Pedrosa takes 11th podium with second place as Aoyama repeats third
DANIEL PEDROSA
(2nd): “It was a really tough race because of the heat, which was over 40ºC. It was really suffocating and the tyres, especially the front, suffered as much as I did. The heat also affected the performance of the engine and gave the Aprilias a bit of an advantage, but I am really happy with the result. Porto and myself set a really high pace, I didn’t expect to go so fast. At the end Porto took a second and a half from me but I tried to catch him a few times and then decided to back off and take second, which is a great result”.
HIROSHI AOYAMA
(3rd): “I surpassed all my expectations in this race, it is a great result for me. I am almost as happy with this podium as I was in Motegi. To be honest I was a bit lucky with the problem that de Angelis had, but I pushed as hard as I could to the end. I knew it would be unbelievably hot but it was the same for everybody and we all had to keep our concentration to the end. This is my second podium of the season and I would love to keep going like this for the last three races”.
ALBERTO PUIG
(Team manager): “It’s a really satisfactory result for the team. Second place for Dani means we leave here in a good position, we knew that Porto was riding well but we did what we could and we were beaten – that’s the way things are. But we leave Qatar even stronger than before and now the advantage at the top is over Porto. Hiro had a great race and was able to take advantage of De Angelis’ problems, but he rode really well and you can’t take anything away from him.”
GP OF QATAR
1. Sebastián Porto (Arg/Aprilia) 41’17”343
2. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda) + 1”614
3. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda) + 43”312
4. Franco Battaini (Ita/Aprlia) + 45”127
250 CC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.
- Dani Pedrosa 254 p.
- Sebastian Porto 211 p.
- Randy De Puniet 187 p.
4. Toni Elías 152 p.
5. Hiroshi Aoyama 119 p.