Alvaro Bautista reaped the fruit of his hard work in the Catalunya race and test with a fantastic first MotoGP pole position here at Silverstone. Almost exactly a year since Marco Simoncelli's last pole position at Assen it was an achievement full of emotion for Team San Carlo Honda Gresini, who have worked hard in difficult conditions throughout the weekend.
This pole position hasn't happened by coincidence – it is the fruit of a lot of hard work from all the guys
Confidence for the race is now high with Alvaro producing good race pace in practice as well as his flying pole lap. Michele Pirro was able to take another step forward with the CRT project and could have even qualified higher than fourteenth, his equal best grid of the season. However, he is happy and satisfied he can run with the top CRT bikes in tomorrow's race.
Alvaro Bautista ( 1st 2’ 03” 303 )
"I'm really happy for myself and also pleased for the team. This pole position hasn't happened by coincidence – it is the fruit of a lot of hard work from all the guys who have all been giving 100% and sometimes a little more. The conditions today were strange and difficult but we managed to find a good setting, I was up front for the whole session and set my fastest lap on my own. It started to rain for the last few minutes and nobody was able to improve their time but I still had a fresh tyre to use and made a couple of mistakes on my best lap so could have gone faster too. Tomorrow I start on pole and have a good race pace so hopefully we can convert it into a good result."
Michele Pirro (14th 2’ 07” 016)
"It could have been better but it started to rain in the last few minutes and it would have been too risky to try and improve the lap time so we decided to back off. Anyway I am happy because our race pace is good and I think I can fight with the best CRT guyes out there. We have taken another step forward here and I think we can make another improvement for tomorrow."
Fausto Gresini
"This pole position was unexpected but it is wonderful and exciting.It is only qualifying and the race is tomorrow but for us it is a source of satisfaction and confirmation that we are working well with Alvaro. I am happy for Honda, San Carlo, the guys in the team, Alvaro for his first pole in MotoGP and everybody who supports us and believes in us. It is a little over a year since Marco Simoncelli set pole for the first time at Catalunya and I want to dedicate this moment to him because it is nice to be able to smile again after so many sad days. I am also happy with Michele because we have taken another step forward and could have done even better in qualifying so there is no reason why he can't be fighting to be the top CRT tomorrow."
Timings
1 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 2'03.303
2 11 Ben SPIES USA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 2'03.409
3 1 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 2'03.423
4 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 2'03.763
5 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 2'03.835
6 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 2'03.876
7 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 2'04.162
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2'04.304
9 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 2'05.035
10 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 2'05.416
11 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 2'06.283
12 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 2'06.303
13 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Avintia Blusens BQR 2'06.814
14 51 Michele PIRRO ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR 2'07.016
by Simon 16th Jun 2012 20:37
Well thats a turn up for the books well done Alvaro