Moto2 Jerez: Tomizawa Tops Qualifying

Moto2 Report

The new Honda-powered Moto2 World Championship produced a breathtakingly close qualifying session today; the fastest 20 riders separated by just 0.811 seconds! The pack was headed by Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Suter), the man who made history in Qatar by winning the inaugural Moto2 race.

The 19-year-old Japanese rider set the fastest lap with 22 minutes to go, then slid off his Suter MMX machine two minutes later. Despite that hiccup, the 19-year-old held onto pole position by just two thousands of a second from reigning 125 World Champion Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team, RSV).

Toni Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki) made it two Spaniards on the front row by recording the third fastest time, a further five hundredths of a second behind his compatriot. Elias – winner of the 2003 250 GP here and Moto2 pole position man in Qatar three weeks ago – is still riding in some discomfort, suffering from a nasty left-hand injury he sustained during a hefty crash at Jerez during preseason testing.

Last man on the front row was Yuki Takahashi (Tech 3 Racing, Tech 3), who was less than three hundredths of a second behind Elias and only one hundredth in front of second-row leader Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2, Moriwaki).

Weather conditions for tomorrow are expected to be slightly cooler than today, which should add an interesting twist to today’s performances in both MotoGP and Moto2.

MOTO2 FRONT ROW QUOTES

Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Suter – pole position at 1m 44.372s) says: "I think I was a bit lucky today, because when I crashed I never thought it possible that I could get pole position. I crashed with 20 minutes of the session remaining. I really wanted to continue my time attack, so I managed to ride the bike back to the pit box, where my mechanics worked very hard to repair the bike. They did a great job, so my thanks to them, and I was able to go back out on the track. I wanted to check everything and test the setup once more because the chassis settings have not been perfect so far. We will think a lot this evening and try and find a solution to make the machine even better for the race. This class is very tough, so even though I am on pole position I would never say I will win this race because I am only two thousandths ahead of Simon. In fact I wouldn’t even say I will finish on the podium because all the lap times are so close."

Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team, RSV – second at 1m 44.374s) says: "This has not been an easy two days for us, because we started out with some revised chassis parts. We worked hard with them but in the end we decided to go back with the parts we used at Qatar and the bike was immediately much better. I hope we can have a good race here, because we were obviously very disappointed at Qatar when we had problems with the clutch after the start. The start tomorrow will be very important and Shoya will be very difficult to beat; he is very strong."

Toni Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki – third at 1m 44.424s)says: "We have struggled with setup here, so we will try some more changes for tomorrow in order to recover something for the race. The foot I injured in preseason testing is okay now, but I still have some problems with my left hand – I can’t put full pressure through the handlebars, which is a real problem when turning and making direction changes."

Yuki Takahashi (Tech 3 Racing, Tech 3 – fourth at 1m 44.463s)says: "We have done a good job here. The setup of my Tech 3 machine was good yesterday afternoon and we have worked hard from that initial setting to get a good race setup. After crashing in Qatar, I really want to score a good result for the team."
Pole position : 1m44.372s (152.558Km/h) Shoya Tomizawa, Technomag-CI

Moto2 Jerez: Qualifying Positions