MotoGP Round 4 At Mugello – Pedrosa Edges Lorenzo For Pole
After a superb late lap in qualifying, Dani Pedrosa will start the 2010 Gran Premio d’Italia TIM from pole position at Mugello. This result secures him his second pole of the season and 15th in the premier category. Pedrosa edged his compatriot Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo to the top spot by just 0.177 second. But Italy will be without their hero Valentino Rossi as the World Champion broke his leg in a crash, few hours before qualifying.
Lorenzo managed to keep his 2010 front-row record intact in Mugello, while Casey Stoner will line-up outside the championship leader. In the final stages Lorenzo looked on course for his first pole of the season but Pedrosa snatched it from him inside the last minute.
While Lorenzo will be chasing his third win in a row when the lights go out today, his teammate Rossi will be recovering from the surgery on his right tibia. The reigning World Champion crashed in Saturday morning practice session and was taken to the CTO (Centro Traumatologico Ortopedico) in Florence to undergo an operation to fix the break. He was operated by Dr. Roberto Buzzi of the CTO, assisted by Dr. Claudio Costa of the Clinica Mobile. The operation lasted about 2.5 hour.
Moments before Rossi lost control of his bike and crashed.
Medical personnel rushed to assist Rossi.
Rossi’s special helmet design for his home race. Lets hope ‘The Doctor’ recovers fast to defend his crown.
Dr. Roberto Buzzi : “We received Valentino Rossi at the Careggi Hospital, where we made detailed checks in order to rule out any other injuries, and the results were satisfactory. We therefore decided to proceed with the surgery for the exposed fracture of the right leg. We performed a spinal block (epidural) and cleaned and washed the fracture, which was then aligned and stabilised with a pin. The surgery had good results; the alignment was good and the bone is now stable. The wound remains open, as is usual in these cases, and it will be stitched in the next few days with another short surgery. We are confident that Valentino will be able to leave the hospital in a week to ten days, able to put weight on the leg with the aid of crutches. It is difficult to say how long the post surgery rehabilitation will take, we need to evaluate the progress of the patient and also what the x-rays will show. But I think that we can reasonably think of six weeks partial weight-bearing with crutches, after which Valentino needs to be re-evaluated, according to his feedback and further x-rays.”
Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing : “It was a very sad day today for Yamaha and the Fiat Yamaha Team, seeing Vale in so much pain and seriously injured for the first time in his career. It is especially tough for Vale to have this accident at his home Grand Prix and this will surely be a huge disappointment for him and for all his fans here at the Mugello circuit and around the world. As a Team we are very deflated right now because we had our two riders challenging for the championship lead and now that challenge is over – at least for the immediate future. We wish Vale the very best for a speedy recovery and hope to have him back with us as soon as possible.”
Jorge Lorenzo : Firstly I want to say how sad I am for Valentino. I know how bad it is to be injured, especially at your home race, and it looks very painful for him. I hope he recovers quickly because the championship will not be the same without him. Today we made some good steps forward and I am very happy about how my bike is feeling here in Mugello. I have a good race pace, the Bridgestone tyres feel good and I think I can make a fight tomorrow. We have to stay calm, focused and concentrated and hopefully it will be a good race for us here in Italy, at the home track for many of my team.”
Dani Pedrosa : “We’ve been working very hard through free practice and in qualifying this afternoon to improve things from yesterday, and we’ve achieved this so I’m satisfied. Being on the front row is the important thing and we have to keep our concentration because to win the race is the target – we have to make it tomorrow!”
Loris Capirossi : “It’s been tough today, because a setting we found this morning didn’t work at all in the warmer temperatures this afternoon and we had a little problem with one of the bikes and we couldn’t use it. Overall we tried very hard today, but it just didn’t happen, so we will need to do something in warm-up tomorrow to make things better. I am upset with my position on the grid, but I think I can do much better than that in the race tomorrow and I will be going full-out to show it!”
Qualifying Results :
1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 48.819s
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Fiat Yamaha Team 1m 48.996s
3. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 49.432s
4. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 1m 49.546s
5. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 49.683s
6. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 1m 49.737s
7. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 49.861s
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 1m 50.0650s
9. Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing 1m 50.168s
10. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1m 50.224s
11. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 50.434s
12. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 50.479s
13. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1m 50.561s
14. Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m 50.664s
15. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 1m 50.970s
16. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m 53.243s
Mugello is located in a beautiful area of Tuscany just north of Florence. It is one of – if not the – most scenic circuits anywhere in the world and this added to a magnificent track, making the Italian Grand Prix one of the must-see race in MotoGP. Thousands of fans will pack the hill-sides of the valley that runs up and down to add an amazing atmosphere to what is one of the most impressive spectacles on any sporting calendar.
Photo : Rizla Suzuki / Fiat Yamaha / MotoGP
Editorial : Nazim Idris
