuits de Catalunya S.L. Mas "La Moreneta" P.O. Box 27 08160 Montmeló Barcelona Spain http://www.circuitcat.com/ Circuit records Pole position 1m40.893s (168.177Km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2013) Race lap 1m42.358s (166.251Km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2008) Race time 43m02.175s (164.756km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2008) 2012 Winner Jorge Lornezo (Yamaha) Source: Repsol Honda Team Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
Headlines
|