Repsol Honda's Pedrosa 3rd, Marquez 4th in MotoGP Qualifying for Motegi GP

Press Release www.repsolhondateam.com Motul Grand Prix of Japan Round 15 - Saturday, October 11th 2014   Japan - Qualifying Report Weather conditions sunny 23°C Air temp 36°C Track temp 50% Humidity Front row start for Pedrosa in 3rd with Marquez in 4th for GP of Japan It was a toughly fought battle for pole position in Motegi, with several riders vying for the top spot and ten riders within six seconds of each other. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez at times both led the session but on his final lap, in the penultimate corner, Dani lost the front end of his Honda RC213V and with it the chance to take pole position and his time of 1’44.755 placed him 3rd behind Dovizioso and Rossi. Teammate and Championship leader Marc Marquez was also battling for pole and missed out on a front row start by just 0.020s. His time of 1’44.775 places him 4th for tomorrow’s 24 lap race, where he has his first opportunity to seal the 2014 World Championship. Team Quotes 3rd - 1'44.755 “I’m happy today because we had a good qualifying session and were setting some good times. Unfortunately I crashed on the last lap, almost at the final corner, when I was going quickly to try to get pole position. Luckily I'm fine and tomorrow I will try to use this front row spot to get a good start. It could be a very tight race, because there are many riders who have shown a good pace and this is a circuit that allows for very close lap times. We’ll see what happens but we will strive to do our best and we will remain fully focused. It will be important to ride with skill and bravery.” 4th - 1'44.775 "I'm happy, even though we didn't achieve our goal of getting onto the front row, because we have improved ahead of tomorrow. The pace that we have is good. It's a pity that we didn't find a perfect lap in qualifying, but we are confident for tomorrow and ready to fight for the win. Our pace is similar to that of Rossi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo and this is important. We also shouldn't overlook Dovizioso, who also has a very good pace on race tyres.” qualifying results   Motul Grand Prix of Japan - Round 15 Pos. Rider Num. Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap 1 Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'44.502 2 Valentino Rossi 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'44.557 3 Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'44.755 4 Marc Marquez 93 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'44.775 5 Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'44.784 6 Andrea Iannone 29 ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'44.854 7 Pol Espargaro 44 ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'44.867 8 Cal Crutchlow 35 GBR Ducati Team DUCATI 1'44.898 9 Stefan Bradl 6 GER LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'45.005 10 Bradley Smith 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'45.044 11 Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'45.315 12 Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'45.677 13 Yonny Hernandez 68 COL Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'45.971 14 Nicky Hayden 69 USA Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'46.465 15 Scott Redding 45 GBR Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'46.499 16 Hector Barbera 8 ESP Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'46.796 17 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 21 JPN YAMALUBE Racing Team with YSP YAMAHA 1'46.876 18 Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'46.915 19 Karel Abraham 17 CZE Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA 1'46.948 20 Alex De Angelis 15 RSM NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'47.092 21 Danilo Petrucci 9 ITA IodaRacing Project IODA-SUTER 1'47.757 22 Michael Laverty 70 GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM 1'48.144 23 Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'48.185 24 Broc Parkes 23 AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1'48.261 Copyright Free Images - For Editorial use only                        Circuit Information View circuit page at www.repsolhondateam.com Length 4.801 m / 2.983 miles Width 15m Left corners 6 Right corners 8 Longest straight 762 m / 0.473 miles Constructed 1997 Modified 1997     120-1 Hiyama Motegi-machi Haga-gun Tochigi Pref. 321-3597 Japan   www.twinring.jp/english   Pole Position 1m 44.502s (165.3km/h) Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati, 2014) Race lap 1m 45.589s (163.687km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2012) Race time 42m 31.569s (162.569km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2012) 2012 Race Winner Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2013 Race Winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)   Honda Racing Corporation 3-15-1, Senzui, Asaka-shi, Saitama-Pref., 351-0024 Japan