motogp Álvaro Bautista will start tomorrow’s Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya from the third row of the grid after qualifying in ninth place this afternoon.
motogp Bautista again made solid progress today as he prepared his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R for Sunday’s main event. His lap-times improved throughout the qualifying session as he worked with his team to get the best grid position for tomorrow’s race. Bautista’s ninth place equals his starting position from last year; when he went on to record his equal best season finish of fifth in the race.
Álvaro Bautista:
“It’s was a good day’s practice because we improved on yesterday’s rhythm and lap-times. I tried a different setting in the shock with the harder tyres this morning, but I didn’t like it too much, so for this afternoon we continued with the same setting as yesterday. I tested the hard front and soft rear tyres, but I didn’t really have a good feeling from the front, especially under hard braking when entering a corner, so I changed to a soft front and was able to get a good feeling and keep my place in the top 10. At the end of the qualifying session we put on a new set of tyres to make a good lap for the best grid position and I did my best lap alone – without following other riders. On this track if you follow someone you can get a good time, but I am happy with my time because in each practice I improved by one second. My feeling with the bike is still not 100%, but it is getting much better. I have a lot more confidence now than the first practice and I am getting more aggressive, so I hope to get the same feeling in the race! The third row is a good position and it is the same as last year and tomorrow – depending on the weather – we will have a good race. I want to say thank-you to my crew because they are working very hard to give me a bike that gives me the confidence I need after my injury. I will try to enjoy tomorrow’s race and hope that they enjoy it too!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Álvaro has done a good job to pick up the pace today. His self-confidence is starting to come back, and to qualify the bike only a second from pole – with the intensity at the front of the pack as it is – is definitely a reasonable result. The plan was for the season to really start here after his accident and it’s been difficult to know where we are after the injury in Qatar, so it will be a proper test tomorrow to try and translate the third row start in to a decent result.”
Bradl claims fifth consecutive pole in Barcelona
Championship leader Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) set pole position for this weekend’s Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya. Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) will join Bradl on the front row for Sunday’s race.
The German rider Bradl set a fastest lap time of 1’46.753 which makes his the only Moto2 rider to reach a Moto2 pole position for all five rounds of the 2011 season to date. He was 0.114s quicker than Aleix Espargaró, who ran up front in the top three for much of the session and qualified in second position, and 0.225s in front of third place qualifier Yuki Takahashi.
Dark clouds threatened but the conditions remained dry, until the final 18 minutes which saw a few big drops hit the track but otherwise held back. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) missed out on a first row start for the first time this year, and will start in fourth. Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) on the Suter bike will start fifth on the grid with a qualifying time of 1’47.154, followed by Bradley Smith (Tech 3). Smith, who finished in the top three practice times yesterday, had an early end to his qualifying session, crashing out during the final twenty minutes, though fortunately was uninjured.
Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing), whose highest grid spot so far this season had been 14th, will start the race from the third row in seventh spot. Current second place rider in the championship, Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) will start from eighth place on the third row. Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) follows the Finn in ninth, starting from his best grid position this year in ninth.
Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) heads the fourth row, missing out on a third row start by just 0.030s. He is followed by Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) in twelfth.
Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project), who was fastest yesterday and looked promising to land a top three qualifying spot, crashed out of the session in turn 9. He will start the race from 15th position.
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