Sensational pole position record for Dani Pedrosa in Valencia GP

The Grand Prix of la Comunidad Valenciana will see Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa starting in pole position and Casey Stoner from third in a highly anticipated season finale.
 
Dani Pedrosa, the only rider who has won at Valencia in all three classes, set a new pole record on his last flying lap (1’30.844) beating Valentino Rossi’s old record by 0.158 seconds (1’31.002) which Rossi recorded using qualifying tyres in 2006. Dani took his fifth pole of the season, while Casey Stoner joins him on the front row of the grid for the tenth race this year after setting a fast lap of 1’31.428.
 
It was a very busy qualifying session for the Repsol Honda Team, the only dry session so far this weekend, and Dani and Casey worked hard to find the best setup and test the new asphalt. Tyre choice will be key if the race is dry tomorrow, but at the moment the weather forecast still remains uncertain.

DANI PEDROSA
“It was almost a perfect lap and I gave 100% because I knew I wouldn’t be able to improve any more as the tyres were very good for the first lap and then the drop in grip was quite severe. I’m very happy with the pole position and the new record because Valentino’s old record was done with qualifying tyres. We had only one dry session to test the new asphalt and we saw that the grip level is a little better but the tyres dropped down very quick. We still have to decide on the tyres for tomorrow because we have used only the soft compound, but it depends on the weather – if it rains we will need to take what we learned yesterday. I really would like to win here and finish the season with a good race”.

Source: Repsol Honda Team