Dani Pedrosa - Photo Credit: Repsol Honda
Dani Pedrosa is refusing to get too carried away despite clinching his first pole position of 2012 at Le Mans on Saturday. The Spaniard beat his Repsol Honda teammate Casey Stoner to top spot but knows he will have to work hard to do the same in the race tomorrow.
“I’m not a pole man, so I’m happy to be here for the first time this season; front row is always good and the team has done a great job with the bike. It’s been a difficult session, quite similar to Jerez, the track was drying up but we had some drops again in the last five minutes. So it’s been key to choose the right moment to push and to not get out of the line. Let’s see what the weather does tomorrow but we have to be ready to go fast in any conditions. The race is very long here, 28 laps, and everything can change during the race, so I hope to have a good start and to be able to keep a good pace until the end”.
Stoner will start second and feels he could have pipped his teammate had he not encountered yellow flags on a potential pole lap. The world champion was philosophical though and remains confident of a third straight win.
“We’re really happy to be on front row, but qualifying definitely didn’t go to plan. The track was drying out and we knew we had the pace, you just had to be a little cautious in some areas that were still holding water. We felt we were fast enough to be on pole position but every time I was on a good lap or building up to one, I got held up. I tried to drop back and give myself some space but I still managed to catch up to a CRT bike in front of me which ruined that lap. Then the next lap we were doing pretty well but I saw yellow flags and rain so I backed off, unfortunately the rain wasn’t heavy enough to upset my lap and I could have continued it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I think we’re looking good for the race, we’re pretty comfortable in dry conditions but we still have warm-up and a chance for the others to find something extra, so we’re going to have to improve our bike a little also and wait for the race as the weather conditions are still unpredictable”.
