Pedrosa on pole again

Added on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Pedrosa on fourth pole of the season

I'm happy to be on pole position

Dani Pedrosa grasped his fourth pole position of the year at San Marino this afternoon, to edge out Jorge Lorenzo for the privilege.

As the session was coming to an end Pedrosa leapt into the lead on his final lap, to push Lorenzo back to second. Championship leader Lorenzo had held the top spot earlier on in the qualifying hour before chief rival Pedrosa put in a quickest time of 1:33.948, as the only rider to sneak beneath the 1:34 times.

Casey Stoner slotted into third to complete the front row of the grid, after some handy work from his team to repair a damaged Ducati. Stoner had taken the lead in the early stages of the outing, however after crashing not long afterwards he was forced out temporarily while his team worked their magic. Valentino Rossi set the fourth fastest time at his home race, with Ben Spies and Randy De Puniet joining Rossi on the second row of the grid.

Colin Edwards and Andrea Dovizioso are next on the grid in seventh and eighth, respectively, with San Carlo Honda Gresini teammates Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri completing the top ten.

Commenting on his pole position, Pedrosa told MotoGP.com: “I’m happy to be on pole position because we were strong throughout practice and things have gone according to plan so far this weekend. We are doing a very good job at the moment, improving at every round and now we have the chance to have another good race. I’ve never won two MotoGP races in a row and this is a good challenge for me - I really want to go for it.”

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, San Marino:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1′33.948
2	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1′34.256
3	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Team	1′34.397
4	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1′34.470
5	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1′34.472
6	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1′34.751
7	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1′34.782
8	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1′34.826
9	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1′34.934
10	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1′35.018
11	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1′35.096
12	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	1′35.259
13	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	1′35.286
14	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1′35.303
15	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	1′35.438
16	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1′35.629
17	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing Team	1′35.724