Dani Pedrosa captures pole position ahead of tomorrow’s Shell Malaysian MotoGP 2017 after an edge-of-the-seat qualifying session.
Run under the sweltering hot sun, the riders put the hammer down to post some blistering times, which saw the coveted position switch hands multiple times before it was settled at the very last moment.
There was plenty of drama too, when championship leader Marc Marquez crashed at the last turn on his very first flying lap, apparently after hitting the turn way too fast. He had just saved himself from crashing during FP4. Marquez frantically restarted his bike to ride back to his pits for his spare bike. He came back in again just minutes from the end of the Q2 session for his first bike, but the best he could do was seventh on the grid.
While everyone was hooked up on Marquez’s crash, Johann Zarco snuck in pole position. Zarco had won the Moto2 race in Malaysia for the past two years.
Behind the Frenchman, Maverick Vinalez, Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, and Andrea Dovizioso (who’s chasing his first world championship and 33 points behind Marquez), vied for the top spot.
Rossi was the first man to displace Zarco from the top to an immense cheer from the capacity crowd, only to be immediately outgunned by Dovizioso. But while the cameras focused on “Desmo” Dovi, Pedrosa posted his fastest time of 1’59.212.
Then Zarco improved on his time and relegated Dovizioso to third.
Positions 1st to 10th were covered by less than 1 second. But more telling was the third fastest time posted by Dovizioso in third, just 0.024 seconds from pole.
If there’s one thing about the Malaysian MotoGP, one could never know how it’s going to end, and if today’s qualifying session was an indication, we’re in for an amazing race tomorrow.
Dani Pedrosa, the fastest MotoGP never to win a World Championship has squashed all rumours about him joining Rossi at Yamaha by signing for Honda until the end of the 2018 season.
Squashing all rumours about Pedrosa joining Rossi at Yamaha, Honda Racing Corporation has officially confirmed that Pedrosa will be staying with the Repsol Honda Team until 2018.
This coming weekend will be Dani Pedrosa’s 250th race in the World Championship.
Pedrosa has raced for HRC for his entire career which began in 2001 when the Spaniard made his Grand Prix debut in the then 125cc class.
From there Pedrosa went on to claim the 125cc and 250cc World Championship titles, and then entered the premiere class of MotoGP with the Repsol Honda Team in 2006. He has finished as the title runner-up on three occasions – 2007, 2010, 2012.
Just for the record, Dani Pedrosa has achieved more podium finishes for the Honda factory than any other rider – a total of 142 including 51 victories, three fewer than Mick Doohan’s Honda record.
Dani Pedrosa is currently fourth in the championship.
So with Pedrosa confirmed at Honda, the question remains as to who will partner Rossi at Yamaha. The young star Maverick Vinales could just have another shot at the coveted seat at Yamaha.
Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa seems set to beat Maverick Vinales to the dream seat at Yamaha and to be Rossi’s teammate for 2017 and beyond.
With Lorenzo confirmed at Ducati for the 2017 season, speculation is mounting on who will be joining Rossi at Yamaha next year.
While the favourite has been the young star Maverick Vinales currently riding for Suzuki, word from the MotoGP paddock is now suggesting that Dani Pedrosa could be set to make a shocking move from Honda to Yamaha.
According to MCN, Vinales was the clear favourite to replace Lorenzo at Yamaha, but the talks have fallen through after “hardball salary negotiations”. Pedrosa seems to be the new clear favourite after 11 seasons at Honda.
The move to secure Pedrosa makes perfect sense for Yamaha; replacing Lorenzo with a rider who has a similar riding style to the Spanish World Champion, and one who has a reputation as the dream teammate. This could work out very well for Rossi in his personal quest to secure a 10th World Championship.
But who will replace Pedrosa at the Honda factory team? Well our source says that this could be the chance British rider Cal Crutchlow to have a second go as a factory rider at Honda considering Crutchlow already has a good relationship with Honda.
MotoGP world champions and teammates Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez trade the comforts of a circuit and their Honda GP bikes recently for some good old dirt and trials bikes. (more…)
Repsol Honda Team has unveiled their RC213V racing machine here in Sepang, Malaysia for the testing today (31st Jan). The bike carries the familiar livery in red, orange and black combination which always looks great and fast.
Casey Stoner now ride with the number ‘1’ race plate since he is the 2011 MotoGP Champion. Dani Pedrosa rides with the ’26’ number race plate. I’m hoping there will be a very competitive battle for this 2012 MotoGP season.
The official press release at MotoGP.com is after the jump (more…)
Another tweet. This time it is the bike for Dani Pedrosa. It is the RC213V which looks the same with the one for Casey Stoner, but it is equipped with different all new chassis as requested by the rider in Valencia. It is said that RC213V has an output of 230hp! Much more power than Honda Civic FD 1.8 at only 140hp.
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