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MotoGP Silverstone qualifying report—Bautista gets first pole, Spies second

Rain in final minutes prevents others from making assault on Spaniard’s fast lap; Lorenzo fourth, Hayden seventh, Rossi 10th, Edwards 15thSILVERSTONE, ENGLAND, JUNE 16 – The typical British weather that’s been a plague throughout the British Grand Prix weekend didn’t give MotoGP qualifying a pass. In fact the weather played a large part in determining the pole position, which went to Alvaro Bautista, the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider who was on top when a light rain began to fall with about ten minutes to go. The rain didn’t amount to much on what was already a bitterly cold and windy day, but it prevented a number of top riders from fitting the soft option Bridgestone rear for one last shot at glory.

The pole position at Silverstone (2:03.303) was the first in the MotoGP class for Bautista, who had two rough years on the Rizla Suzuki team before replacing the late Marco Simoncelli on the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. The team continues to run in black livery in honor of Simoncelli, though they expect to change to their traditional white and red colors at some point. This could hasten the change.

“First pole, I miss this kind of thing,� Bautista said in fractured English while adding that he didn’t have any confidence in qualifying or the races for the past two years. “So I’m so happy for this pole.

“And not only for the pole, because I think we were very consistent all weekend during all practice and I’m so happy with the bike, with the team, because we work a lot to get more feeling on the bike.�

Speaking of his move to the Gresini team he said, that “it’s really difficult to get the good feeling so early, no? But I’m very confident in this weekend and I want to make tomorrow a good result. Today the conditions were a little bit difficult because rain coming and stop. And at the end I can get good rhythm and I just wait for tomorrow’s race, see which weather we have and just push the maximum and try to make a good result. I try to stay again here tomorrow.�




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