MotoGP Silverstone: Starting Grids

MotoGP Grids

Jorge Lorenzo secured his first pole position of the 2010 campaign at the AirAsia British Grand Prix after an exciting qualifying practice at Silverstone. The World Championship leader battled with Randy de Puniet through the latter stages of a cold afternoon session, finally edging the Frenchman out with a best time of 2’03.308.

De Puniet had stunned the rest of the field with 15 minutes to go when he stripped half a second off Lorenzo’s top time, and the LCR Honda man looked on course for his first-ever premier-class pole when he again improved on that.

However, his 2’03.434 was eventually the second fastest time as Lorenzo took pole back, and the Frenchman was left to be satisfied with his first front row start since Assen 2007. In trying to reclaim pole, De Puniet also experienced a crash right at the end of the session as he pushed hard, injuring his right thumb in the process with a deep cut.

Completing the front row will be Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who was 0.152s further back. The Spaniard set his fastest lap on his penultimate lap of the circuit, before also crashing out at Brooklands corner, which saw him stretchered off the side of the track.

X-rays at the medical centre confirmed that Pedrosa had only suffered bruising to his left and right knees after the bike ran over his legs, and luckily he will be able to take his position on the starting grid on Sunday.

Leading the second row will be another Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso, who was four-tenths of a second off his team-mate’s pace and the final rider to get within a second of Lorenzo (+0.687s). Ducati duo Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner had just 0.062s between them as they took fifth and sixth spots on the grid respectively.

The top ten in the session was completed by Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech3), San Carlo Honda Gresini pair Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli, and Spies’ team-mate Colin Edwards. Sunday’s MotoGP race will start at 1pm local time.

MotoGP Grid

Sliverstone: Moto2 Starting Grid

The Forward Racing team were celebrating a qualification one-two in Moto2 as Claudio Corti and Jules Cluzel took the top spots for Sunday’s Moto2 race at Silverstone. Corti’s first World Championship pole in just his fifth race was secured with a best lap of 2’09.624, making him the first rider under to go under 2’10” this weekend.

Cluzel was 0.413s off his team-mate’s pace as the Frenchman achieved his third successive front row grid position this season. Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) – 0.376s further back – and Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) were separated by just six-thousandths of a second as they completed an all Suter front row.

Yonny Hernández’s impressive weekend continued as the Blusens-STX rider set the fifth best time, and another rider who has stood out is Xavier Simeon. Riding as a replacement on the Holiday Gym G22 team the Belgian qualified with the sixth best time. Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept) and Arne Tode (Racing Team Germany) also put in strong displays to take second-row slots.

British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) will be on the third row having placed 12th, one place behind Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) who is currently second in the World Championship standings. Leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) was 18th in the session.

Moto2 Grid

Silverstone: 125cc GP Starting Grid

Marc Márquez will start the 125cc race from pole position on Sunday after topping qualifying at Silverstone, a best time of 2’14.667 on his final lap of the 40-minute session securing him his third pole of the 2010 campaign.

The late effort from Márquez pushed him in front of home rider Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar), who had become the first 125cc rider of the weekend to go under 2’15” with his 2’14.966 on his penultimate lap. That placed the Brit second, 0.146s ahead of Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing), with Championship leader Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar) nine-tenths off Márquez’s pace as he completed the front row.

Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) and British rider Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) will all start from the second row as they placed fifth to eighth in the session.

125 Grid