Yamaha men top qualifying at Le Mans

Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi took the 59th pole position of his career and his first of the season today with an authoritative performance in sunny Le Mans. His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was just five hundredths of a second off his time, as the Fiat Yamaha pair put up a commanding display ahead of tomorrow’s French Grand Prix.

After topping the time sheets yesterday, Rossi was third this morning with Lorenzo ahead of him in second. This afternoon temperatures once again soared into the high twenties and both riders looked in menacing form, having already found excellent base settings for their M1s yesterday. Both had spent time at the top of the standings before the session entered its final quarter and with ten minutes to go Lorenzo went top again, becoming the first man to dip into the 1’33s. The Mallorcan held out for a few minutes before Casey Stoner and then Dani Pedrosa took over but it was Rossi who had the most still hidden up his sleeve, the 31-year-old maestro pulling out a brilliant lap in a time of 1’33.408, a target that proved unassailable in the final two minutes.

Rossi is still worried about his damaged shoulder over race distance tomorrow but he will be doing all he can to take a second win of the year, as will his championship-leading team-mate Lorenzo, when the third round of the season gets underway at 1400 CET tomorrow.

Valentino Rossi – Position: 1st Time: 1’33.408Laps: 30
“This weather is really making me very happy, because for once in Le Mans we have been able to use all of the sessions properly and now here we are on pole. My setting is good, I feel comfortable on my M1 and Bridgestone tyres and my race pace is not bad either so everything is working out. It’s a great pleasure to be on pole and when I looked and saw the lap time I was very pleased with my performance and with how well we had worked, so thanks to all my team. I am still worried about my shoulder because sincerely today after ten or fifteen laps I started to lose power, but I hope adrenaline will take over in the race and that I will be able to arrive fast right to the end.”

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 2nd Time: 1’33.462Laps: 31
“This was another good session and we are very strong, although there are quite a few riders here who are fast with a good race pace. Today I was consistent and I can ride happily at around 1’34.5 so if I can keep this up during the race then we have a good chance. I need to try to get a good start tomorrow and be stronger during the first few laps, then I think I can fight for victory.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“A good job from us all to get the first pole position of the year. The bike is working well and we only need to make a few small adjustments for tomorrow to be ready to fight. Valentino’s shoulder isn’t 100% and we aren’t sure how it will hold up under race distance but we’ve done the best we can do to put him in the right position so now we will just have to see how it goes. It looks like the weather could be even hotter so at least we don’t have to worry about that!”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“This was a good session and we’re pleased with the way we’ve worked. Jorge has a good grid spot without the added pressure of being on pole and his race pace is definitely fast enough to allow him to run at the front tomorrow. We hope that the work we did in Jerez will help him with his start and give him a bit more confidence and I’m sure he won’t let the others go tomorrow over the important first ten laps.”

Edwards on third row, 12th for brave Spies in Le Mans

Colin Edwards and Ben Spies will start the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team’s much-anticipated home race in Le Mans from eighth and 12th on the grid respectively.

Concentrating on improving the chassis balance of his YZR-M1 machine in today’s qualifying session, Edwards gave the large French crowd supporting the Provence-based team reason to cheer when he surged to the top of the timesheets in brilliant fashion with 25 minutes remaining.

The Texan was able to lap consistently in the top five as the session reached an exciting climax. But within striking distance of a top six place after clocking a best time of 1.34.304, he had to settle for eighth position, just 0.100s behind Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Honda.

Spies proved he’s got the bravery to match the speed in this afternoon’s session, which was run in sunny and humid conditions that saw air temperature peak at 28 degrees.

The Texan suffered a big crash in the early stages of this morning’s final practice session when he lost control of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine at the entry to the Dunlop chicane. Spies was thrown several metres in the air before landing heavily on the ground. He suffered a badly swollen left foot, but despite discomfort when downshifting and changing direction,

Spies quickly built up his pace and confidence despite missing nearly a whole hour of crucial set-up time.

Only a quarter of the session had elapsed when he broke into the top ten and the 25-year-old continued to defy the pain with a series of consistent laps. But his courageous efforts unfortunately didn’t see him maintain his place in the top ten. A best time of 1.34.920 left him 12th on the grid, though Spies remains confident that he can challenge in the battle for the top six in tomorrow’s 28-lap encounter.

Colin Edwards – Position: 8th Time: 1’34.304 Laps: 27
“I’m riding as hard as I can but I’ve only ended up in eighth position. Those guys at the front have dropped half-a-second off the pole time from last year and while I hate to say it, I couldn’t do a mid-33. The bike feels good and I feel good but it’s just really hard work trying to run the pace of the front group. We have worked really hard this weekend and we seem to have got a fix on some of the problems we’ve had at the first two races. I’m much more comfortable on the bike and the feeling with the front-end is coming better. I liked the harder tyre more than the soft tyre today. The soft tyre felt like it moved a little bit too much but the race tyre I feel really comfortable with. Getting into a rhythm quick is going to be the key tomorrow. It is going to be a long and tough race but it is a big race for Tech 3 and Monster, so as always I’ll be pushing as hard as I can for a good result.”

Ben Spies – Position: 12thTime: 1’34.902 Laps: 27
“After missing most of the morning session, I ‘m not too upset to be where I’m at. Even injury free I wasn’t going to be on the front row or anything like that. I just made a mistake this morning. I definitely wasn’t starting a fast lap but I might have been going a little too hard for the rear tyre at the time. When it flicked me, my foot was half off the peg and when it snapped back it just completely rolled the ankle and the knee. There are no broken bones and it’s nothing major. The pain level is not that bad on the bike but it is mainly downshifting gears. It’s a matter of getting my foot back into position for the corner after shifting. I have to move my whole leg to do it. It’ll be a little tough race but it won’t hold me back. The foot doesn’t feel good now but hopefully for 28 laps I can put it out of my mind and get a good result for Tech 3 and Monster.

—  Ducati Report

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden will start alongside each other from the second row of the grid in tomorrow’s Grand Prix de France, having qualified fourth and fifth fastest this afternoon. It is the first time Ducati have had both riders qualify inside the top five at the Le Mans circuit – the latest evidence of the improved versatility of the Desmosedici GP10.

Both the Australian and the American launched strong challenges for pole position in an exciting finale to the session, which eventually saw Valentino Rossi claim top spot on the final lap ahead of his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa completing the front row. Stoner’s qualifying effort was only marginally quicker than his race pace, which bodes well for tomorrow, whilst in contrast Hayden admitted he still has work to do after making a notable improvement on the softer rubber.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th (1’33.824)
“We have a lot of work to do to try and get more performance out of the softer tyre because our rivals seem to be able to make bigger improvements on it than us. We didn’t manage to lap much faster than the times we were doing on the harder race tyre so that is a little disappointing because it would have been nice to start from the front row here but at the same time we know we have a good pace over race distance. In general the bike is going really well, our race pace is more competitive than it was at this stage of the weekend in Jerez so I’m confident we can do a good job tomorrow.”

NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 5th (1’33.845)
“The second row for us is a positive result because to be honest my race pace hasn’t been great and now we’ve given ourselves a chance because the start is so important here. We made a big step with the bike in the session this morning but weren’t really able to follow it up with another one this afternoon so we have work to do tonight because at the moment it’s looking like a really tough race for us. At least the weather is fantastic – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fans here and they deserve it because they’ve had to put up with a lot of rain over the years! Tomorrow they might be leaving with sunburn but they won’t be complaining.”

—  HRC

Two weeks after he scored a brilliant pole position at Jerez, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) missed out on scoring a second consecutive pole by just 0.165 seconds at Le Mans this afternoon. The Spaniard was one of the main players during the hectic final stages of qualifying which saw pole position swap hands three times in the last three minutes.

Pedrosa’s final run put him ahead with three minutes to go, only for Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) to better his time by the tiniest of margins. However, Pedrosa, who started from pole here last year, is staying focused on the race, working with his engineers to squeeze some more performance out of his RCV which he will evaluate in morning warm-up.

Local hero Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) had another superb qualifying to score his third successive second-row start. Once again the Frenchman was the highest-placed privateer rider in MotoGP, a credit to his small but perfectly formed team, run by former 125 GP winner Lucio Cecchinello. Yesterday de Puniet had some issues with braking stability and direction changing, but his engineers worked well to fine tune his RCV for today.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) missed the second row by just one tenth of a second, lacking the front-end feel he needed to push for a better starting position. The Italian, who is using a revised chassis here, will also work to make things better in tomorrow morning’s session.

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) ended qualifying 11th fastest, struggling to reconnect with the pace that he had seemed to have found at Jerez. The Italian has reverted to Showa suspension, following the post-race tests at Jerez, preferring the feeling he gets from the Showa kit.

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) had his best MotoGP qualifying so far, securing 13th place on the grid. The rookie started his first two MotoGP races from 15th and 16th on the grid, so it seems he is starting to feel more at home aboard his RCV.

Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V) has had a challenging two days of practice for his third MotoGP race, ending up 14th on the grid. The Japanese had a minor operation on his left arm to relieve some stiffnessb issues. He had a difficult Friday session, ending the day 16th, but his crew worked hard to improve his feeling for his RCV and his lap times improved by almost two seconds.

There were several fallers in this morning’s session. Ben Spies (Yamaha), Mika Kallio (Ducati) and Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) all fell on left-handers – Le Mans has only four left turns – which can make maintaining optimum temperature on the left side of the tyres tricky in cool conditions. Bautista, who broke a collarbone in a motocross accident a week ago, immediately withdrew from the meeting.

Kenny Noyes (Jack & Jones by A.Banderas, PromoHarris) topped a typically frantic Moto2 qualifying session which made history as the closest in Grand Prix history; the fastest 27 riders covered by a mere 0.969 seconds.

GP rookie Noyes, who battled for the win at Jerez two weeks ago, had to work hard for his pole. The American went fastest midway through the hour-long outing, but was then shuttled down the order until he came back in fine style during the last few minutes. He ended the session just 0.031 ahead of Yuki Takahashi (Tech 3 Racing, Tech 3), who was in turn 0.055 seconds ahead of Alex Debon (Aeroport de Castello-Ajo, FTR). Last man on the front row was home favourite and Qatar podium finisher Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing, Suter).

Jerez winner Toni Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki) had a difficult afternoon, losing his rhythm when he fell at the final turn. The Spaniard was able to continue riding, but only had the pace to make it onto row two. Qatar winner and points leader Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Suter) had an even tougher time, qualifying 15th, albeit only half a second off pole.

Continued fine weather is forecast for tomorrow’s racing. If all three races are run in the dry it will be the first time in four years that rain hasn’t affected the race day action at Le Mans.

HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V), third at 1m 33.573s, said: “At the end of the session we could put in a good final lap which has put us on the front row, and this is very important because the lap times are very close here. For the race we need to find some tenths of a second per lap in order to be able to keep a high pace, and at this track you have to be very focused because the race is long and it’s really important to be consistent and not to make any mistakes. Anyway, I think we are in a good position. Now we will sit down with the team and work on the improvements to up our race pace. We’ve had good weather so far this weekend and it looks like it will continue tomorrow, so we’ve been lucky this time. From the front row I hope to make a good start and give myself the best chance in the race.”

Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V), sixth at 1m 34.074s, said: “I am very happy about this result as yesterday’s session was very tough for us. Yesterday after the practice when I said I was confident for today it was not right. I felt very frustrated because I could not lap as I like and the bike was very nervous. But the guys made an excellent job and this morning I immediately felt more comfortable. Then we took a step forward in the qualifying, obtaining the second row once again for the third time this year. Everybody in the team is very pleased with this result and I want to thank them for their efforts. This race is really special for me and I hope to finish well in front of my fans, though I am a bit worried about the start as it is very difficult to overtake on this track.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V), seventh at 1m 34.204s, said: “I cannot be happy to start from the third row because this has the potential to make the race more complicated. So it will it be important to make a good start and stay with the front group – that’s the plan now. Our race pace is not so bad but we need to improve it a little more. Compared to this morning the feeling with the front was not quite as good and I think this was because of some set-up changes that we made, and also the gap to the front riders was a bit bigger this afternoon. Anyway, we have some ideas of what we can improve and I’m ready to give it my best in the race.”

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), 11th at 1m 34.523s, said: “It was a difficult session and the things that we found that worked at Jerez didn’t really happen today. Unfortunately we are down on corner speed because I am struggling to get off the brakes on the way into the turns. We struggled with this yesterday and even though I thought we’d found the solution we had similar problems again today. My riding style relies on corner speed so we need to work on this. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we may have to be on the defensive.”

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), 13th at 1m 34.942, said: “I’m pretty happy, to be honest, because we did a good job this morning and I thought I could have done a better time on the softer tyre. Unfortunately a couple of problems emerged with the rear end and I wasn’t able to make the improvement that could have lifted me a few places on the grid. Having said that, I am still confident because my race pace is decent; not quick enough to go with the front guys, but certainly to improve on my position on the grid. I think I can improve on my eleventh place finish from Jerez, and with a bit of luck maybe even challenge for the top eight. That would be great!”

Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V) , 14th at 1m 34.978s, said: “The feeling with my bike improved a bit today and I could push a little harder at the end of the session, but we still have problems in the tight corners and we really need to find a solution for that. I think we still have the possibility to work on the bike and I will also try to find a better riding line. But it could be difficult tomorrow morning as it always is colder in the mornings here and this won’t help to find the right set-up for the race if the temperature rises again in the afternoon. We will do our best to find the best solution for that.”

—  Suzuki Report

Capirossi (1’34.306, 26 laps) continued with the positive performance from yesterday during both the sessions today. He was consistently within touch of the front pack throughout the whole of the qualifying session and with a few more modifications to his Suzuki GSV-R this evening, he is confident he can have a strong race tomorrow.

Capirossi will be Rizla Suzuki’s only rider participating in tomorrow’s French Grand Prix, following the withdrawal of Álvaro Bautista earlier today. Bautista suffered from a big high-side in this morning’s practice session and the fresh injuries he sustained – added to his already broken collarbone – forced him to make the decision to take no further part in this weekend’s events. He was disappointed about not competing in France, but also mindful of getting back to full fitness for a hectic schedule ahead.

Today’s Qualifying was held in hot and sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 28ºC and track temperatures getting up to 46ºC. World Champion Valentino Rossi set the fastest time of the day and will start tomorrow’s 28-lap race from pole position. The race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT); with Capirossi flying the flag for the Rizla Suzuki team.

Loris Capirossi: “The grid position is not the best, but I am quite happy because we have worked so hard for the whole weekend. We started to adapt the bike a bit more over the two days and now I think we are close to getting what we are looking for. My rhythm today was good and I didn’t follow anybody at all in the two sessions, which is good because it helps us understand what the rhythm and performance will be like in a race. I am really optimistic for tomorrow and I think if I get a good start I can be involved in the action towards the front.”

Álvaro Bautista: “It is not a good way to say bye-bye to a MotoGP race! This morning I had an injection to help with the pain and for two laps the feeling was a little bit better, not a big difference, but better. Then I crashed and I don’t really know why because I was not going very fast and I just lost the rear tyre. After that I felt more pain down my left side and I decided not to race here and make sure I make a full recovery for the next race. In the future we have lots of races together so it is better to be 100% in all of them, than be 50% or less in one!”

Paul Denning –Team Manager: “Loris has improved in all the sessions and if we can tidy things up a bit more before the Grand Prix, then I think he has the race-craft and determination to grind out a decent result tomorrow. The focus for the crew overnight will be to make the bike a bit easier to ride, particularly in the faster braking areas, and to create a bit more stability, which will be important over race distance. This isn’t Loris’s favourite track, but it is certainly his favourite weather, so I think he’ll be fired-up and pushing for his best result of the season so far tomorrow.

“It is a great disappointment not to have Álvaro competing for the rest of the weekend, but in the end the team and the medical staff at the track had to advise him to sit out and let the relatively minor injuries he has heal in time for Mugello. The combination of injuries would have significantly compromised his safety and possibly that of other riders. He’s disappointed, but we are now guaranteed that he’ll be fit and strong for Mugello and we’ll be looking forward to him building on his strong Jerez race performance.”

—  Bridgestone Report

Rossi pole at Le Mans as the temperature continues to climb Round 3: France GP – Qualifying Le Mans, Saturday 22 May 2010
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Soft, Medium (asymmetric – Med. only)

Bridgestone’s slick tyres were put to the test again today as the track temperature at Le Mans reached its highest yet at a peak of 44 degrees Celsius. Even in such conditions, Valentino Rossi used a soft rear Bridgestone slick to set a pole time 0.8seconds faster than the existing lap record.

The track conditions changed markedly from the morning’s free practice to the afternoon’s qualifying session. In the morning, the track temperature was just 25 degrees Celsius and the performance of both the harder and the softer rear options was similar. In the afternoon when the track temperature had risen to 44 degrees, still both tyres performed well indicating a temperature operating range of more than 20 degrees Celsius for each specification. This characteristic is a real achievement of the single tyre era that translates to much better production road tyres.

Almost all riders favoured the harder option front slick tyre as the stiffer rubber affords greater stability under braking, which is crucial at a stop-and-go circuit like Le Mans. Only Mika Kallio used the soft front Bridgestone slick. Jorge Lorenzo was second fastest and Dani Pedrosa third, the top three separated by just 0.16seconds. Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden line up on the second row of the grid, alongside Frenchman Randy de Puniet in sixth.

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“The temperature continues to be very high for Le Mans, but even if we could have predicted such temperatures here we would not have changed our compound selection. Although the track temperature is high, the surface is smooth so a softer tyre is needed to generate sufficient grip.

“We have also seen that even the soft rear can cope very well with a track temperature increase ofalmost 20 degrees Celsius, and I can say that we still have some temperature range left in both specifications so durability tomorrow will not be a problem. Wear rates were good after the qualifying session, even on the soft option rear, and Le Mans is a circuit that is not too demanding on tyres because of a lack of many long and fast corners.

“For tomorrow’s race the harder option front tyre looks to be the riders’ preferred choice, although rear tyre selection is likely to be more mixed based on machine setup and rider preference. Riders who want better outright edge grip will favour the softer option, but riders who want improved traction and stability through the right-handers will favour the medium rear tyre as this is the advantage given by the asymmetric construction.”

Kenny Noyes rode a storming Moto2 qualifying session to take pole position for Sunday’s race, posting a best lap of 1’39.234 to place his Promoharris machine team at the head of the grid. Noyes is the first American to take pole in the intermediate GP class since John Kocinski at the Australian 250cc GP in 1990.

As was the case in the earlier practice session there was little separating a large number of riders, with the top 27 all within a second of one another. Second fastest, at just 0.031s behind Noyes, was Yuki Takahashi who will ensure that his Tech3 team start their home race from an encouraging spot. Alex Debón joins them on the front row, as will Frenchman Jules Cluzel.

Fonsi Nieto and Sergio Gadea maintained their consistency from practice to take the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively, whilst Toni Elías recovered from an early crash to record the seventh quickest lap. Simone Corsi will complete the second row.

125cc

125cc World Championship leader Nico Terol will start the race at Le Mans from pole position, after he topped qualifying session with a best lap of 1’43.719. The Bancaja Aspar rider currently holds a seven-point advantage over Pol Espargaró in the championship standings, and the Tuenti Racing rider was second quickest in the session just 0.145s behind.

German youngster Sandro Cortese ensured that the front row will have a non-Spanish rider on it for the first time this season, and Marc Márquez will make it three Derbi machines out of four.

Bradley Smith looks to have rediscovered his pace on his Aprilia after a seizure on Friday, and will start from the front of the second row. The Brit set his best time of the session on his 19th and final lap, before suffering a small fall right at the end. Tomoyoshi Koyama, Randy Krummenacher and Danny Webb all set top-eight times as well to give themselves promising starting positions for Sunday.