| Honda powered riders dominated
this MotoGP qualifying session taking all three front row positions
for tomorrow’s 30-lap race of this 3.671km track.
In searing heat, with a track
temperature at 40 degrees Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC211V) grabbed
pole, with Kenny Roberts (Roberts KR211V) second fastest and Nicky
Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) completing the font row.
It was clear this would be a Honda show from the free training
session this morning when Hayden, Pedrosa and Casey Stoner (LCR
Honda RC211V) were fastest during that hour, with five Honda men in
the top five places. This final hour of timed qualifying would
merely confirm the superiority of the RC211V and its riders here in
Germany.
This is now Dani’s fourth pole of the season making him the best
qualifier in the premier class so far – and all in his rookie year.
That he has also produced two wins from those poles bodes well for
the race. But he’s fallen here this weekend in his efforts to tame
this bumpy track.
Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V) qualified sixth fastest,
Stoner will start from eighth on the grid, with Makoto Tamada
(Konica Minolta Honda
RC211V) tenth fastest and the injured Toni Elias (Fortuna Honda
RC211V) managing the 16th best time.
Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) was the fastest man on track during the
opening minutes before Loris Capirossi (Ducati) levered the Japanese
off pole with a time of 1m 23.246 seconds. Then at the halfway point
Nakano pulled out a time of 1m 22.772s to snatch pole back from the
Italian.
Elias, riding for the first time since breaking a shoulder in
Holland, was unlucky today. He was forced to ride his number two
bike after problems with his first choice machine and those two
troubles – lack of fitness and no number one bike for qualifiers –
hampered his progress here.
With 20 minutes of the session remaining, Melandri had put himself
on the front row, before Sete Gibernau (Ducati), another rider still
suffering the effects of a crash with a broken collarbone, put his
machine on the front row as second fastest man.
Riders are opting to use qualifying rubber earlier in these timed
sessions, either to make best use of a relatively traffic-free
track, or to put a marker lap time down, in case track conditions
deteriorate in any way towards the end of the hour. The fluctuations
today suggest tyre choice for Sunday will be doubly critical.
Stoner was a rider who went early with a qualifying tyre taking pole
with a 1m 22.588s lap before Pedrosa relieved him of that number one
slot with a 1m 22.521 tour with a full 14 minutes remaining. Nakano
then topped that with 1m 22.273s time.
As the final 10 minutes approached the order was Nakano, Pedrosa,
Gibernau on the front row, then Melandri, Stoner and Hayden making
up row two. As Hayden then moved up to third, less than 0.2 seconds
covered the top five riders. This was always going to be close.
But Dani had the measure of this sinuous track. He showed it in the
final five minutes with a blisteringly quick lap of 1m 21.815s to
take pole. It looked highly likely then that this would be a Repsol
Honda benefit with Nicky second on the grid. But that was to reckon
without Roberts.
The 2000 premier class World Champion has shown this season just
what a talent the front of the grid has been missing. Now with Honda
power, he has shone again and when he fired his 211V-engined KR
machine to a 1m 21.907s lap to claim second fastest time and push
Capirossi onto row three, it was no longer a surprise, after his
podium in Catalunya.
Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) could only manage
the 11th fastest time, more than a second shy of Dani’s pole mark.
Dani said, “I’m happy to get on pole position but the most important
thing really was to get on the front row because the track is very
tight at the beginning and there are only two or three passing
points here. I’m fine after the crash this morning, but the bike was
not so lucky. The mechanics worked very hard through lunch to have
the bike ready for qualifying and first of all this afternoon I just
tried to run-in the bike and check everything. Then I pushed harder
and my lap time was good.”
“When a lap looks slow and easy,” said Kenny. “It’s usually fast.
The bike is coming along. We have had no test to work on improving
it, just in trying a few different settings, mainly riding position
and to try and get the bike to work better on qualifying tyres. The
bike felt well balanced. I could have tried to get more out of it if
I had pushed harder but I’m more than happy and the front row is a
definite bonus. I have to get a good start and try to stay with the
top Honda guys.”
Nicky said, “I’m happy to be on the front row and this is the best
I’ve qualified for a while, so it’s been positive. We’ve been close
out of the gate and we haven’t had to make a lot of big changes to
the set-up, we’ve just been sweetening it up, and I think we’ve got
a pretty strong package this weekend. It’s been one of the better
weekends so far this year. We’ll try and find a little extra pace in
the warm-up and then I’m looking forward to a dogfight tomorrow in
the race.”
Melandri, sixth fastest, said, “I’m very satisfied. I got into a
good rhythm and I’m confident for the race. I’m happy being on the
second row because the front two rows were the objective here. The
bike is working well and Honda has a good base setting for us here.
My physical condition has improved a lot and so many left turns here
are good for my right shoulder.”
Stoner, who qualified eighth fastest, said, “I’m using the update
chassis and it feels really good. The team had to change most of the
settings from the standard RCV, but the front-end feels really
positive and on my first qualifying run it was very good. Then we
changed to a different rear tyre and it started to push the front on
the second run. The race will be very difficult from row two as
there aren’t many places to overtake.”
Tamada said, “We’re just a little better today than yesterday. We’ve
been trying some things on the suspension, working with different
springs. Now my capacity to control front-end slides has improved
and I am getting more confident with the bike. Tomorrow in the
warm-up we’ll try some different rear tyres because we have to be
ready for different track temperatures.
The track was very hot today.”
Elias said, I’m very tired and suffering a lot now. I’m really
starting to feel the effect of these four sessions, but it’s
important for me to be back on the track. My target for tomorrow is
just to finish the race.”
In the 250cc class Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) scored his seventh pole
of the season here, Yuki Takahashi (Humangest Racing Honda RS250RW)
qualified second fastest, just 0.078 seconds shy of Lorenzo’s time.
Hector Barbera and Roberto Locatelli (both Aprilia) qualified third
and fourth fastest.
Andrea Dovizioso (Humangest Racing Honda RS250RW), the current
overall points leader could do no better than eighth fastest, just
less than half a second away from the pole time.
Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) qualified tenth fastest while
his team-mate Martin Cardenas (Repsol Honda RS250RW) managed the
16th fastest time.
Takahashi said, “I’m surprised about today’s last lap. The final
part of the qualifying session has been difficult, because I was in
the middle of a group of riders and I couldn’t push as I would have
liked. This morning we found a good set-up, but it will be important
to make a good start because it’s difficult to overtake here.”
Dovi said, “I’m not happy about my position on tomorrow’s grid, but
we made a step forward compared to yesterday. My pace is good, and
more or less at the same level as my rivals so this makes me think
positively. I don’t like this track but now I feel more confident
compared to yesterday and there aren’t so many riders faster than
me.”
Lukas Pesek (Derbi) 125cc secured his second pole position of the
season so far with a lap of 1m 27.064 seconds. The Czech rider will
line up with series points leader Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia)
alongside him as second fastest qualifier, Mattia Pasini (Aprilia)
third, and Mika Kallio (KTM) completing the front row.
Fabrizio Lai (Seedorf Racing Honda RS125R) is the best Honda
qualifier here in sixth place on row two, while Gabor Talmacsi (Humangest
Honda RS125R) managed the seventh fastest time affording the
Hungarian a start from the second row also. Both, however, are more
than 0.8 seconds off the pole time.
The session was stopped in the final seconds when a three-bike crash
at the bottom of the steeply downhill penultimate turn left debris
on track and stricken riders in the run-off area. This left reigning
World Champion Thomas Luthi (Elit Grand Prix Honda RS125R) unable to
improve on a time of 1m 28.215 seconds – only good enough for 13th
place on the grid.
Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda RS125R), who scored his first points at
Donington Park two weeks ago, qualified 14th fastest, only 0.077
seconds shy of Luthi’s time. Sandro Cortese (Elit Grand Prix Honda
RS125R) qualified 11th fastest and will start from row three in
tomorrow’s 27-lap race.
Lai said, “The bike is OK and I like the track. I made the lap time
without a slipstream but it’s not enough. I’m sixth and eight tenth
of a second from the poleman – a lot on this track. For the race
it’s important to have a good and constant pace. I hope tomorrow
won’t be too hot, we are the last to race and Honda engine suffers
more than the Aprilia and KTM in the heat.
And tyre choice will be very important.”
Talmacsi said, “This is a tough track and it’s not easy to find the
best chassis settings. We’ve made some steps forward compared to
yesterday, but still I am slow turning-in and the bike feels heavy
and slippery. I struggled in the first corner, while in some points,
the track is bumpy and this complicates the situation. Anyway, I’m
happy and if we can make a further improvement during tomorrow’s
warm up, I think I can do a good race.”
Cortese said, “I am very happy now. We had some front-end chatter
problems early in the qualifying session, but we changed the
suspension settings and tyres and it’s better. In fact even with the
chatter I was really fast from the beginning. The engine is really
good and I feel I will have a good race – if I get a good start.”
Luthi said, “Not good – but a little better than yesterday. I was
following Bautista on my fast lap but going into a slow corner, I
started to get front wheel chatter, and he was away. We have to fix
this tonight because it’ll be very difficult to race with this
problem. The engine is fine – all we had to do was to make small
changes to the gearbox. We’ll see what we’re able to do tomorrow.”
Honda GP rider quotes: German GP Sachsenring. Final qualifying July
15, 2006.
MotoGP:
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1st. "I'm happy to get on pole position
but the most important thing really was to get on the front row
because the track is very tight at the beginning and there are only
two or three passing points here. I'm fine after the crash this
morning, but the bike was not so lucky. The mechanics worked very
hard through lunch to have the bike ready for qualifying and first
of all this afternoon I just tried to run-in the bike and check
everything. Then I pushed harder and my lap time was good, so
overall I'm pleased with how it went today. Of course the most
important thing is to use the front row position to get a good start
tomorrow and see how the race goes."
Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR Honda: 2nd. “When a laps looks slow and easy
its usually fast - the bike is coming along. We have had no test to
work on improving it just trying a few different settings, mainly
riding position and to get the bike to work better on qualifying
tyres. The bike felt well balanced. I could have tried to get more
out of it if I had pushed harder but I’m more than happy and the
front row is a definite bonus. I have to get a good start and try to
stay with the top Honda guys.”
Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 3rd. "I'm happy to be on the front row
and this is the best I've qualified for a while, so it's been
positive. We've been close out of the gate and we haven't had to
make a lot of big changes to the set-up, we've just been sweetening
it up, and I think we've got a pretty strong package this weekend.
It's been one of the better weekends so far this year. I would have
liked to get down into the 1m 21s today and I thought it was
possible, but getting on the front row of the grid is really
important here and I'll be planning to get a good start tomorrow.
We'll try and find a little extra pace in the warm-up and then I'm
looking forward to a dogfight tomorrow in the race."
Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda: 6th. “I’m very satisfied. I got into
a good rhythm and I’m confident for the race. I’m happy being on the
second row because the front two rows were the objective here. The
bike is working well and Honda has a good base setting for us here.
My physical condition has improved a lot and so many left turns here
are good for my right shoulder.”
Casey Stoner, LCR Honda: 8th. “Today I just concentrated on the
updated chassis and I now have a much better feeling --it is a
positive step forward considering it is only my second day on this
bike. The team had to change most of the settings from the standard
RCV and we are slowly moving forward – especially with a more
positive feeling from the front-end. My first qualifying run was
really good and I then switched to a different rear tyre, but it
pushed the front on the second run. The race could be difficult from
the third row, there are not many places to overtake. I’ll need good
start, the first corner is a little scary- it’s very tight.”
Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 10th. “We are just a little
better today than yesterday. We have been trying some things on the
suspension basically working with different springs. Now my capacity
to control front end slides has improved and I am getting more
confident with the bike.
Tomorrow in the warm up we will try some different rear tyres
because we have to be ready for different track temperatures, the
track was very hot today.”
Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: 16th. “I’m very tired and suffering a lot
now.
I’m really starting to feel the effect of these four sessions, but
it’s important for me to be back on the track. My target for
tomorrow is just to finish the race."
250cc:
Yuki Takahashi, Humangest Honda:2nd. “I’m surprise about today’s
last lap.
The final part of the qualifying session has been difficult, because
I was in the middle of a group of riders and I couldn’t push as I
would have liked. Only at the last lap I was able to build a small
gap and go much faster. It’s a shame as in the last turn I made a
small mistake! This morning we found a good set-up, but in the
afternoon we made some modifications loosing a bit our way. Then, we
went back at this morning solution and the feeling with the bike was
better again. Here it will be important to make a good start because
it’s difficult to overtake”.
Andrea Dovizioso, Humangest Honda: 8th “I’m not too much satisfied
about my position in tomorrow’s starting grid, but we have made a
step forward compared to yesterday. My pace is good, though, more or
less at the same level as my rivals and this make me think positive
for the race. Some riders improved their lap times at the end by
following other riders, actually I was penalized by this situation.
I don’t like this track but now I feel more confident compared to
yesterday and there aren’t so many riders faster than me”.
Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 10th. "I'm very disappointed because I
didn't expect a result like this, although the race is fortunately
tomorrow.
Things went well yesterday, but this morning we took the wrong way
as regards the bike's settings so we had to go back. Then I just
haven't been able to make a fast enough lap at the end of the second
qualifying practice, and that set me back in the grid. We have,
however, a good race pace, so we'll have to be really watchful at
the start."
Martin Cardenas, Repsol Honda: 16th. "The collarbone is doing great.
I haven't felt any pain during the weekend; the practice however has
been a little bit disappointing. I felt quite good in the morning
but in the afternoon I crashed at the beginning and lost some
confidence. I was finally able to improve my time a bit, but not as
much as I expected. We were testing a harder tyre for the front and
entering a corner the steering just got closed so I crashed. I hope
to be able to make a good start tomorrow to get the front group and
try to stay there."
Arturo Tizon, Wurth Honda BQR: 17th. “I had a good feeling with the
bike, my time is good and my grid position. But now I have a front
tyre problem.
I had been using the standard Dunlop front and it worked really good
but they cannot supply me with one for the race. They gave me a tyre
with the same compound but harder construction but I didn’t find a
good feeling with that one. We tried another type but it was not
much better. If I can find a standard front tyre from another team I
will be happy, if not I might struggle to find a good rhythm in the
race. A pity because everything else is working really good for me.”
Aleix Espargaro, Wurth Honda BQR: 19th. “A bad day for me today. In
the morning I tried several different tyres and concentrated on to
of them in the qualifying session but both were sliding badly. My
lap by lap times are not too bad, my best at 1’27.1s and many at
1’27.2s. I have no other problems. The engine is fast but here the
engine is not as important as the chassis set up. At this track you
have to have a good feeling with the chassis to be confident. I the
warm up I will try another type of tyre with some set up changes and
se where we are.”
Fabrizio Perren, Stop and Go Racing: 20th. “After my crash yesterday
I found the track to be a little complicated, it is a very technical
circuit and very bumpy. It’s my first time here so the last thing I
needed was a crash while I was trying to learn where I’m going.
Still the engine is good and we are close on set up. We have to
check the telemetry to se where we can improve. I hope I get a good
start because the first part of the circuit is tight and difficult
to pass riders. If I find my rhythm quickly I will have a good
race.”
Arnaud Vincent, Molenaar Honda: 24th. “My engine is not strong
enough, even on this short track because thee are some stiff uphill
sections. Then I crashed when the front end turned in on me. I'm OK
but I am not happy with my grid position."
125cc:
Fabrizio Lai, Seedorf Racing World: 6th. ”The bike is ok and I like
the track. I made the lap time without slipstreams but it is not
enough: I’m sixth but I have to recover 8 tenths from the poleman
and it is a lot on this track. For the race is important to have a
good and constant pace! I hope tomorrow it will be not too hot, we
are the last to race and Honda engine suffers hot temperature, more
than Aprilia and Ktm. Also the tyre choice will be very important".
Gabor Talmacsi, Humangest Honda: 7th. “This is a tough track and it
is not easy to find the best chassis settings. We have made some
steps forward compare to yesterday, but still I am slow in turning
and I feel the bike heavy and slippery. I struggled in the first
corner, while in some points, the track is bumpy and this
complicates the situation. Anyway, I’m happy and if we can make a
further improvement during tomorrow’s warm up, I think I can do a
good race”.
Sandro Cortese, Elit Honda: 11th. “I am very happy now. We had some
front end chatter problems early in the qualifying session but we
changed the suspension settings and tyres and its better. In fact
even with the chatter I was really fast from the beginning. The
engine is really good and I feel I will have a good race – if I get
a good start.”
Thomas Luthi, Elit Honda: 13th. “Not good but a little better than
yesterday. I was following Bautista on my fast lap but going into a
slow corner I started to get front wheel chatter and he was away. We
have to fix this tonight because it will be very difficult to race
with this problem.
The engine is fine all we had to do is make small changes to the
gearbox.
We will see what we are able to do – I have to get into the corners
faster than I am now.”
Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: 14th. “It's good to repeat. I'm
thirteenth fastest, like in Donington, though obviously Donington
was my home round but it's nice to show everyone that I can still do
it even if I'm not at my own track so that's a really good, positive
thing. It's a shame because I should have kept going after my fast
lap. I tried to make another one but the tyres weren't as good.
After looking back on it we could have improved and given us another
chance but still I got to be happy and I'm looking forward to the
race."
Lorenzo Baroni, Humangest Honda: 26th. “I improve lap by lap, but
still I’m too far away. We haven’t still found a chassis set-up that
let me enter the corners with the right speed and open the throttle
quickly in exiting. So we loose in acceleration and I struggle to
keep a good rhythm. I think that it will be hard to make 27 laps
here in this circuit”.
Michele Conti, Seedorf Racing World: 33rd. “I’m trying to understand
this difficult track: today I have improved my lap time but I have
to learn better how to face some corners: it is fundamental but not
easy to do in a short time."
Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: 39th. “My cracked ribs are very
painful. When I crashed in England the bike landed on top of me. My
engine is good and I have a good chassis set up but moving the bike
around gives me pain. I will give it a try in the race but if I have
a lot of pain its sure to affect my concentration – if that happens
I will stop.”
Tito Rabat, Wurth Honda BQR: 40th. “The rear tyre slides every time
I open the gas hard. This morning we had no problems with that. In
the qualifying session I was getting big slides in the fast corners.
I came into the box and we made some small changes to the suspension
and it was a little better. I can’t understand it because it was
almost the same feeling with soft and hard compound tyres. We have
to work hard in the warm up in the morning.”
Clement Dunkowski, substitute rider for the injured Mike Di Meglio,
FFM
Honda: 41st. "I improved my lap time by 0.8s today in free practice.
I improved in every session but I really needed to ride more laps.
In the qualifying session I found a good rhythm and improved my best
lap by 1.6 seconds. I was hoping to catch the wheel of a faster
rider totry and improve my time even more but I didn't find one. In
the race I will do my best to get a good start and follow fast
riders and learn." |
