Pedrosa breaks pole record during frantic qualifying session, Marquez 6th

The sun finally came out in Tuscany as Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa claimed a sensational first pole position of the 2013 season in the dying seconds. His record breaking time of 1’47.157 on his final lap of 8, beats his record from 2012 by a tenth of a second (1’47.284).

Teammate Marc Marquez, who suffered a serious crash in yesterday’s FP2, was this morning diagnosed with a crack in the top of his humerus near the right shoulder and has significant swelling in his jaw. He cautiously went out on track in this morning’s FP3 and had a small accident but managed to avoid any further injury. He progressed through from Q1 with a time of 1’48.524. Then in Q2, he was able to improve by 0.7 with a 1’47.763 on lap 3 of 8, placing him 6th and on the second row for tomorrow’s 23 lap race.

Dani Pedrosa – 1st – 1’47.157
“Today the track conditions were good, the tyres worked well and we improved the bike. All this helped us a lot to increase our pace and this is the most important thing. Qualifying was difficult, because we were behind for a large part of the session, but we managed a great last lap and took pole. Now we have some ideas to improve the bike for tomorrow and hope to have a strong race”

Marc Marquez – 6th – 1’47.763
“Sixth place today was the best that we could have hoped for and I am very happy with this result. At the end of qualifying I was able to put in a hot lap, but the race tomorrow is going to be difficult and tough. I won’t be 100% physically, because I’m bruised and sore. My shoulder is bothering me the most, and we will see how it responds tomorrow. We are going to give our all, in any case, and see where we end up”

Source: Repsol Honda Team