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October 22nd, 2011, 08:40 AM
2011 MotoGP Sepang Malaysia qualifying practice report/results—Hondas sweep
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With the Yamaha team hurting, Honda took advantage to sweep the front row for the Malaysian Grand Prix; Edwards fourth, Hayden sixth, Rossi ninth, Hopkins out. (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1110_2011_motogp_sepang_malaysia_saturday_qualifying_report_results_honda_sw eep/index.html)SEPANG, MALAYSIA, OCT 22 – Repsol Hondas put on a show in MotoGP qualifying on a sweltering day at the Sepang International Circuit, with the three amigos sweeping the front row for the first time this season and almost certain to sweep the podium with little in the way of opposition.
What opposition there’s been this season has mostly eliminated itself. Jorge Lorenzo is home on the island of Majorca nursing his mangled finger. Teammate Ben Spies pulled out of Sunday’s race about four and a half hours after qualifying next to last; only Lorenzo’s stand-in, 30-year-old Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was slower. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) may put up a fight, but he’ll need more pace. And other than that, the Honda boys should have the run of the place.
Dani Pedrosa took his second pole of the season-the first was in the Czech Republic-by rebounding from an early crash and making the most of the softer option Bridgestone rear. The soft tire was the hot ticket for the hot track; track temperatures were 115F. Everyone set their fast times on the softer rear. But whether it would last race distance was a question no one had the answer to.
Asked if he’d made up his mind on tire choice, Pedrosa answered, “Not yet. I try both tires and am able to go fast with both tires; obviously they are different. With the soft you feel more grip, with the hard you spin more, but still able to go quick. So it’s not clear. I think for most of the riders it’s the same situation.” Ducati Marlboro’s Valentino Rossi, who qualified ninth, said he’d make his decision at race time, 4:00 p.m., two hours later than usual.
Recently crowned world champion Casey Stoner missed out on his 12th pole of the season by .029 sec. The blink of an eye. He was happy with his race pace and felt there was more in the bike. Having clinched the title he was under less pressure, but winning never gets old.
“Yeah, I mean, things look a little worse than what they actually are for us,” he said. “We’ve been running a hard tire all weekend, trying to get a good feeling with it. And we’ve slowly made little sort of inroads on it, but we haven’t made enough improvement, basically, over the last two days. So we’ve still got a little bit of work to do before tomorrow, but our race pace isn’t too far off. We’ve still got a little bit left to push a little bit harder and at the same time I think we can improve the bike a little bit, so that should help out.”
Andrea Dovizioso, in his penultimate race on the Repsol Honda, was third, having earlier been on top. In fact, a Honda rider held the top spot for the entire hour, held in 88F heat and oppressive humidity. Dovi had pushed Rossi to victory last year, finishing second.
“I don’t know how will be the race tomorrow, because you have to do a strategy,” he said. “It’s difficult to push 100% for 20 laps here. We have to see the rhythm, the start, and the weather.”
Colin Edwards was the surprising choice to end the Honda qualifying lineup. Surprising because this was his best qualifying effort of the year and best since taking fourth in qualifying at Valencia in 2008. Ironically for the Texan who has only two more races with Yamaha, and who’s engaged in a very public dispute with some members of Yamaha Motors Europe, he was the Yamaha standard-bearer today. Not entirely by design, of course.
“I feel like I’ve been dragged under a truck,” Spies said. “It was a rough qualifying but we tried to do the best we could. Then just came in for the first qualifying tire and I wasn’t able to do a lap and said I was having a problem with the front tire and was tucking the front for no reason and put the second tire on and on the first lap I lost the front and it turned into a little bit of a high-side, but I don’t really know how it happened actually. It was a weird deal and I’m not able to be on top of things right now and not able to be quick enough to fix the mistakes but it was a rough qualifying session and we’ll try and get rested up try to get ready for tomorrow.” The best he could hope for was a top ten, he added.
Edwards was “ecstatic with that result because to get a fourth place in any session against this level of competition is a pretty big achievement. I said yesterday that we rolled the bike out of the crate hot and today I felt even more confident. Usually I have a really good couple of tests in February and then come back for the race and I have an awful time. But with this year's chassis I'm really enjoying this track.”
Next to Edwards on row two was Simoncelli, with Nicky Hayden tying his season best sixth from last weekend in Australia.
“You know, I mean it wasn't a disaster day, definitely a lot better than yesterday,” Hayden said. “The team did a good job. They worked really hard last night some different wheelbase, geometry also a pretty big refine to the traction control. And improved the lap time a lot and in the end was on the second row.
“I thought, you know, the bike had a little bit more in it. My ideal time was 2:01.9 and that was definitely possible. I mean, the front row would have been tough, but fourth was definitely very possible. But on the last run I was pushing the front a lot with the last soft rear and nearly came off a couple times. Was lucky to save it.”
Teammate Rossi was back on row three behind Hiro Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Alvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), riders he’s become accustomed to racing with. It wasn’t like that last year here, when Rossi won for the last time. His struggles with the front end of the Ducati continued, with a front end tuck in qualifying.
“We call it the f---ing vibration, because it’s at the last moment before the black hole,” he said in Italian. They call it that because that’s the last thing he understands before crashing. And nothing has fixed it since he first rode the bike. “No, Always the same. So we work a lot, but we are not able to fix,” he said.
Neither was Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins able to fix his finger problems. The finger on his right hand that he’d originally damaged in the Czech Grand Prix continued to be a problem. He thought he’d be able to ride through the pain barrier, but it was more than that. Upon waking very early on Saturday he discovered that the screws had come out of place and jagged metal was floating in his finger.
“It’s not even about riding through pain. It’s like severe damage can be caused now that there’s jagged metal that’s open within the finger,” he said. Surgery would be performed in the days after he arrives home near San Diego “because the metal will have to come out, so it’ll be 25 surgeries now, total. I’m not happy about it.”
Sepang MotoGP Qualifying Results:
</br> 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 2:01.462</br> 2. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 2:01.491</br> 3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Honda 2:01.666</br> 4. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 2:02.010</br> 5. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Honda 2:02.105</br> 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 2:02.172</br> 7. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Honda 2:02.254</br> 8. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Suzuki 2:02.332</br> 9. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati 2:02.395</br> 10. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 2:02.756</br> 16. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 2:03.768 </br>
Photo Gallery: 2011 MotoGP Sepang Malaysia qualifying practice report/results—Hondas sweep - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1110_2011_motogp_sepang_malaysia_saturday_qualifying_report_results_honda_sw eep/index.html)
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With the Yamaha team hurting, Honda took advantage to sweep the front row for the Malaysian Grand Prix; Edwards fourth, Hayden sixth, Rossi ninth, Hopkins out. (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1110_2011_motogp_sepang_malaysia_saturday_qualifying_report_results_honda_sw eep/index.html)SEPANG, MALAYSIA, OCT 22 – Repsol Hondas put on a show in MotoGP qualifying on a sweltering day at the Sepang International Circuit, with the three amigos sweeping the front row for the first time this season and almost certain to sweep the podium with little in the way of opposition.
What opposition there’s been this season has mostly eliminated itself. Jorge Lorenzo is home on the island of Majorca nursing his mangled finger. Teammate Ben Spies pulled out of Sunday’s race about four and a half hours after qualifying next to last; only Lorenzo’s stand-in, 30-year-old Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was slower. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) may put up a fight, but he’ll need more pace. And other than that, the Honda boys should have the run of the place.
Dani Pedrosa took his second pole of the season-the first was in the Czech Republic-by rebounding from an early crash and making the most of the softer option Bridgestone rear. The soft tire was the hot ticket for the hot track; track temperatures were 115F. Everyone set their fast times on the softer rear. But whether it would last race distance was a question no one had the answer to.
Asked if he’d made up his mind on tire choice, Pedrosa answered, “Not yet. I try both tires and am able to go fast with both tires; obviously they are different. With the soft you feel more grip, with the hard you spin more, but still able to go quick. So it’s not clear. I think for most of the riders it’s the same situation.” Ducati Marlboro’s Valentino Rossi, who qualified ninth, said he’d make his decision at race time, 4:00 p.m., two hours later than usual.
Recently crowned world champion Casey Stoner missed out on his 12th pole of the season by .029 sec. The blink of an eye. He was happy with his race pace and felt there was more in the bike. Having clinched the title he was under less pressure, but winning never gets old.
“Yeah, I mean, things look a little worse than what they actually are for us,” he said. “We’ve been running a hard tire all weekend, trying to get a good feeling with it. And we’ve slowly made little sort of inroads on it, but we haven’t made enough improvement, basically, over the last two days. So we’ve still got a little bit of work to do before tomorrow, but our race pace isn’t too far off. We’ve still got a little bit left to push a little bit harder and at the same time I think we can improve the bike a little bit, so that should help out.”
Andrea Dovizioso, in his penultimate race on the Repsol Honda, was third, having earlier been on top. In fact, a Honda rider held the top spot for the entire hour, held in 88F heat and oppressive humidity. Dovi had pushed Rossi to victory last year, finishing second.
“I don’t know how will be the race tomorrow, because you have to do a strategy,” he said. “It’s difficult to push 100% for 20 laps here. We have to see the rhythm, the start, and the weather.”
Colin Edwards was the surprising choice to end the Honda qualifying lineup. Surprising because this was his best qualifying effort of the year and best since taking fourth in qualifying at Valencia in 2008. Ironically for the Texan who has only two more races with Yamaha, and who’s engaged in a very public dispute with some members of Yamaha Motors Europe, he was the Yamaha standard-bearer today. Not entirely by design, of course.
“I feel like I’ve been dragged under a truck,” Spies said. “It was a rough qualifying but we tried to do the best we could. Then just came in for the first qualifying tire and I wasn’t able to do a lap and said I was having a problem with the front tire and was tucking the front for no reason and put the second tire on and on the first lap I lost the front and it turned into a little bit of a high-side, but I don’t really know how it happened actually. It was a weird deal and I’m not able to be on top of things right now and not able to be quick enough to fix the mistakes but it was a rough qualifying session and we’ll try and get rested up try to get ready for tomorrow.” The best he could hope for was a top ten, he added.
Edwards was “ecstatic with that result because to get a fourth place in any session against this level of competition is a pretty big achievement. I said yesterday that we rolled the bike out of the crate hot and today I felt even more confident. Usually I have a really good couple of tests in February and then come back for the race and I have an awful time. But with this year's chassis I'm really enjoying this track.”
Next to Edwards on row two was Simoncelli, with Nicky Hayden tying his season best sixth from last weekend in Australia.
“You know, I mean it wasn't a disaster day, definitely a lot better than yesterday,” Hayden said. “The team did a good job. They worked really hard last night some different wheelbase, geometry also a pretty big refine to the traction control. And improved the lap time a lot and in the end was on the second row.
“I thought, you know, the bike had a little bit more in it. My ideal time was 2:01.9 and that was definitely possible. I mean, the front row would have been tough, but fourth was definitely very possible. But on the last run I was pushing the front a lot with the last soft rear and nearly came off a couple times. Was lucky to save it.”
Teammate Rossi was back on row three behind Hiro Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Alvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), riders he’s become accustomed to racing with. It wasn’t like that last year here, when Rossi won for the last time. His struggles with the front end of the Ducati continued, with a front end tuck in qualifying.
“We call it the f---ing vibration, because it’s at the last moment before the black hole,” he said in Italian. They call it that because that’s the last thing he understands before crashing. And nothing has fixed it since he first rode the bike. “No, Always the same. So we work a lot, but we are not able to fix,” he said.
Neither was Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins able to fix his finger problems. The finger on his right hand that he’d originally damaged in the Czech Grand Prix continued to be a problem. He thought he’d be able to ride through the pain barrier, but it was more than that. Upon waking very early on Saturday he discovered that the screws had come out of place and jagged metal was floating in his finger.
“It’s not even about riding through pain. It’s like severe damage can be caused now that there’s jagged metal that’s open within the finger,” he said. Surgery would be performed in the days after he arrives home near San Diego “because the metal will have to come out, so it’ll be 25 surgeries now, total. I’m not happy about it.”
Sepang MotoGP Qualifying Results:
</br> 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 2:01.462</br> 2. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 2:01.491</br> 3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Honda 2:01.666</br> 4. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 2:02.010</br> 5. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Honda 2:02.105</br> 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 2:02.172</br> 7. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Honda 2:02.254</br> 8. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Suzuki 2:02.332</br> 9. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati 2:02.395</br> 10. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 2:02.756</br> 16. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 2:03.768 </br>
Photo Gallery: 2011 MotoGP Sepang Malaysia qualifying practice report/results—Hondas sweep - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1110_2011_motogp_sepang_malaysia_saturday_qualifying_report_results_honda_sw eep/index.html)
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