Spain’s Dani Pedrosa claimed only his second Moto GP pole position of the season in the gruelling heat of Malaysia as Honda dominated at the Sepang Circuit on Saturday.
The 26-year-old, who is lying fourth in the now-redundant championship, whizzed his way around the 5.5-km (3.4-mile) course in two minutes 1.462 seconds. Newly crowned world champion Casey Stoner was second fastest.
Honda riders swept the top three positions for Sunday’s race, where deposed world champion Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo is missing with an injury to his left hand.
Pedrosa was 0.029sec ahead of team-mate Stoner, while Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso (2:01.666), also on a Honda, cruised to third position. AFP
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Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) in fifth and just over a tenth ahead of the top Ducati qualifier, compatriot Nicky Hayden.
Hiroshi Aoyama heads up the third row, with Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista beside the Japanese rider and Valentino Rossi (Ducati team) completing the row after crashing during the session. The Italian quickly made it back out on track to post a lap of 2’02.395 on his final of 22 laps.
Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) made it into the top ten for the first time this weekend, while a recovering Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar), after a bit of fairing contact with Hayden in the session, completed 17 laps to land 14th on the grid. motogp.com
Pos. Num. Rider Team Time 1 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 2'01.462 2 27 Casey STONER Repsol Honda Team 2'01.491 3 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 2'01.666 4 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2'02.010 5 58 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 2'02.105 6 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 2'02.172 7 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA San Carlo Honda Gresini 2'02.254 8 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2'02.332 9 46 Valentino ROSSI Ducati Team 2'02.395 10 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2'02.756 11 14 Randy DE PUNIET Pramac Racing Team 2'02.939 12 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Pramac Racing Team 2'03.077 13 17 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2'03.438 14 8 Hector BARBERA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP 2'03.619 15 24 Toni ELIAS LCR Honda MotoGP 2'03.646 16 11 Ben SPIES Yamaha Factory Racing 2'03.678 17 89 Katsuyuki NAKASUGA Yamaha Factory Racing 2'04.072
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