Gresini Racing Indianapolis GP qualifying report

Team San Carlo Honda Gresini press release

Third Row Start For Seventh Fastest Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli

Photo by: Team Gresini

Despite improving his pace from yesterday Marco Simoncelli was unable to make up positions and will start the Indianapolis Grand Prix from the third row of the grid tomorrow. 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 tomorrow morning's warm-up, as will Hiro Aoyama, who also improved his pace but not enough to move up positions.

Marco Simoncelli (7th 1’ 40” 204) “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 1’ 40” 925 ) “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.”

Fausto Gresini “We have taken some small steps forward but it is still not exactly what we want. We are still having problems with the front but I think that is the same for everybody to an extent. Now we just have to work hard on finding the best set-up for the race because it will be long and tough, and difficult to manage the front tyre. We can expect a drastic drop in performance from everybody in the second half of the race so it will be important to try and find a compromise. That will be the key to the race tomorrow.”