MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

Dani Pedrosa will start a MotoGP race from pole for the second time in his career at tomorrow’s Alice Grand Prix of France. The Spaniard put in a storming last lap of 1’33.990 to snatch the spot at the head of the grid from an impressive Shinya Nakano by three tenths of a second.

Pole-man and winner last weekend at the Shanghai Circuit, Pedrosa will be looking to continue his run of form into Sunday’s race at the famous Le Mans Bugatti Circuit. Nakano looked set to give Kawasaki the top spot for the first time this season, but instead had to settle for his highest qualifying position of 2006.

Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins repeated his top three qualification from China, and following on from his fourth place finish in the race he will be out for a podium place tomorrow afternoon.

Local rider Randy de Puniet completed a memorable day for Kawasaki, delighting the large number of fans present at the Le Mans track by slotting into fourth place. The Frenchman stood on the pit wall to acknowledge the crowd following the session.

Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi completed the second row, both trying to get back on track after disappointing results in China. World Champion Valentino Rossi and team-mate Colin Edwards were unable to keep their free practice positions at the top of the leaderboard, separated on the third row in seventh and ninth by Sete Gibernau’s Ducati. Nicky Hayden completed the top ten just under a second slower than his pole-setting Repsol Honda colleague.

Andrea Dovizioso, still in search of his first 250cc win, has a great chance to achieve it tomorrow after racking up his maiden pole in the category. Braving windy conditions that the Italian admitted were hardly ideal, the Italian took pole with a time of 1'39.733, nearly inseparable from that of Alex de Angelis. Master MVA Aspar Team’s San Marinese rider believed he had the top spot in the bag, but a crash left him out of contention in second ahead of Hector Barbera.

Yuki Takahashi, Shuhei Aoyama and Jakub Smrz rounded off the top six, the latter putting in fast laps behind pole-man Dovizioso towards the end of the session. Second Aoyama brother Hiroshi will start from seventh, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, Roberto Locatelli and a resurgent Sebas Porto. Lorenzo suffered a nasty looking crash on the final laps, but walked away unharmed.

Mattia Pasini will start tomorrow’s 125cc race in Le Mans at the head of the grid. The Italian rider, who has a superb qualifying record so far this season, earned pole with a 1’44.515 lap. The Italian has no room for error on the startline, with current World Championship leader Alvaro Bautista and Czech sensation Lukas Pesek alongside him on the front row.

Gabor Talmacsi, Lorenzo Zanetti and Mika Kallio, winner of last weekends Chinese Grand Prix, round off the top six.

1st, Dani Pedrosa (Honda), 1'33.990 :
"Today’s practice sessions were difficult, it was very windy, but it was dry I suppose it could have been worse. At the beginning I made a few mistakes, I hit traffic early on which hindered my progress. On the race tyre I didn’t do a good job, but later on we found one good tyre and used it to perform well. If it’s dry tomorrow I can have a good race, and I hope I can get a good result."

2nd, Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki), 1'34.201 :
"I really didn’t expect this result, I’m maybe a bit disappointed not to get pole, but of course I am happy to be on the front row tomorrow. The race will be fun, with conditions playing a big part, and I hope to make good start and finish well."

3rd, John Hopkins (Suzuki), 1'34.636 :
"We have a good setup for both the dry and the wet, I’m happy with my qualifying session… maybe I need to get that watch on my wrist (the Tissot watch awarded to the fastest qualifier). The setup is working in our favour at the moment and I’m hoping for a good result tomorrow, rain or dry."