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2010 MotoGP Championship - Round One - Qatar |
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2010 MotoGP Championship - Round One - Qatar |
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2010 MotoGP Championship - Round One - Qatar - Day Two Casey Stoner gave himself the best possible chance of taking his fourth successive MotoGP victory in Qatar tomorrow, by qualifying his Ducati Marlboro Desmosedici on pole position. The Australian rider has topped every practice and qualifying session this weekend, holding off a late charge from reigning World Champion, Valentino Rossi, during qualifying to claim prime position on the grid for tomorrow's 22-lap Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. "We're only at the start of a very long season, but this is a perfect start and I'm really pleased," declared Stoner. "I'm sure I was on for a faster lap, but then my gear shifter got stuck at turn two. To have set a virtually identical time on both the hard and soft tyres is obviously encouraging for the race, but the only objective here is to take some solid points to Japan." Rossi, who topped the timesheet briefly during qualifying this evening, looked set to topple Stoner from the top spot with a late charge, but the Fiat Yamaha rider lost time in the final corner and was forced to settle for second place on the grid, 0.355s adrift of Stoner and his Ducati. Jorge Lorenzo secured the final spot on the front row of the grid with his final lap of the hour-long session, declaring himself fighting fit after his pre-season injury, but concerned about a lack of rear traction that had caused him issues during the qualifying session. Randy de Puniet was the fastest Honda mounted qualifier this evening, finishing fifth fastest to head up the second row of the grid, where he will be joined by Loris Capirossi, who will celebrate his 300th Grand Prix start tomorrow, and fellow Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso. Colin Edwards got the better of fellow countryman, Nicky Hayden, to take eighth place, with the first of the MotoGP rookies, reigning 250cc World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama, joining the two Americans on the third row of the grid in ninth. Another MotoGP rookie, Ben Spies, rounded out the top ten for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team. |
| MotoGP FP1 |
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Yamaha Report 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." -- Ducati Report The Desmosedici GP10 machine of Ducati Marlboro rider Casey Stoner will start the 2010 MotoGP World Championship from the front of the grid tomorrow night following a sensational qualifying performance from the Australian at the Grand Prix of Qatar. The brilliance of Stoner’s performance was not necessarily in his decisive lap - a 1’55.007 – but in the fact that he set a virtually identical time of 1’55.024 on race rubber with 16 laps already on the tyre. A minor gear shifter problem on a second softer tyre in the closing stages meant that he was unable to raise the bar as his rivals launched their usual late challenge for supremacy but it proved unnecessary as the gap behind him only closed to 0.355 seconds. After lapping fifth fastest yesterday Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden was disappointed to qualify ninth, although the American showed good pace in each sector of the track and remains optimistic of a strong challenge when the first race of the season gets underway at 11pm local time (GMT+3) tomorrow. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st (1’55.007) "It is only the start of a very long season but it is the perfect start and I’m really pleased. This bike needs a little bit more time to set up because of the characteristics of the new engine so we’ll see how we go at other tracks but it definitely likes this circuit and the team have done a great job. Unfortunately my gear shifter got stuck coming out of turn two on what I’m sure would have been a faster. To have set a virtually identical time on the hard tyre is obviously encouraging for the race but the only objective here is to start the season on the right foot and take some solid points to Japan.” NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 9th (1’56.163) “We made some changes to the front that have definitely helped me out in the fast corners today but we struggled to put everything together for a whole lap. I did a couple of 1’56.1s but as hard as we tried we couldn’t quite drop into the 55s, even though looking at my ideal lap the potential is definitely there. Tomorrow we need to unlock that potential although starting from ninth place, out on the dirt, is not a good place to be – one of the worst, actually. We set our best time on a soft tyre so at least that means we’re making progress in that area, which was a target. We still need to improve more tomorrow though.” -- Repsol Honda Repsol Honda riders Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa are focused on podium finishes in tomorrow’s race after securing sixth and seventh positions with just 0.027s separating them in this evening’s first qualifying session of 2010 in Qatar. Dovizioso and his Honda RC212V have been near the top of the timesheets for the whole weekend and the Italian is confident his race pace should allow him to battle for a finish in the top three. In the earlier free practice period he recorded the fourth fastest time to replicate his position from yesterday’s sole practice session, and this afternoon he broke the 1m 56s barrier for the first time, stopping the clock at 1m 55.963s - which was good enough for the final place on the second row of the grid. Ever the realist, Dovizioso realises that fighting for victory will be a tall order under the Losail floodlights, and the final podium spot is his realistic aim. The 24-year-old will be looking to make final adjustments to machine settings in the warm-up and to get away with the leaders in the race. Pedrosa has been making steady progress in every session this weekend, methodically working his way towards his accustomed place near the sharp end of the grid. This continued today, with the Spaniard immediately up to speed in both sessions. For the first 15 minutes of qualifying Pedrosa led the way after quickly setting an impressive lap of 1m 56.225s - easily his fastest of the weekend at that stage. He was then able to bring that down to 1m 55.990s - just 0.027s behind his team-mate - which means Pedrosa will start tomorrow’s race from the front of the third row. It’s not as far forward as he would have chosen, but if he can begin the 2010 season with the type of lightning start he made his trademark last year, few would bet against Pedrosa being in the mix into the first corner. A 20-minute warm-up at 19:00 on Sunday is followed by Round O ne of the 2010 MotoGP season, starting at 23:00 local time (GMT +3 hours). ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 6th – 1m 55.963s “Tomorrow we will start from the second row on the grid, and this is positive because on this track it’s not easy to recover positions - it’s very important to start well. We had a good qualifying session after having some issues during the first free practice today and our pace is not too bad. I could have gone a little quicker in qualifying, but overall I’m reasonably satisfied. There are two or three riders with similar pace so tomorrow our target is to fight for the podium. Casey and Valentino have an incredible pace, but I’m confident I can compete for third position - provided I make a good start. Now we will analyze the data from today and think about some machine adjustments that we will test in the warm-up. Specifically, I was losing a lot of time in T3 and I also need to improve my starts so that’s where we’ll be focusing. All in all I&rsqu o;m optimistic about tomorrow and I’m looking forward to this race.” DANI PEDROSA – 7th – 1m 55.990s “We improved the set-up again today - a little bit in the morning and then a bigger step in the afternoon - and the lap time is coming down which means our position is better than where we have been recently. In the warm-up we will try to optimse the set-up a little more to help us with the race distance and then it’s down to the race where I’ll be looking for a good start of course. In qualifying I felt more comfortable on the hard option Bridgestone tyre which is why I was pushing hard at the start of the session. I wasn’t able to improve with the soft tyre so it looks like we’ll be going with the hard tyre for the race. It was actually a shame this evening because on my last lap I made a mistake and lost some time, and if I hadn’t done that I could have been 4th on the grid. Stoner and Rossi look very strong for the race, but there should be a big group fighting for the final place on the podium and I hope to be in amongst it.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI - REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Both Repsol Honda riders did a good job today and they have made significant improvements to the set-up of their machines, which should allow us to have a competitive race tomorrow. The practice and qualifying sessions today have yielded a lot of data to analyse and Andrea and Dani will use tomorrow’s warm-up to make final adjustments to the settings ahead of the race. Their times are very close and we could be in for a very exciting first race of the season. Some of our rivals look very strong here, so the whole Repsol Honda Team will be giving it everything to run them close tomorrow.” -- Suzuki Report Rizla Suzukis Loris Capirossi will start his 300th Grand Prix from the middle of the second row following an impressive qualifying session in Qatar this evening. Capirossi (P5, 155.899, 23 laps) recorded his best time on his final lap of the 5,380m Losail International Circuit, to push himself right into contention for tomorrows 22-lap race. Following last nights heavy crash, Capirossi and his crew made several changes to the Suzuki GSV-R which resulted in significant improvements in handling and overall lap-time. The Italian is in a confident mood for the opening round of the season and will be looking for a strong race to celebrate the milestone that he will set on race-day. Alvaro Bautista (P13, 156.450, 23 laps) will start his first MotoGP race from the front of the fifth row after a fast crash at the end of the qualifying session ruined his chances to move up the grid. He suffered a very similar crash to that of team-mate Capirossi last night, and like the Italian, was able to walk away uninjured from the accident. Bautistas race pace during the free practice and qualifying session was very consistent and competitive, and if he can get a good start he will certainly be running further up the field than his grid position. Tomorrows 22-lap race will see Casey Stoner on his Ducati start from pole position as he goes in search of his fourth successive victory at Qatar. The race will get underway at 23.00hrs local time (20.00hrs GMT) with both Rizla Suzuki racers looking to start the season in promising form. Loris Capirossi: Overall I am quite happy with tonights qualifying, because after my crash yesterday we struggled a bit in the earlier practice, but at the end of the session we tried something different and in the qualifying it seemed to work well. Once we made the change I immediately went quicker and we modified the bike a bit more for qualifying and from that we found a very good setting. I went well in qualifying and I did 156 laps many times and this is good. In the end I followed Valentino and got a bit of help with my lap, but that doesnt matter because I am happy with the result. I am pleased for the team because they made a huge effort after I destroyed a bike last night and the guys didnt get to sleep until about five oclock this morning! This is a small present to them, but we really hope we can have something better tomorrow to enjoy. Alvaro Bautista: This is my first official crash in a race weekend, but I am still quite happy because I rode well and got a good setting for the bike during the free practice and I feel very good on the bike. I improved my time on the race tyres and this is very important, but I also think I can still go a little bit faster. I have a good race rhythm and even though I am too far back on the grid for what I wanted, I will try to get a good start and run with a good group and see what happens. I am really excited for tomorrows race and I think I can enjoy myself and well see what we can do. Paul Denning Team Manager: Loris did an incredible job in qualifying and is riding at the absolute limits and beyond as he comes to his 300th Grand Prix start tomorrow. The improvement from yesterday didnt only come from Loris, but the guys also improved the bike quite a lot and the lap-time rhythm on the harder tyres has improved significantly. If Loris can get away with the fastest riders and find his rhythm early on we could be in for a very exciting Grand Prix tomorrow night. Alvaros crash in the final seconds of qualifying was his first real one hes had and its something that had to happen somewhere, and qualifying is where the absolute limits are found. I don't think it will dent his confidence for tomorrow and if he can make a good start I think he will make a significant improvement on his grid position. Finally on behalf of Loris and everyone at Rizla Suzuki wed like to extend our thanks to Carmelo Ezpeleta and Dorna for the very nice presentation to Loris in celebration of his 300th Grand Prix start tomorrow. -- Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Extra Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard Casey Stoner continued his dominant form in Qatar by qualifying on pole for tomorrow’s race, beating his existing race lap record from 2008 and his pole time from last year. His fastest lap came at the end of the session on the harder option front slick and the softer rear. His second best effort, set on the harder option rear, was only 0.02seconds slower and would still have been good enough for pole, demonstrating the good overlap of performance between the medium and hard compound rear Bridgestone slicks. Most riders started the hour-long session on the harder option front and rear, the combination that will be most favourable for the race for their improved durability and stability under braking. Almost every rider ultimately went faster on the softer rear tyre though, as expected from short qualifying runs. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa recorded his best on the harder option rear slick though, on the last lap of the session. The softer option rear tyre provided good traction and therefore laptimes over a small number of laps, but the track temperature was sufficiently high to mean that the harder option provided more durability and consistency over a longer distance and this is why it will be favoured for tomorrow’s 22 lap race. Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “We can see by comparing the times of Casey during the session that the performance of the medium and hard compound slicks is very similar, and this shows me that we have succeeded in developing a new medium compound rear tyre for this year with an even wider temperature operating range. “Overall the times were good and I am happy with the performance ofthe compound options we have chosen for Qatar. Both are working well and the laptimes are similar on both specs, but clearly the harder front and rear slicks will be favoured for the race because they deliver superior durability which is an important consideration at this circuit. We saw in qualifying that the softer rear tyre was good for a few laps, but then the performance was reduced by the heat and abrasion, so over a race distance the harder option will be faster.” |
| Moto2
Toni Elias rode through the pain barrier this evening to claim pole position for tomorrow's first ever Moto2 World Championship race. The former MotoGP rider crashed heavily during the final pre-season test in Jerez and arrived in Qatar on crutches following surgery on a fractured ankle and hand. The 27-year-old Spaniard had to have painkilling injections ahead of qualifying, but the pain was forgotten as he parked his Gresini Moriwaki on the number one spot in parc ferme at the end of the 45-minute timed session. Reigning 125cc World Champion, Julian Simon, secured second place on the grid aboard his Mapfre Aspar RSV machine, just 0.006s ahead of former 125cc rival, Stefan Bradl. Another former MotoGP rider, Alex De Angelis, secured fourth position, with the result that four different chassis manufacturers will be represented on the front row of the Moto2 grid in Qatar. A late charge by Yuki Takahashi secured the Japanese rider fifth place on the grid, ahead of Jules Cluzel, Raffaele De Rosa and the elder statesman of the Moto2 class, Alex Debon. With 41 riders on the grid, the first ever Moto2 race promises to be an exciting affair. 125cc Marc Marquez will start the first 125cc World Championship race from pole position aboard his Red Bull Ajo Motorsport Derbi, after holding off the challenge of fellow Derbi rider, Pol Espargaro. Nico Terol qualified his Bancaja Aspar Aprilia in third place, just ahead of the second Tuenti Racing Derbi of Efren Vazquez. Randy Krummenacher finished qualifying fifth fastest and will head up the second row of the grid, in front of Tomoyoshi Koyama, Sandro Cortese and Alexis Masbou. Runner up in last year's 125cc World Championship, Bradley Smith has struggled throughout the Qatar weekend with machinery problems, but the British rider managed to salvage ninth place on the grid with his very last lap in the timed session. Esteve Rabat rounded out the top ten aboard his Blusens STX Aprilia. |
| Moto2 FP1 | 125cc QP |
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| 2010 MotoGP Season Coverage |
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-- Rnd 2 - Jerez - Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Pictorials - Gallery A - B -- Rnd 1 - Qatar - Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Pictorials - Gallery A - B - C - D - E - F - G -- Pre Season Team Launches
-- Pre Season Testing
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