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Dovizioso Gets First Pole On Honda’s Home Track

On a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, Honda’s home track located north of Tokyo, Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) stepped in for his injured teammate Dani Pedrosa and claimed his first-ever MotoGP pole position. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) secured the second position while Casey Stoner (Ducati) took third.

Pedrosa had to withdraw from the championship chase after suffering a fractured left collarbone during a practice crash on Friday afternoon. The rider who had been poised to challenge Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for the title was anticipated to return to Spain for surgery to plate the damaged bone, though a return date for his racing career remains unannounced.

With Pedrosa sidelined, Dovizioso rose to the occasion, unexpectedly exceeding his own expectations by achieving pole position at just the right moment. This front row start marked only his second, alongside his third-place qualifying result at this year’s United States Grand Prix in Laguna Seca.

Dovizioso clocked a lap time of 1m 47.001s on the 4.8km track. He recorded his fastest lap with almost six minutes left in the one-hour qualifying session, making him susceptible to being challenged. Nevertheless, his mark proved unattainable for the rest of the 16-rider MotoGP grid, granting Dovi ample reason to celebrate.

Earlier in the session, Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) had briefly held the top spot and aimed for a front row start. However, during a strong lap attempt late in the session, he overshot and ended up in the turn one gravel trap. Although the Frenchman managed to stay upright, his front row aspirations vanished. He will start from seventh on row three—just ahead of Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V). De Puniet expressed that he was finally regaining his form after breaking his leg at the German Grand Prix in July, opting to focus on a good race setup with race tires rather than pursuing a single fast lap on softer tires.

Simoncelli was displeased to see the chequered flag. During his first experience at Motegi aboard a MotoGP bike, he consistently found speed, achieving his best performance on his final lap. The team needed additional time to refine their race setup, with the Italian reporting a loss of time in the final section, which features the circuit’s longest straightaway.

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), Simoncelli’s teammate, faced a challenging qualifying session, struggling with recurring issues that had affected him throughout the season, compounded by a fever. With mixed weather forecasts for Sunday, Melandri was one of the few riders hoping for adverse conditions that he believed could level the playing field.

In his first home grand prix in the MotoGP class, Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP) was disheartened to qualify in 14th place. After showing promise with a sixth-place finish in Friday practice, he could not replicate that performance in qualifying. However, he did manage to improve his Saturday morning time, which he felt was more representative of his race pace compared to the performance on softer rear tires.

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