Honda Dani Pedrosa starts his second home race of the year from pole position after blasting three tenths clear of the field in qualifying, after the ‘Baby Samurai’ continued his much improved performance in terms of grid positions this season.

After having won from pole in the heat of Jerez, Pedrosa was unwilling to be drawn on his predictions for Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – instead focused on the tyre choice and intent on keeping a low profile to get ready to race.

"I’m very happy about the pole because last year I was always struggling in qualifying so today to have a second pole is amazing, especially in front of this crowd." Said Pedrosa "Today wasn’t an easy day, adapting to the chicane, testing so many tyres – and the heat was very strong."

"But it was pretty much a good day, working positively from the morning to figure out which was the best tyre. In the afternoon when it was so hot we made one mistake but we were still able to do a good job in qualifying." He added

"Thanks to my team! In this race the tyre choice and durability is always important. Last year it was one of the most difficult."

Tomorrow we have to pick the right one, get a good feeling on the bike and see how we manage the situation. We know it will be hard but we need to keep our heads down and focus for tomorrow."

source: motogp.com

The nine-time World Champion suffered with a lack of grip and plans to try out some options to better the situation in Warm Up - knowing he's competitive at the track following his win last season.

"We had some good ideas for today, so I expected to be more competitive, but it‘s a little bit like the situation in Jerez, with a lack of grip we suffer a lot with the tyres and the qualifying was bad." He said

"I was also unlucky I lost the entry into Q2 by just one position, so for sure it‘s difficult because the pace is not fantastic."

"It will be a hard race for everybody because the tyres seem to struggle to produce grip, especially in the hot conditions it will be hard, but we will try something else tomorrow morning and we‘ll see." Rossi concluded

source: motogp.com

The Italian says race day could be a more difficult story with trouble with rear traction, but says he’ll be trying to preserve the tyre as much as possible – and that starting so far forward could prove key to doing so.

"It’s a very nice to see you again, because it means I’m in the Press Conference and I’m always happy to be here. I’m very happy with qualifying," Said Petrucci "because like Jorge said we have less traction on the rear – tomorrow will be tough for us, especially managing the rear traction on the right."

"In Mugello I did a good lap but was just outside track limits, and maybe starting from the front row here I can save some rear tyre unlike in Mugello."

"But I think the second half of the race will be crazy. I have to learn – the other Ducati riders are more experienced than me and I always look at their data – I want to stay calm at the start to try and save something but it’s a big group of riders who want to stay in front so it will be a difficult race."

source: motogp.com