Gresini Racing French GP Qualifying Report

Simoncelli Just 0.059 Seconds From Pole Position

Team San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli covered himself in glory once again today, the Italian youngster coming within a hair's breadth of his first pole position in MotoGP. “Super Sic” continues to prove his pedigree amongst the world's elite motorcycle racers, today mounting the strongest challenge to the dominant Casey Stoner. The excellent relationship he has built with his team and the engineers from HRC is bearing fruit and now Marco wants to take the definite step in a race, following the disappointment of crashes at Jerez and Estoril in the last two rounds. Hiroshi Aoyama struggled to make significant improvements on his free practice pace when switching to a soft tyre in this afternoon's qualifying session and the Japanese rider will start from thirteenth on the grid tomorrow.

Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini

Photo by: Team Gresini

Marco Simoncelli (2nd 1’33.212) “I got really close to my first ever pole today - 0.059 seconds is hardly anything! Strangely it is the same gap that I missed out on the podium by last year at Estoril. In any case I am happy and we are not in bad shape for the race. We have improved from session to session so I am confident. We have improved under braking today but I still don't feel 100% secure. My objective tomorrow is to get to the end of the race and bring some important points home. I won't be pushing over the limit to get a result at all costs, I want to manage the race well.”

Hiroshi Aoyama (13th 1'34.612 ) ”I am not too happy with the result today. I haven't improved much on my best lap from yesterday afternoon and for that reason I have dropped positions. Hopefully tomorrow I can recover those positions in the race and first of all find some set-up solutions in the morning that will help us have a good race.”

Fausto Gresini “So far it has been a perfect weekend. Marco and his team, alongside the engineers from HRC, have worked extremely well. They have come up with a good package and so we are extremely confident about Sunday's race. He has been strong all weekend and shown that he can be a rider fighting regularly for podiums and even wins. Marco deserves a bike as competitive as this and HRC have laid one on for him. We are all really happy to be working with Marco and we really want a top result for him. It is a team effort. Aoyama unfortunately wasn't able to be decisive on his fast lap today so he will have to work hard to make up positions tomorrow. His race pace isn't bad so he should manage it.”

-source: gresini racing