- 2016-10-29
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SPORTS
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MotoGP Malaysia: Andrea Dovizioso takes his second pole position of the season at Sepang
The Round 17 on MotoGP 2016, Malaysia MotoGP qualifying session at Sepang. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) claimed his second pole position of 2016 season for the Malaysian MotoGP.
The track condition was dry until third practice, but the rain fell shortly afterwards and the track surface was still wet for qualifying.
Since beginning of the qualifying, Andrea Dovizioso was leading other riders on wet condition. Finaly he took pole psition with 2'11.485s.
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), both teammates finished 2nd and 3rd position respectively.
Reigning world champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was 4th with 2'11.874s. Although Australian GP winner Cal Crutchlow crashed, he recovered and took 5th position. Runner-up of Australian GP Maverick Vinales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) had struggled tyres, and would start on third row tomorrow.
Recovering and returning Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) put in a solid run in difficult conditions to qualify in sixth.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Repsol Honda Team) was replacing the injured Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda). At previous race, Nicky Hayden replaced for him.
Andrea Dovizioso (P1):
“Every practice has been a challenge, because of the rain but also the asphalt. The grip is very good but there are wet patches on the line, and you can’t ride quite how you want. And here when it starts to rain it’s really heavy…you have to adapt to every condition and I’m really happy with the way we worked with our strategy – I was able to do a good laptime on the harder tyre and the soft. My strategy was supposed to be non-stop and qualifying on the soft tyre, and I knew everyone else was on the hard so I thought maybe I was wrong. But then I decided to come in the box a bit late, and then I could only do a few fast laps on the hard tyre, but the second one was enough for the pole position. This morning in the dry it wasn’t great, but this weekend the conditions have been strange. So I hope we can try and improve the feeling tomorrow in Warm up. Everyone wants to race in the dry, but we are competitive in the wet.”
Valentino Rossi (P2):
“To start from the front row is always a good feeling and is important for the race. Today was a good day and I felt good from the beginning. I think everyone is hoping for a dry race tomorrow because we could have a good fight – we were fast but the top four were also very close with similar pace. The asphalt has great grip and less bumps, but it takes a long time to dry. You can push but you always have to concentrate on the wet patches. In the full wet or full dry I have good pace. It’s a very different approach to just stay out in qualifying, but in 15 minutes it’s usually difficult to arrive at the limit of the wet tyres, so we decided to ride all the way through. Then at the end I could get second, so it was a good strategy for us.”
Jorge Lorenzo (P3):
“Unfortunately we couldn’t have a perfect practice in the dry, because even in the last few minutes there were some patches of water. But the grip of the asphalt is amazing, except for a couple of modified corners, but the grip is good and I’ve been competitive in the dry and in the wet. Our strategy was to keep pushing all the way through and our pace is good, just not explosive enough for pole position. But we’re on the front row and that’s important. In the dry there’s four riders close on pace, it’s amazing how close we were this morning. And in the wet I feel very good, but you never know what will happen. I think everyone would prefer a dry race.”- SHELL MALAYSIA MOTORCYCLE GRAND PRIX MotoGP Qualifying Results:
- Andrea Dovizioso / Ducati Team / 2'11.485s
- Valentino Rossi / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / 2'11.731s
- Jorge Lorenzo / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / 2'11.787s
- Marc Marquez / Repsol Honda Team / 2'11.874s
- Cal Crutchlow / LCR Honda / 2'12.558s
- Andrea Iannone / Ducati Team / 2'12.598s
- Aleix Espargaro / Team Suzuki Ecstar / 2'12.869s
- Maverick Viñales / Team Suzuki Ecstar / 2'12.981s
- Alvaro Bautista / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 2'13.325s
- Loris Baz / Avintia Racing (Desmosedici / 2'13.452s
- Pol Espargaro / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / 2'13.707s
- Hector Barbera / Ducati Team / 2'13.973s
- Bradley Smith / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / 2'12.898s
- Jack Miller / Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS / 2'12.907s
- Danilo Petrucci / Octo Pramac Yakhnich / 2'13.776s
- Stefan Bradl / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 2'13.850s
- Hiroshi Aoyama / Repsol Honda Team / 2'14.179s
- Scott Redding / Octo Pramac Yakhnich / 2'14.433s
- Eugene Laverty / Aspar MotoGP Team / 2'14.769s
- Yonny Hernandez / Aspar MotoGP Team / 2'14.786s
- Tito Rabat / Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS / 2'15.894s
- source : MotoGP
