Strong sixth for Bautista at the Brickyard

Starting from ninth on the grid, Bautista had a good start and was in seventh at the end of the first lap. He then became involved in a local battle as he fought with the Americans on their home circuit over the next few laps. He passed Nicky Hayden and fought off the constant attacks of Colin Edwards, before pulling away from the Texan to leave him comfortably behind.

Álvaro Bautista: 

“I am happy with today’s position because this weekend we didn’t have the same rhythm as we have had in the last couple of races. I had a good qualifying session, but I was not quite on par with the top guys and that meant I couldn’t really stay with them and fight in the race. I made a decent start and overtook a couple of riders, but I just couldn’t keep up with the front group. We struggled a bit more at this track because we couldn’t get the bike to turn how we wanted and I think we were not quite at the same level as some of the others. I was consistent throughout the whole race and had a couple of good battles with other riders – especially with Edwards – but at the end I picked up a good rhythm and was able to put some distance on the riders behind. I think today was the best result we could have gotten – so we did the maximum. We now head to Misano where I think we can be more competitive from the beginning, so I am really looking forward to the race.

“One other thing that was very important was to finish the race, as I have crashed in the last two, so I am very happy that I did that! It gives us more motivation and also the team needed a result. I want to say a big thank you to the whole team for the passion that they showed this weekend and now we are in the best position to make another step forward.”

Rizla Suzuki press release.

Stoner takes seventh Grand Prix win at Indianapolis

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) took the early race lead, until team mate Casey Stoner overtook the Spaniard on lap seven and stretched his lead in front of the pack to remain unchallenged for the remainder of the race. Stoner extends his Championship lead to 44 points ahead of reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) with this win, his first ever podium at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

A bad start for Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) from second on the grid found the Texan down in ninth position, after his poor start was made worse when he and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) touched heading into turn one, pushing Spies wide. The 25 year old methodically made his way back through the field and into third position by lap sixteen. The pace set by Spies would have been quick enough to fight for second position, though his poor start kept him from catching Pedrosa, who crossed the line second in front of the American.

Lorenzo had seen second position in the early laps, but was overtaken by Stoner and then eventually Spies to finish in fourth position. Dovizioso tussled with Nicky Hayden early in the race for fifth, until the American from the Ducati Team fell back with tire problems, leaving the Italian to chase Lorenzo.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) finished a lonely sixth after starting ninth on the grid. The Spaniard crossed the line 9 seconds in front of American Colin Edwards on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine. Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) crossed the line in eighth, giving the French rider his best finish of the season.

Ninth spot went to Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini), who crossed the line a second and a half ahead of Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team). Rossi’s tenth place was of note in that on lap eight the Italian fell back into 17th position with apparent tire troubles. It appeared he would be entering the pits, but kept circulating and made his way back up to finish tenth in front of rookie Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) .

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) had seen as high as third position in the race, until tire trouble for the Italian saw him slowly dropping back, finally finishing in twelfth. Toni Elías (LCR Honda) and Hayden completed the race finishers, with Elias ahead of the American. Hayden had pitted in earlier with troubles and rejoined the session to salvage some points, finishing 14th.

A disappointing end was had for Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar), who crashed out of eighth place in the final corner.

Barberá second highest Ducati on Indy grid

Alhough the new Indianapolis asphalt may still not be to all of the MotoGP riders' liking, the lap times tumbled today at the Brickyard with a new pole position record of 1'38.850 going to Casey Stoner. Just 2.2 seconds separate the entire field and that is with virtually a full second covering the front row.

Like the majority of riders, MAPFRE Aspar man Héctor Barberá shaved a massive five seconds off his lap time from the opening free practice to this afternoon's qualifying. The Spaniard made positive progress throughout the weekend so far and was able to translate it into the tenth fastest time of the day, meaning he lines up on tomorrow's grid with just a single Ducati ahead of him and only 1.5 seconds off Stoner's pole lap. Front tyre wear continues to be an issue, however, and solving that could be the key to any further progress in tomorrow's race.

Héctor Barberá:

"We have a really good set-up now and that helped us get on the pace today. What is worrying me is that the tyres are completely destroyed after ten laps, especially the front. The rear tyre is a pretty obvious choice; it is just the front we need to decide so we'll work on that in the warm-up. We did a good job today and made more progress but I still think we have room for improvement and need to keep pushing. I had fun on the bike though and we have improved a lot from the morning to the afternoon so we'll keep going in the same way from here."

MAPFRE Aspar press release.

Seventh pole of the season for Stoner, second row for Pedrosa and Dovizioso

Already the fastest man on track in this morning's practice, the Australian showed he was ready to fight for his seventh pole of the season, and was the only rider capable of lapping in the 1'38's in a very tough qualifying session, with an air temperature of 31 degrees and a track temperature of 51.

Dani Pedrosa will start the race from fourth on the grid, just behind Casey, and next to him will be his team mate Andrea Dovizioso, in fifth position. Dani fought for the front row until the last second and narrowly missed it by three tenths. The Spaniard didn't feel at ease with the front tyre this afternoon but remains confident starting from the second row for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix tomorrow, after he won in 2010 from fifth position.

Andrea Dovizioso made another small step forward in the qualifying improving his lap time by 3 tenths from the morning session. With higher temperatures this afternoon, the tyre wear caused issues that Andrea's team will look to improve for the race tomorrow and hope to fight for a podium.

Casey Stoner:

"I'm very happy with pole here in Indy, the team have been doing a great job under difficult conditions this weekend, but we will keep working right up until the last moment to try and get the set up right. Obviously without the bumps the track is a lot better, but the lack of consistency in the grip levels are causing issues, everyone is losing the front and it doesn't give you a lot of confidence, when you hit these patches the bike just seems to drop away from you. We haven't changed too much since FP1, just a few small steps and trying to get the front tyre to work more with such little grip, we are destroying it. For race distance we're looking pretty good, we did more than race distance on soft front and soft rear and had good stability, we'll wait and see what the conditions are like for tomorrow and decide from there."

Dani Pedrosa:

"We had some issues in the session with the front tyre, I didn't feel very comfortable with it and we couldn't get the most from it. I wasn’t going super fast and I missed the first row, but I'm not worried. We would like to be closer to Casey and Ben - they have been very fast and consistent, so I hope to find something more tomorrow morning in the warm up to help us fight for the podium. The race will be hard because it's very hot out there, and it will also be a big challenge for the tyres, but I hope we perform better in the race."

Andrea Dovizioso: 

“Starting from the second row tomorrow isn’t too bad. It will be important to have a good start and ride consistently, trying to manage the tyres for the twenty eight lap race. The rear grip is too strong compared with the front which causes the front tyre to overheat, this remains the main issue so we need to continue working with the set up to rectify this. During qualifying the ground temperature reached fifty one degrees, these conditions are really demanding for the tyres. Concerning the pace, I have good rhythm and even though the gap to Casey remains too big for my liking, I think we can fight with Dani and Lorenzo for a podium position, this is our target and we will continue working to improve the machine for the race."

Repsol Honda press release.

Third row for Simoncelli as Aoyama qualifies 13th

Despite improving his pace from Friday Marco Simoncelli was unable to make up positions and will start the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix from the third row of the grid on Sunday. The Team San Carlo Honda Gresini rider has found a good set-up for the race but once again struggled with front tyre wear, especially on the left side. The Italian will look to improve the situation in Sunday morning's warm-up, as will Hiroshi Aoyama, who also improved his pace but not enough to move up positions.

Marco Simoncelli – 7th:

“Obviously I was hoping to do better than this because things weren't going too badly or us in the first half of qualifying. I was optimistic because my pace on race tyres was good but when we put a new rear in to chase a faster lap time the front was completely destroyed within a couple of laps and I couldn't push the bike as I wanted to. Now we will have a look at the data and do some work for the race to and find a solution that will save on front tyre wear. As I said I am still optimistic about my race pace and even though a podium will be difficult and even more so the win, we have a good chance of improving on our starting position.”

Hiroshi Aoyama – 13th:

“My feeling was a little better today but not enough to make up positions. We start from near the back again and that presents its own problems but my race pace is not too bad so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini press release

Fall hinders qualifying for Rossi, Hayden to start from eighth

Despite immediately returning to the garage, the Italian was unable to use his first bike or its set of fresh tyres again in the session, and the nine time World Champion finish the qualifying in fourteenth, leaving him to start from the fifth row for Sunday’s race.

Nicky Hayden was able to improve his pace by over a second and a half over his best time set on Friday, posting the eighth best time, and will start his home Grand Prix from the third row.

Nicky Hayden: 

“Compared to yesterday, we had wanted to take a step forward in qualifying, but I got a bit confused this morning, and my feedback to the team wasn’t as good as it should have been. This bike is new for us, and we still need more experience with it. Anyway, we still salvaged the third row in the end, which is better than I was. Tyre wear is going to be a big question mark for me. I’m sorry for my fans and the Ducati supporters who want to see us qualifying up front, but we’ll give it our best tomorrow. They say there may be cooler weather, which normally helps us a little bit, so maybe we’ll catch a break”

Valentino Rossi: 

“We took a nice step forward this morning that we hoped to confirm in qualifying, and instead I fell right away. We really could have done without that crash, but the front closed right when I touched the brake. From there, the whole session was difficult because the second bike had a slightly different setup. I lost one pair of new tyres and I had to start with a set of used ones. I wasn’t able to get back the feeling from this morning, when the bike felt better and I could push harder. It’s really a shame because we wanted to try to start from the second row again, like at Brno, and instead we’ll have to work hard tomorrow. Anyway, we’ll give our best effort in the race because we weren’t so far off this morning.”

Ducati Team press release

Qualifying sets Bautista on row three

Bautista will start from the third row after qualifying in ninth place with a best lap time of 1’40.333 from his 28 turns around the circuit. Bautista is still looking for a bit more durability from his preferred front tyre selection, but believes the team will be able to make a few changes to the set-up of the GSV-R to assist with tyre life in readiness for the race.

Álvaro Bautista: 

“The qualifying today was not too bad compared with the last few races, so this is a lot better for us. We tried a long run at the start of the session and the grip from the rear was no problem, but the front did not have enough life in it to make a full race length. This will make things difficult for tomorrow, because we have to try and preserve the front tyre and make sure we have enough durability for 28-laps. We are starting from the third row so the main thing will be to get a good start and stay with the front guys. We will look at today’s data to see if we can use a setting that will give us more life in the tyre and stop it dropping off and sliding around. I am looking forward to tomorrow because we have a better grid position and I will give it full gas and 100% to get a good result.”

Rizla Suzuki press release.