Sepang front row start for Pedrosa in 2nd

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa will start tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix from 2nd place on the front row, his thirteenth front row start of the season, as he pursues Lorenzo in the chase for the 2012 World Championship. Team mate Casey Stoner will start from 4th, missing out on the front row by just two tenths of a second.

In an intense Qualifying session, which fortunately remained dry, the riders traded the top four spots throughout the session in the end Dani lost out on pole by just 0.194 seconds to Championship rival Lorenzo. With less than half a second separating the top four riders, Casey was unfortunate to miss out on the front row as he fights to return to full strength in just his second GP after his absence from three races due to injury.

The weather will play an important role in tomorrow’s 21 lap race as the race will start at 16h00 local time – a time when rain showers are a common occurrence.

DANI PEDROSA
“It was hard because we had a lot of chattering this afternoon and it was very difficult to get a clean lap as in some areas the bike was chattering too much, even in the straight! Nevertheless, we managed to get on the front row again and the second position is good. The pace is high and after missing FP2 yesterday because of the mixed conditions, this morning we’ve been working hard on the race pace. I just hope that we don’t have this chattering for the race. The weather can play an important role too, so we’ll have to see what happens tomorrow afternoon”.

Source: Repsol Honda Team