Pedrosa on pole in Jerez

Added on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Dani Pedrosa flew around the Jerez circuit this afternoon in qualifying for tomorrow’s MotoGP extravaganza, setting a fastest time of 1:39.202s.

After fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo led the session for much of the hour, Pedrosa stole the limelight on his twenty third if twenty five laps. Lorenzo for forced to accept a second place start, however with two Spaniards leading the way the crowd were ecstatic.

Following on from a difficult outing last time around at the season opener, Casey Stoner steered his works Ducati to third on the grid for tomorrow’s race, proving he was back on top form and eager to make amends for his Qatar incident.

Lorenzo’s FIAT Yamaha teammate, Valentino Rossi, recorded the fourth fastest time to lead the way from the second row of thr grid, while Nicky Hayden qualified fifth, after recovering from a heavy crash in free practice.

Randy De Puniet will start alongside Rossi and Hayden in sixth, with Colin Edwards seventh, Ben Spies eighth, Andrea Dovizioso ninth and Marco Melandri competing the top ten in tenth.

After soaring to his 14th pole position, Pedrosa told MotoGP.com: “It’s always nice to get pole position and especially here because it is my home race and the support from the fans is amazing, so I’m very happy for them. I really didn’t expect this pole to be honest, but I was pushing very hard so I’m very pleased about it.”

It was a thrilling qualifying session, with the top six separated by just 0.4 seconds, and the full top ten separated by less than 0.9 seconds. With everyone ready for the second race of the season to kick off it’s looking like it will be another excitement filled race – but who will be there at the end to collect the spoils? Let’s see what tomorrow brings as the chequered flag falls.

MotoGP, Qualifying, Jerez:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’39.202
2	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’39.487
3	27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’39.511
4	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’39.558
5	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’39.560
6	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’39.591
7	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’39.970
8	11	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’39.989
9	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’40.021
10	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’40.027
11	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’40.206
12	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	1’40.322
13	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’40.416
14	40	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	1’40.482
15	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	1’40.555
16	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’40.586
17	36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing Team	1’40.803