Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista took his first ever MotoGP pole position during today’s qualifying session at Silverstone – the 18th of his career.
The Spaniard’s maiden pole lap was in 2.
03.
303 in his last flying lap during his third run before the usual rain began falling with just eight minutes left in the session, which more or less curtailed all further action on track.
Yamaha’s Ben Spies will be taking off in second position – his best qualifying session this year – and he was adrift from the satellite Honda rider by just one tenth doing his best lap on hard tires, while reigning World Champion Casey Stoner took the final spot on the front row and he was a mere 0.
014s from the American rider.
Points leader Jorge Lorenzo will starting in fourth after a small error and he’ll be followed by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.
Hector Barbera was the best Ducati rider with his satellite machine and he qualified in sixth making the second row all Spanish.
Factory Ducati riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden suffered near identical crashes while braking at the Club entrance.
Both riders lost the fronts of their GP12s over the bump after their rear tires lost contact with the asphalt and they left pieces of Ducatis all over the gravel trap.
Hayden qualified 7th and was 0.
859s adrift (but just before the crash he was under two tenths of a second from the pole time) while Rossi was the last of the prototypes in 10th and a massive 2.
113s from Bautista.
Sole Yamaha Tech3 rider, after Cal Crutchlow missed the session as he decided to undergo further tests on his sprained ankle that he injured in this morning’s final practice – Andrea Dovizioso took 8th, while Stefan Bradl who sustained a finger injury in FP3 took the 9th position.
The best CRT rider was Aleix Espargaro, who got the better of his team-mate Randy de Puniet and qualified 11th and 2.
980s from Bautista.
MotoGP Silverstone Qualifying Results:01- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – 2’03.
303 02- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
106 03- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.
120 04- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
460 05- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.
532 06- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.
573 07- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.
859 08- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
001 09- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.
732 10- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 2.
113 11- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 2.
980 12- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 3.
000 13- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 3.
511 14- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda – + 3.
713 15- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Suter BMW – + 4.
073 16- Mattia Pasini – Speed Master Team – ART GP12 – + 4.
208 17- James Ellison – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP12 – + 4.
925 18- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda TR003 – + 5.
383 19- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 6.
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