Pedrosa misses pole while Rea manages third row for Aragon GP

Dani Pedrosa will start Sunday’s Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón from second place, having missed pole position to title rival Jorge Lorenzo by just eight hundredths of a second.

The Repsol Honda Team rider, who had topped the last practice session, could only regret a fall which came only five minutes into the hour-long qualifying period.

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

Initially, onlookers were concerned to see Pedrosa laying in the middle of the circuit at Turn 12, but the Sabadell rider was able to walk away from the moment unharmed.

Other fallers included Avintia Blusens’ Yonny Hernández and Ducati Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.

"It was hard in the beginning because I actually wanted to stay on the track for longer," said Pedrosa, who is celebrating his 27th birthday. "Somehow, I lost the front so I lost a lot of time and had to go back to the pits.

When I took the second bike it was hard because I knew it was the only bike remaining for me, so I had to settle for a while just to make sure I would be at the front of the grid. In the end I was able to forget more about it and push hard.

The front row is always good so I hope to push more in the race."

Pedrosa will start Sunday’s race sandwiched by Yamaha bikes, with Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow having achieved first and third places for the Yamaha Factory Racing and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 outfits, respectively.

Casey Stoner’s replacement in the Repsol Honda team, Jonathan Rea, produced a solid performance to place seventh on the grid at the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón.

The factory Honda outfit will therefore start the MotoGP™ race on Sunday with Dani Pedrosa in second position and Rea at the head of the third row.

Rea took full advantage of his experience at this track (where he had a two day test with the Repsol Honda team three weeks ago) to consistently improve his lap times and secure a best lap of 1'50.410, just one second off pole man Jorge Lorenzo.

Jonathan Rea: "It was the first dry session of the weekend, I'm not sure what I've done to deserve this weather!

Towards the end of the session we started to get going and find our rhythm, the lap time was ok and I see a few areas where I can improve, but we are closing the gap, now just a second from the pole time which I'm pleased with.

In general I'm really happy with the bike and with the set up so hopefully tomorrow I can be closer to the front guys than I was in Misano. It looks like my last ride so I want to go out tomorrow and make every single lap count".

Source: Repsol Honda