The Repsol Honda Team, ready for a tough race in Silverstone

2012-06-16 18:36
The Repsol Honda Team will start tomorrow's British Grand Prix from the first and second row of the grid, with Casey Stoner in third position and Dani Pedrosa in fifth.

Once again, the cold temperatures, strong winds and temperamental weather have plagued the MotoGP riders here in Silverstone. This morning track temperatures didn't rise above 16 degrees and then during a very busy qualifying session rain arrived in the final 10 minutes preventing the riders from maximising their final set of soft tyres.

Casey, fastest in FP3, and Dani, more confident than yesterday, managed to make another step forward and both improved their lap times by more than a second in qualifying. Casey's lap time places him third with 2'03.423, just 0.1 tenths off pole position, and Dani finished fifth with 2'03.835, half second off the best time.

CASEY STONER 3rd 2'03.423

"This afternoon was a little disappointing to be honest. We began the session and struggled with the bike, we couldn't really get any edge grip and seemed to make the chatter worse. We were trying to fix some problems we had in the morning but ended up making them worse so we tried various things to improve them. Finally we found something that was working so we decided to scrap the lap and come in and put a new soft rear tyre on but it didn't work for us as we got out there and the rain started to come, just enough to upset the bike a little. I was waiting for the rain to disappear so I could put a lap in, but unfortunately we didn't get an opportunity and missed our chance at pole. For tomorrow I hope the race is one way or another, not a 50/50 race, but we'll deal with whatever we have and I feel confident with both situations".
DANI PEDROSA 5th 2'03.835

"We've managed to improve our lap times quite a lot and our position on the grid a little, although by the end of the practice some drops of rain prevented us to make any time attack with the last set of tyres he had ready. I'm satisfied because we've improved the setup of the bike this afternoon and I think we can still do another step forward in the warm-up tomorrow. We had a better pace in qualifying, but my feeling didn't change much compared to yesterday. We did many laps with the new front tyre, but only short runs, so the performance in the second half of the race is mystery. I keep thinking that the new front tyre is not safer; we've seen many crashed in the front. We have to have a good start tomorrow, but also be able to keep a good pace during the 20 laps. I don't have a lot of experience in this track; I missed the race last year and in 2010 we chose the wrong tyre and we did a bad race, but we will do the maximum tomorrow to get a goo d result".

Qualifying Results
1 Alvaro Bautista 2'03.303 SPA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
2 Ben Spies 2'03.409 USA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing Team
3 Casey Stoner 2'03.423 AUS HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Jorge Lorenzo 2'03.763 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing Team
5 Dani Pedrosa 2'03.835 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
6 Hector Barbera 2'03.876 SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing
7 Nicky Hayden 2'04.162 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Andrea Dovizioso 2'04.304 ITA YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
9 Stefan Bradl 2'05.035 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
10 Valentino Rossi 2'05.416 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
11 Aleix Espargaro 2'06.283 ESP ART Aspar Team MotoGP
12 Randy De Puniet 2'06.303 FRA ART Aspar Team MotoGP
13 Yonny Hernandez 2'06.814 COL BQR-FTR BQR
14 Michelle Pirro 2'07.016 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
15 Colin Edwards 2'07.376 USA SUTER NGM Mobile Forward Racing
16 Mattia Pasini 2'07.511 ITA ART Speed Master
17 James Ellison 2'08.228 GBR ART Paul Bird Racing
18 Danilo Petrucci 2'08.686 ITA IODA Ioda Racing Project
19 Ivan Silva 2'10.092 SPA BQR-FTR BQR
20 Karel Abraham DNS CZE DUCATI Cardion AB Motoracing
21 Cal Crutchlow DNS GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Circuit information
First race 2010 (1977-1986 GP 500cc)
GPs held 12 (x10 GP 500cc)
Laps 20
Race distance 118.040km / 73.346miles
Track length 5.902km / 3.667miles
Track width 17m
Longest straight 0.770 km / 0.478 miles
Corners 18 (10 right, 8 left)
Pole position Left

Silverstone Circuit
Towcester
Northamptonshire
NN12 8TN

Tel: 0844 3728 200
Fax: 0844 3728 250

Website: www.silverstone.co.uk


Circuit records
Pole position 2m02.020s (174.128Km/h) Casey Stoner, Honda, 2011
Race lap 2m03.526s (172.005Km/h) Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha, 2010
Race time 41m34.083s (170.380Km/h) Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha, 2010
2011 Winner Casey Stoner (Honda)

Source: Repsol Honda Team

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