Pedrosa scores pole at Brno

Added on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Dani Pedrosa won the fight for pole position at Brno this afternoon, ahead of tomorrow’s MotoGP eleventh round of the season.

After a dominant performance in a wet free practice yesterday (Friday) Pedrosa was set for a seemingly strong weekend. As the qualifying hour began this afternoon, he temporarily faded as Jorge Lorenzo scored provisional pole position in the early stages. Determind not to be out done by his fellow Spaniard, Pedrosa launched an attack for top spot on a dry track this time around, which he won with a time of 1m56.591 seconds, to give the Repsol Honda rider his first pole position of the 2011 season.

Being forced from top spot left Lorenzo chasing Pedrosa for the remainder of the session. Unable to defeat his time, the Yamaha rider settled in second place, ahead of fellow earlier session leader and current championship leader Casey Stoner.

Ben Spies just missed out on a front row start, however managed to set the fourth quickest time. Marco Simoncelli will join him on the second row, with Valentino Rossi alongside as the Italian secured his best qualifying result of the season thus far.

Andrea Dovizioso stormed to seventh place on the third Repsol Honda machine, with Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden set to keep him company on eighth and ninth, respectively. Tough competition for the final top ten spot was finally won by Hiroshi Aoyama.

Brit Cal Cructhlow narrowly missed out on a top ten qualifying position, when he crashed with just twelve minutes left on the clock. An incident involving Karel Abraham saw Crutchlow get collected in the melee, which the Brit left with the eleventh fastest qualifying time and local rider Abraham at the back of the grid.

Toni Elias and Hector Barbera battled over twelfth and thirteenth place, whilst Alvaro Bautista will start fourteenth, Randy De Puniet fifteenth and Loris Capirossi sixteenth.

British Superbike regular John Hopkins returned to the series for this meeting, however after a crash in free practice yesterday (Friday) left him injured he has been deemed unfit to race his Rizla Suzuki machine.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Brno:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’56.591
2	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’56.704
3	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’56.860
4	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’57.178
5	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’57.351
6	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’57.367
7	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’57.442
8	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’57.676
9	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’57.721
10	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’57.784
11	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’57.797
12	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’58.245
13	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’58.273
14	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’58.274
15	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’58.889
16	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’58.938
17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’58.946
	John HOPKINS	USA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

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