Dani Pedrosa today set his fifth pole of the season at the Ricardo Tormo circuit to become the rider to have started from the front of the 250cc grid on most occasions this season.
Tomorrow he will aim to follow it up with another victory to complete two fantastic years in the class before taking the step up to MotoGP. The triple World Champion was in dominant form as Spanish riders took pole in all three categories, improving his previous best from last season by a second and dipping under the record set by Shinya Nakano in 2000.
Dani will start from the front row for the thirteenth time this season whilst his team mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, will be on the second row after improving his best time from yesterday by half a second to qualify sixth fastest. Hiro will use tomorrow’s warm up to improve his front suspension and try to find a setting which will allow him to fight for the podium in the last race of the year.
DANI PEDROSA (1st, 1’35”298): “we have done a good job in qualifying today although the race is tomorrow and that is the most important thing. I think we have found quite a good set-up although during this evening and tomorrow morning, we will try and improve a few small things. As far as the race is concerned, we will have to see what the weather and track conditions are like – there are a lot of fast riders and I am sure it will be difficult. It will also be special for me because it is my last in 250cc, the last of the season and it’s at home. It is really important to get a good start here and I will try my best to finish as high up as possible. Hopefully, everything will be okay”.
HIROSHI AOYAMA (6th, 1’36”038): “we are still suffering a bit with the front end although we have managed to adapt and take half a second off our time from yesterday. In the afternoon we made a few changes to the front fork that didn’t work well and we went back to the configuration from the morning. In the end, when I went out to do my fastest lap there was too much traffic and I didn´t have time to get a clear run to improve my grid position. Anyway, second place is not bad, I think I have been consistent all weekend and now I just need to keep up that pace with a couple of tenths off it.”
LAP TIMES
1. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda) 1’35”298
2. Héctor Barberá (Esp/Honda) + 0”232
3. Alex De Angelis (RSM/Aprilia) + 0”470
4. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Honda) + 0”644
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita/Honda) + 0”697
6. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda)+ 0”740