Repsol Honda

Front row start for birthday boy Pedrosa and impressive 7th for Rea

The Repsol Honda Team will face the Aragón Grand Prix tomorrow with Dani Pedrosa in second position and Jonathan Rea starting from seventh.

The qualifying session, the first dry session of the weekend, was intense for the Honda factory Team and resulted in a very good performance from both riders. Dani Pedrosa (1'49.492) starts from the front row for the eleventh time this season and missed the top place by just by 0.088 seconds. The Spaniard managed his timing perfectly in qualifying, securing a fast lap time working with only one bike and one front tyre due to an unexpected crash on his first run, when he lost the front in Turn 12.

Jonathan Rea took full advantage of his experience at this track (where he had a two day test with the Repsol Honda Team three weeks ago) to consistently improve his lap times and finish seventh with a fast lap of 1'50.410, just 1 second off the pole man.

DANI PEDROSA 2nd 1:49.492

"It's a very good result for us after all the issues we had! I'm really happy to be on the front row and so close to the pole position. After the crash I had at the beginning of the session - I guess due to cold tyres because I was not pushing at all - we only had one bike left with 50 minutes remaining. I lost some time there and when I went out with the second bike I realised that I had to remain calm because it was the only bike I had for the rest of qualifying and also the only front tyre. At the beginning, I was cautious trying to set a decent lap time and towards the end I just forgot about everything and pushed harder for the front row. We have a good position for the start, I just hope everything goes smoothly and we can have a gr eat race tomorrow in front of the home Spanish crowd".

JONATHAN REA 7th 1:50.410

"It was the first dry session of the weekend, I'm not sure what I've done to deserve this weather! Towards the end of the session we started to get going and find our rhythm, the lap time was ok and I see a few areas where I can improve, but we are closing the gap, now just a second from the pole time which I'm pleased with. In general I'm really happy with the bike and with the set up so hopefully tomorrow I can be closer to the front guys than I was in Misano. It looks like my last ride so I want to go out tomorrow and make every single lap count".