For the British Grand PrixColin 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
“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! My race pace feels pretty good and it was fairly consistent this afternoon, I need to study the data with my guys now to really know exactly where we are but we're definitely in good shape for tomorrow. Thanks a lot to Michelin and to all my team, they've done a great job so far."
Valentino Rossi
"When the bike and tyres are feeling good this is a fantastic track to ride and now with these new 800s you can use all the best lines, so it's a great feeling. Unfortunately I got a little bit blocked by another rider on my lap and I lost a bit of time, but anyway Colin and I are one and two so this is the most important thing and I want to say well done to Colin. This morning was not brilliant for us but this afternoon things were a lot better and my bike felt very good. Thanks to Michelin because they've brought some good tyres here and they seem to be working well with our bike; we have two good race tyres to choose from for tomorrow. Now let's hope that it stays dry like this for the race!"
Davide Brivio
“It's been a very good day for us! Luckily it's stayed dry all day and so we had some time to work on our dry set-up this morning. Colin this morning was not bad although Valentino had some problems. Then this afternoon things improved a lot for us and Valentino recovered to be able to fight for the front row with Colin. It's great for us to have our riders in the top two positions and now we're aiming for the same tomorrow."
Fiat Yamaha
