Pedrosa: "It's a long time since I was that good in Qualifying!" 06/05/2017
The Repsol Honda rider takes his first pole position since Malaysia 2015

Dani Pedrosa took a scintillating pole position for his first home race of the year in the Gran Premio Red Bull de España, navigating a cat and mouse game on track with Repsol Honda teammate Marc Marquez to come out on top. The ‘Baby Samurai’ was also quickest in a wet FP1, drying FP2 and earlier on Saturday morning in FP3 – looking a serious threat for race day from his first pole position since Sepang 2015.

Dani Pedrosa, P1: “So far so good! I’m happy, especially about qualifying because it’s been a long time and I have been struggling, not being able to do the good lap times, always on the second or third row. So the key this qualifying today was to finish on the first row. After the first tyre I happy because I was already second and it was already a good feeling, but I was enjoying it and had a good feeling on the bike so I decided to go for the second tyre…there was a lot happening already in the pit lane. Then when I started, Marc started with me…on the out lap he was following me, so half way round the lap I stopped, he stopped too…I looked at him and I knew if I improved, he could improve behind me. But I said ‘Ok, I’ll take his challenge and go for it.’ So I was happy with my lap and I managed to get pole, which is a special feeling for two reasons. One for my team, and two because it’s been difficult in recent qualifying to be up front and competitive.

GP of Espana – Qualifying classification:
1. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 1'38.249
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 1'38.298/+0.049
3. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 1'38.453/+0.204
4. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'38.677/+0.428
5. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'38.744/+0.495
6. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'38.861/+0.612
7. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'38.908/+0.659
8. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 1'38.910/+0.661
9. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'39.108/+0.859
10. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'39.125/+0.876
11. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'39.152/+0.903
12. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'39.400/+1.151
13. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'39.090 (Q1)
14. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 1'39.255 (Q1)
15. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'39.282 (Q1)
16. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'39.321 (Q1)
17. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'39.462 (Q1)
18. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'39.564 (Q1)
19. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'39.678 (Q1)
20. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'39.824 (Q1)
21. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'39.906 (Q1)
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'40.213 (Q1)
23. Takuya TSUDA, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'40.386 (Q1)