2012 Mugello MotoGP | Pedrosa Earns Pole

2012 Mugello MotoGP Qualifying Results

On a day that provided three scintillating qualifying sessions at the ninth MotoGP round at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM at Mugello under hot and sunny conditions, it was Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa who put in a record-breaking lap to take pole position for tomorrow’s premier-class race ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Héctor Barberá.

A new track record in the low 1.47s held off the charge of Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo, who had been setting the fastest lap until the final seconds, when a bike problem caused him to pit before completing the lap.

He stated afterwards that he lost engine power in the last few turns, yet the team had not discovered the root of the problem. Completing the front row is Pramac Racing Team’s Héctor Barberá, who silenced some of his critics by recording his first-ever front row in the MotoGP class.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP) says: “We definitely made another step forward today and to get the pole position here is great, although to always be on the front row is what really matters to me.

“We had a good practice in the morning and managed the timing well in qualifying to be on track when everybody started to improve the lap times. It will be a very hard race for sure, it’s very hot out there and the race pace will be also very high looking at the lap times this afternoon. I’m quite happy with the set up of my bike, we’ve had better grip today and I’m pretty confident, but we have to keep very focused and push at the maximum because Lorenzo has an incredible pace.”

Row two is headed by another Desmosedici in the form of Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, who continues to have good outright pace on the softer option rear tire. Lining up next to him is Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner in fifth, who entered the pits a couple of times in the final part of the session as he struggled with chatter and set-up on his bike. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow occupies sixth, despite having crashed at turn 12 with 13 minutes left in the session.

His teammate Andrea Dovizioso leads the third row in seventh, and did well to avoid a near crash towards the end, as he was pushing for a faster time. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl was able to improve on his weekend’s form by finishing in eighth. Lorenzo’s teammate Ben Spies will start from ninth, after suffering a crash in the same place as Crutchlow, after switching to the softer rear tire.

Ducati’s Valentino Rossi completes the top ten, as he could not get his bike to work on a track he has won at nine times in his career. He sighted that his main problem was lack of front-end feel on corner entry. San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista qualified down in 11th after suffering his third crash of the weekend in the morning practice.

CRT top spot went to Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró in 12th, after he had shown the most consistent pace of the new bikes all weekend. NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards, who had been evaluating a new Suter chassis today, qualified in 19th.

2012 Mugello MotoGP Qualifying Results: