Team Movistar Honda RC211V riders Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri will start the British Grand Prix from the first row of the grid. Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) may have secured pole, but both Honda the Honda riders look to be in the sort of form that will put them in contention for a victory here at Donington Park tomorrow.

All Honda’s MotoGP men are among the top ten qualifiers and Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V) in ninth is just over one second shy of the pole time of 1m 27.897s – nearly a whole second faster than the 2004 pole time.

With track temperature at only 25 degrees on an overcast day, the final session began with Colin Edwards (Yamaha) topping the timesheet, with Alex Barros (Camel Honda RC211V) another man using his vast experience of this tricky track to show early pace.

Max Biaggi (Repsol Honda RC211V) showed his hand early on too as third fastest in the first ten minutes. But at the mid-point of the hour-long session the order was Rossi, Melandri, Biaggi, Barros, Edwards, Troy Bayliss (Camel Honda RC211V) and then Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V).

Gibernau was the first rider to really up the pace with 12 minutes to go when he shot to the top of the table before Rossi again raised the stakes at the ten-minute mark. Barros could have bested them both, had he not been baulked by a slower rider while on a quick lap.

But as the clock ticked down to the final five minutes it was Melandri who put in a time of 1m 28.482s to take the advantage before Rossi made his 1m28.897s time. The mark that would remain the target.

Nicky Hayden had a good go at beating it when he briefly went to second with four minutes to go, but he lost the opportunity to improve further when he ran out of time to exploit the grip of another qualifying tyre. In the final minute Melandri again hoisted himself to second with Barros lying third before Gibernau steered his RC211V around Donington’s 4.023km of twists and dips with a 1m 28.182s lap that was good enough for second on the grid.

Gibernau said, “Yesterday the rain robbed us of a lot of time but today we were able to enjoy two hours of good weather and we managed to make the most of it to work on the bike. The first step was to seal a place on the front row of the grid and that is what we did. The bike and my feeling have got gradually better and I’m hoping that the result we have been looking for finally arrives at this circuit and that this can be my best Grand Prix of the season.”

Melandri said, “It was important to get back on the front row after the race at Laguna Seca. We worked well with the tyres and suspension, which allowed me to set a good rhythm and a good fast lap, although I made a small mistake on my last lap. This is like a second home race of the season for me and I’m very highly motivated. I hope to get a good start, learn as much as I can from Valentino and Sete during the race and fight for another podium.”

Barros, heading row two as fourth fastest qualifier said, “I’m content because we’ve done some good work this weekend. We covered all the areas we planned to. This morning and this afternoon too we finished off choosing the rear tyre, and we are ready for the race. Tomorrow will be my 250th GP and it would be great if I could celebrate it alongside my team after a good result.”

Nicky in fifth on row two said, “We had a little problem at the end of the session and didn’t end up using the last qualifier. Overall the bike feels better but we’re really going to have to come up with something for tomorrow. We’re going to have to be ready to dig deep in the race because my pace is a little off. But I have confidence that we’ll be able to come up with something.”

Troy Bayliss, in seventh said, “We’ve worked well and I’m reasonably optimistic about the race tomorrow, even if we could have gone slightly better with the qualifying tyres. Nevertheless we’ve lapped at a fast pace, and there are lots of riders separated by just a few tenths. The third row isn’t bad, but it’s important to get a good start to tag along with the front group, especially at this track.”

Max on row two in eighth said, “Of course I’m not so happy with the result because this year I’ve had such problems in qualifying. My entry speed into the corners is just too slow – this is the problem we have. I always seem to be riding with this feeling of chatter all year. It’s much more of a problem than last year and we just don’t seem to have an answer at the moment. I will have another tough race tomorrow starting from this position.”

Makoto Tamada in ninth said, “The feeling with the bike with a qualifying configuration is improving and I can push my bike more and more. I have to improve in the first part of the circuit. In the other sectors of the track I consider myself competitive. During my fastest lap I made a small mistake braking into the penultimate turn to the right and this lost me some precious time. Tomorrow morning, during the 20 minutes of warm up, we’ll make some final adjustments.”

Dani Pedrosa (Team Movistar Honda RS250RW) had to work hard for his fourth pole position of the season. The Spaniard crashed without injury in the final moments of today’s timed session, but had done enough to wrest the advantage from Jorge Lorenzo (Fortuna Honda RS250RW) who qualified second just 0.130 seconds short of Dani’s 1m 31.834s time."

MotoGP:

Sete Gibernau, Movistar Honda MotoGP: 2nd : “Yesterday the rain robbed us of a lot of time but today we were able to enjoy two hours of good weather and we managed to make the most of it to work on the bike. The first step was to seal a place on the front row of the grid and that is what we did. The bike and my feeling have got gradually better and I’m hoping that the result we have been looking for finally arrives at this circuit and that this can be my best Grand Prix of the season.”

Marco Melandri, Movistar Honda MotoGP: 3rd: “It was important to get back on the front row after the race at Laguna Seca. We worked well with the tyres and suspension, which allowed me to set a good rhythm and a good fast lap, although I made a small mistake on my last lap. This is like a second home race of the season for me and I’m very highly motivated. I hope to get a good start, learn as much as I can from Valentino and Sete during the race and fight for another podium.”

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 4th: “I’m calm and content because I know we’ve done some good work this weekend, covering all the areas we had planned to, and taking away any doubts we had about the set-up. This morning and this afternoon too we finished off choosing the rear tyre, and we are ready for the race. I’m a bit sorry for having made a couple of mistakes on both my fast laps which probably lost me a couple of tenths but it’s not a big thing, I think I’ve got a good grid spot anyhow. Tomorrow will be my 250th GP and it would be great if I could celebrate it alongside my team after a good result.”

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda Team: 5th “We made quite a bit of progress today really. The squad has done a real good job in really thinking about things and have come up with some good stuff which makes the bike feel a lot better. From that standpoint I’m happy. My problem is that everyone else has improved quite a bit as well – it’s what happens here – and we still have quite a bit to do. We had a little problem at the end of the session and didn’t end up using the last qualifier. Overall the bike feels better but we’re really going to have to come up with something for tomorrow. We’re going to have to be ready to dig deep in the race because my pace is a little off but I have confidence that we’ll be able to come up with something by 15.30 tomorrow.”

Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 7th position: “We’ve worked well and I’m reasonably optimistic about the race tomorrow, even if we could have gone slightly better with the qualifying tyres. Nevertheless we have lapped at a fast pace, and there are lots of riders separated by just a few tenths. The third row isn’t bad, but it’s important to get a good start to tag along with the front group, especially at this track.”

Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda Team: 8th “Of course I’m not so happy with the result because this year I’ve had such problems in qualifying. It’s very unusal for me. I can’t believe I can’t go faster than the third row. With the race tyre we are not so far off but with the qualifier we hit much trouble – I just can’t use it properly. My entry speed into the corners is just too slow – this is the problem we have. I always seem to be riding with this feeling of chatter all year. Much more of a problem than last year and we just don’t seem to have an answer at the moment! I will have another tough race tomorrow starting from this position.”

Makoto Tamada – Konica Minolta Honda: 9th: “My goal was to conquer a better position on the grid; I consider my self satisfied mostly because of the work developed in the second day of work. In the afternoon we concentrated to prepare the bike with a race configuration and this permitted us to obtain useful information for tomorrow afternoon. The feeling with the bike with a qualifying configuration is sensibly improving and I can push my bike more and more. I have to improve in the first part of the circuit, because yesterday’s fall has left its mark. In the other sectors of the track I consider my self well enough competitive. During my fastest lap I committed a small mistake in braking while entering the penultimate turn to the right and this made me lose some precious time. Tomorrow morning, during the 20 minutes of warm up, we’ll make the last adjustments to the setting of the bike, to definitely have the possibility to compete with the group of the bests.”