23-year-old Lorenzo was fastest once again in morning practice but spent most of the qualifying session a little further down the standings, as he concentrated on perfecting his race set-up and gathering as much information as possible about the two available Bridgestone tyre compounds. With just under ten minutes to go he leapt up the leader board to take pole, surrendering it briefly to Stoner before improving again on both of his next two laps to ensure himself a hat-trick of pole positions from the last three races.
Having learnt the track yesterday, Yoshikawa was able to spend a little more time today working on the set-up of his M1, finishing 17th. He made a significant improvement and is hopeful of gathering some useful information and improving further still during tomorrow’s race.
With more soaring temperatures today, tomorrow’s 25-lap race looks like being a scorching affair when the lights go out at 1400 CET.
Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 1stTime: 1’42.046Laps: 29
“I’m really happy with this third pole position, it seems we’re doing a very good job and it’s very special to get it at my home round. It was a hard session but finally I was able to do some quick laps at the end with the soft tyre. It is so hot here and I think it’s easy to say that tomorrow will be the hardest race so far this season. I will have to concentrate extra hard in this weather and also make sure that my physical condition is the best it can be. The tyres are going to be very important and we still have to make a final choice; before the practice we thought we had chosen but we’re not so sure now so we will have to make our final decision tomorrow after warm-up.”
Wataru Yoshikawa – Position: 17th Time: 1’45.759 Laps: 20
“I think I did a bit better on this second day here in Barcelona, and now that I understood the track more I was able to work on some small setting details and make some adjustments. I think that I can improve even more tomorrow, even though the race will be very hard. I will do my best to stay in touch and use the time to gather as much information as possible, which can help Yamaha in future development.” Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager Davide Brivio – Team Manager Spies and Edwards prepared for tough battle in Spanish sauna Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Ben Spies and Colin Edwards are gearing themselves up for potentially the hardest race of the 2010 MotoGP world championship campaign at the Catalunya circuit tomorrow. Today’s qualifying session at the 4.727km circuit near Barcelona took place in sweltering heat, with the American duo preparing to start from fifth and 11th on the grid for the 25-lap race. Scorching hot conditions at the fast and technical circuit are likely to be repeated tomorrow, with Spies and Edwards putting in tremendous effort all weekend to get their YZR-M1 machines set-up to cope with the extreme weather. Spies will start from fifth on the grid, the Texan disappointed he couldn’t improve on his best time of 1.42.710 having encountered a slower rider while pushing hard on his last soft compound Bridgestone tyre. The 25-year-old though remains confident of extending his outstanding form in his first full MotoGP season after completing an endurance run of 20-laps this afternoon. The long run, five laps short of full race distance, gave Spies a wealth of information on Bridgestone’s hard tyre in the extreme conditions often only experienced at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Air tempera ture peaked at 35 degrees and track temperature a sizzling 53 degrees, but Spies was able to lap consistently in the low 1.43s bracket in full race trim. He missed equalling his best premier class qualifying result of fourth by just 0.118s, but is confident he will be a strong contender for a third successive top four finish. Edwards will start from the fourth row having set a best time of 1.43.059. Edwards called on all his vast experience to try and improve turning performance on his YZR-M1 machine while also fine-tuning suspension settings to gain maximum tyre endurance in the intense heat. His hard work though was only rewarded with 11th, Edwards missing a top six grid position by less than 0.3s in another closely fought and exciting session. |
Ben Spies – Position: 5th Time: 1’42.710 Laps: 30
“We did close to a full race simulation at the beginning just to see how it was, check how the bike is going to be in the heat and when the grip drops off. The first ten laps won’t decide the race here and that’s why I wanted to do the distance run. I was only going to do ten laps but I ended up staying out and doing 20 and we got some good information. I was pretty happy with the performance of the bike and physically I felt great. I tried to put in a couple of quick laps at the end on the soft tyre and I rode really hard to get myself up the grid. I’m pretty upset because Espargaro blocked me. He saw me coming and didn’t even move and I was lucky because that was already on my third lap on the last soft tyre I had available. I had to do my fastest lap on the fourth lap on the tyre and I didn’t think I’d get as high as fifth and was worried I’d be a lot further down. So considering that, I’m pretty happy with how it ended. It will be a tough race but I’ll be giving it my all to continue the momentum I gained with good results at Silverstone and Assen.” |
Colin Edwards – Position: 11th Time: 1’43.059 Laps: 26
“Nobody wants to be down in 11th, least of all me, but I know I am riding better than ever and that is all I can do with the package we have got. It is really tough to go any faster than I am and it is not through a lack of trying on my part and my crew at Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Obviously it is unbelievably hot out there and we’ve spent a lot of time concentrating on getting the bike to work good at the end of the race when everybody is go ing to be chasing grip. If I race with the hard tyre I can probably be fighting for tenth and if I go with the soft tyre then at least I might be able to get in a good rhythm early on and see where we end up. But it is going to be tough and I’ll sit down with my crew and Bridgestone tonight and see what they say about tyre choice for the race. I’ll be giving it my all as usual but it is a little bit frustrating at the moment. I am so close to the top six on the times but I can’t physically ride the bike any harder than I am to get those last couple of tenths I need to be higher up.” |
| Circuit Length: 4727 Weather: DryLap Record: 1’43.195 (Valentino Rossi, 01/01/2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1’41.186 (Casey Stoner, 08/06/2008) Last Years Winner: Valentino Rossi |
| 2010 MotoGP – Catalunya 03/07/2010 |
| Qualifying 1 |
| Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time |
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | ESP | 1’42.046 |
| 2 | Casey Stoner | Ducati | AUS | 1’42.410 |
| 3 | Randy De Puniet | Honda | FRA | 1’42.512 |
| 4 | Daniel Pedrosa | Honda | ESP | 1’42.592 |
| 5 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 1’42.710 |
| 6 | Andrea Dovizioso | Honda | ITA | 1’42.886 |
| 7 | Loris Capirossi | Suzuki | ITA | 1’42.903 |
| 8 | Marco Simoncelli | Honda | ITA | 1’42.994 |
| 9 | Alvaro Bautista | Suzuki | ESP | 1’43.025 |
| 10 | Colin Edwards | Yamaha | USA | 1’43.059 |
| 11 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | USA | 1’43.068 |
| 12 | Aleix Espargaro | Ducati | ESP | 1’43.380 |
| 13 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | ESP | 1’43.417 |
| 14 | Marco Melandri | Honda | ITA | 1’43.621 |
| 15 | Mika Kallio | Ducati | FIN | 1’43.685 |
| 17 | Wataru Yoshikawa | Yamaha | JPN | 1’45.759 |
