Dani Pedrosa edged countryman Jorge Lorenzo by three one-thousandths of a second in Spain to claim consecutive number two slots in MotoGP qualifying, while Honda team-mate Casey Stoner sealed his second pole position in a row.
Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner had variously set the top mark in cool, windy conditions, and only 0.161 seconds covered the front row berths, with Stoner’s best of 1m 38.757s just 0.158s ahead of Pedrosa, and Lorenzo just 0.003s further adrift on the Yamaha. The third of the works Honda riders, Andrea Dovizioso, qualified in a useful sixth place on the grid.
Gresini Racing
A number of crashes peppered the session, with another for the unlucky Randy de Puniet on the Pramac Ducati after his wipeout in the last race in Qatar, and also for Gresini Honda’s Hiroshi Aoyama (pictured, above), whose off looked at one stage as if it might be serious after Aoyama’s bike collected him mid-crash and delivered a blow to his left leg. One quick check later and the Japanese rider was back on-track on the spare bike, which he qualified an impressive 10th.
Meanwhile, in the Moto2 quali session, there were also plenty of crashes, falls and other action. Marc Márquez lost the front end of his Suter, temporarily halting the session, though the Spaniard recovered to start fourth tomorrow. Scott Redding spent much of qualifying in the garage while mechanics repaired damage from an early accident on his Suter, but the Briton did manage to finish the day 13th on the grid, one place behind Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu, also on a Suter.
Want more?
- The inside line on MotoGP Qatar
- Official MotoGP website
- Latest blogs from Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez
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