Marco Simoncelli has revealed that he believed pole position was out of reach ahead of qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya this afternoon, with Casey Stoner setting the pace in all of the three practice sessions. However, the Gresini Honda rider found the pace required to steal the top spot and will start from the very front of the grid for the first time in his MotoGP career.
"This is the best way to cancel the incident of Le Mans, the polemics and everything everybody said until now," he commented. "I'm very happy, I didn't expect this pole position because Casey was very fast in every session, faster than me."
"In the first part of qualifying today we had some problems with the set-up, but in the last part we found a good set-up, I could push and I did this time. I'm very happy and confident for tomorrow.
"I know that it will be a difficult race because Casey and Jorge (Lorenzo) are very strong on race pace. But anyway I'll try to do my best tomorrow."
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Marco Simoncelli
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Simoncelli | Gresini | 01:42.413 | 26 |
| 2. | C. Stoner | Repsol Honda | 01:42.429 | 24 |
| 3. | J. Lorenzo | Fiat Yamaha | 01:42.728 | 25 |
| 4. | B. Spies | Fiat Yamaha | 01:42.742 | 27 |
| 5. | A. Dovizioso | Repsol Honda | 01:42.749 | 28 |
| 6. | C. Crutchlow | Tech 3 | 01:43.202 | 22 |
| 7. | V. Rossi | Ducati | 01:43.223 | 26 |
| 8. | N. Hayden | Ducati | 01:43.228 | 26 |
| 9. | A. Bautista | Rizla Suzuki | 01:43.447 | 29 |
| 10. | H. Barbera | Aspar Team | 01:43.656 | 26 |
| Full results | ||||
| Marco Simoncelli | |||
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| More Marco Simoncelli photos | |||
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