Spaniard Dani Pedrosa will start in pole position in Sunday’s French MotoGP after posting the fastest time in qualifying on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Honda rider will start from pole for the 38th time, his 20th in this category, after edging out team-mate and world champion Casey Stoner of Australia by 0.303 while Italian Yamaha rider Andrea Dovizioso was third fastest.
Dovizioso’s best qualifying performance of the season so far relegated the official Yamaha stable duo of 2010 world champion Jorge Lorenzo and American Ben Spies onto the second row of the grid.
Italian great Valentino Rossi – who is favoured to replace Stoner when the Australian retires at the end of the season – will start from the third line of the grid on his Ducati, along with Frenchman Randy de Puniet on an Aprilia.
British rider Cal Crutchlow – who has made an impressive start to his career at this level – was fastest in qualifying for a large part of the session but will start from the fifth row.
– AFP
01. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m33.638s 02. Casey Stoner Honda 1m33.941s + 0.303s 03. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 1m33.976s + 0.338s 04. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m34.104s + 0.466s 05. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m34.178s + 0.540s 06. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m34.669s + 1.031s 07. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m34.907s + 1.269s 08. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m34.922s + 1.284s 09. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 1m34.950s + 1.312s 10. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m35.250s + 1.612s 11. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m35.291s + 1.653s 12. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m35.694s + 2.056s 13. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m35.862s + 2.224s 14. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 1m36.646s + 3.008s 15. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m37.202s + 3.564s 16. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 1m37.666s + 4.028s 17. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m37.760s + 4.122s 18. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Aprilia 1m37.767s + 4.129s 19. Ivan Silva Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki 1m38.198s + 4.560s 20. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia 1m38.511s + 4.873s 21. Chris Vermeulen Forward Suter-BMW 1m38.658s + 5.020s