After dominating both practice sessions leading up to qualifying today for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa carried that momentum into the one-hour qualifying session, qualifying on pole with a scorching new lap record of 1:39.730, over half a second quicker than second qualifier Jorge Lorenzo on his Fiat Yamaha M1. “It’s not easy being in front of the Yamahas in practice,” admitted Pedrosa, “so even though we’re in front, we have to stay focused and try and improve the package for tomorrow, because for sure the other riders will improve.” Lorenzo was able to drastically increase his pace in the first portion of qualifying, but wasn’t able to make much progress when Pedrosa went to the front. “We made a big step in the beginning of the qualifying session,” said Lorenzo, “but we weren’t able to improve it much for the rest of the session.” Fellow Fiat Yamaha teamster Valentino Rossi just managed to slot himself onto the front row at the waning seconds of the session, pushing San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex De Angelis to the second row and fourth spot on the leaderboard. Rossi complained of insufficient grip in all of the tires he tried. “I don’t have enough grip with the soft or hard tires, so we have a lot of problems,” lamented Rossi. “We worked a lot this afternoon trying to improve on it, but we still didn’t have the pace, so we have to step back and try and understand what is happening. At least we have a front row starting position, so it will be very interesting tomorrow.”
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa...
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa was on the gas all weekend, and easily qualified on pole at Indy with a new lap record that was over half a second quicker than the next rider.
Jorge Lorenzo was the quickest...
Jorge Lorenzo was the quickest Yamaha rider, slotting into second behind Pedrosa. He seems to be the only rider capable of keeping pace with the flying Honda rider at this point.
Valentino Rossi just managed...
Valentino Rossi just managed to qualify on the front row in the last minute of qualifying. He complained of grip problems with every tire he tried, so Burgess and crew will be working hard to fix things for tomorrow.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin...
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards was looking to improve on his fifth place qualifying spot, but uncharacteristically crashed in the last few minutes of the session, squelching his chances.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards qualified fifth despite an uncharacteristic crash late in the session just as he was looking to improve his time. “There’s a nasty bump in the back section that I nearly crashed on the lap before, so I’m coming up on the next lap going, ‘OK, where is it, where is it…?’ Next thing you know, boom, I was on the ground,” recalled Edwards. Behind him in sixth position and occupying the final spot on the second row was Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden, who benefited from chasing Pedrosa to help turn his quick lap.
Red Bull Indianapolis GP qualifying
- 1. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 1:39.730
- 2. Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha 1:40.236
- 3. Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha 1:40.609
- 4. Alex De Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:40.620
- 5. Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:40.961
- 6. Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro 1:41.067
- 7. Toni Elias San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:41.283
- 8. Andrea Dovisioso Repsol Honda 1:41.309
- 9. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki 1:41.530
- 10. James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:41.620