Colin Edwards
took his second MotoGP career pole at Donington Park today
with team-mate Valentino Rossi in second place, meaning that
between them the Fiat Yamaha riders have now filled the top
grid spot for six out of eight races this season. Edwards,
who also took his first ever MotoGP podium here in 2004, put
in a perfect lap of 1'28.531, 0.146 seconds ahead of Rossi,
with Dani Pedrosa filling the final front-row slot.
Following yesterday's rain, the British weather perked up a
little today and this morning the riders were rewarded with
their first dry track session. The pair finished the morning
in seventh and eighth places with Edwards generally pleased
about his initial dry set-up, although Rossi had a slight
incident when he ran off into the grass at turn one after
exiting from pit lane. This afternoon the track had
significantly more grip and times began to fall from the
start as the hour-long qualifying session commenced.
Rossi's first qualifying lap was good enough to put him on
pole and, despite valiant efforts from Casey Stoner, Nicky
Hayden and Pedrosa, he held onto the top spot until the very
end, when Edwards' second lap saw him edge his team-mate
into second place. Tomorrow's race gets underway at 1300
local time and, with showers forecast, the weather could
once again play a part in what promises to be another tense
MotoGP battle.
Colin Edwards
- Position: 1st Time: 1'28.531 Laps: 29
"I'm really happy so far this weekend. We made big steps
with our rain set-up yesterday and then today Michelin
brought the tyres I wanted and things were looking good in
the dry too. With the qualifying tyre things felt really
great once again and I'm seriously happy to be on pole here.
This track is known for the left turn down Craner, it's one
of the only lefts on the track and you need to have a lot of
confidence in that side of the tyre to really attack it.
With my second soft tyre I got the left side really warmed
up on my out lap and then just gave it everything I had. If
you really want pole you have to risk it a little bit;
that's what I did today and it paid off!
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