MotoGP: At Le Mans .03’s Separates Top Five Qualifiers

Dani Pedrosa took his first pole position of 2009 season at this Saturday afternoon’s MotoGP qualifying session for the French GP. The Repsol Honda rider stole the pole position away from Jorge Lorenzo by five thousanth of second, all in the last 10 seconds of the qualifying session. Casey Stoner was third, fourth was Valentino Rossi, just in front of Andrea Dovizioso…all five of these riders were within three tenths of second of each other.

Le Mans typically experiences four seasons in a day, and following this trend the morning rain gave way to afternoon sunshine. The provisional pole followed the example of the weather, and changed hands several times through the course of the session, before Pedrosa made it his own with a best effort of 1’33.974 on his final lap, to take the first spot by a 0.005s margin.

While riders were able to enjoy a relatively dry qualifying session, the weathermen have suggested that there is an 80% chance of rain on Sunday during the French GP. This is even worse news than normal, with a group of riders to closely packed together on bikes setup for dry conditions.

Results of the MotoGP Qualifying Practice for the French GP at Le Mans: