Pedrosa smashes lap record with stunning pole, Marquez on second row
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has broken the lap record and was over half a second faster than his rivals as he stormed into pole position for tomorrow’s GP of Catalunya.
He clocked a lap of 1’40.893 on his 5th lap of 8, breaking the previous record of 1’41.186, recorded by Casey Stoner in 2008 when qualifying tyres were still in use, by 0.293s. This is Dani’s second and successive pole position of the season and it comes on the weekend of his 200th GP start. He becomes only the 19th rider to reach this milestone in the 65-year history of grand prix racing.
After being quickest in this morning’s FP3 session, Dani’s teammate Marc Marquez narrowly missed out on the front row by just 0.276s and will start tomorrow’s 25 lap race from 6th position on the grid.
Tyre choice will be crucial tomorrow as temperatures continue to rise. It is expected that the front tyre option will be the hard compound but the rear tyre is still not decided. The soft compound will lose grip quickly on the hot asphalt so riders may choose the hard compound for the first time this season.
Dani Pedrosa – 1st – 1’40.893
“I am very happy, because we put in a great lap and took a great qualifying time. It was a fantastic pole position for me. We also broke the circuit record and were able to do so in front of the home fans. I am also happy about improving our race pace, as this is the most important thing. We hope to put on a good show tomorrow and take full advantage of the front row start”
Marc Marquez – 6th – 1’41.842
“I am fairly happy and satisfied, because we achieved our objective of getting onto either the first or second row. In the morning I felt more comfortable, with the track temperatures lower than in the afternoon. When they rose sharply, we had more problems. Despite this, I think that we have done a good job. We will try to test out a few things in the warmup tomorrow and see if we can gain a little more confidence when the track is hotter”
Source: Repsol Honda Team
