Spaniard Dani Pedrosa denied MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo his sixth straight pole by clocking the fastest lap in qualifying for today’s Czech Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Honda rider, who trails compatriot Lorenzo by 72 points in the standings, secured the top spot with a best lap of one minute, 56.508 seconds at the 5.4km Brno circuit.
American Ben Spies will start from second position after a best lap of one minute, 56.846 seconds on his Yamaha.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lorenzo crashed his Yamaha in the final minutes of qualifying and will aim for his seventh victory of the season from third spot.
Teammate and MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi also crashed in the final minutes and will start from fifth position in his third race back after a broken leg kept him out for four races. The 31-year-old Italian, last year’s Czech winner, is set to announce today who he will race for next year.
Previously, Lorenzo, rested and refreshed by a Caribbean summer break, dominated Friday’s practice for the Czech Grand Prix.
The Yamaha rider, who has won six of the nine races so far, had a 72-point lead over compatriot Pedrosa of Honda into today’s event, which kicks off the second half of the season.
He clocked a best time of oneminute 57.215 seconds, 0.541 secnods faster than Pedrosa.
“It’s always difficult to return to work after the vacation,” said 23-year-old Lorenzo, who has yet to win at Brno in the MotoGP class.
“This track is so different to Laguna Seca, so wide and much longer; it took me a few more laps than usual to get going,” he said. “Of course I want to win here, but my main objective is to win the championship.”
Lorenzo won at Brno in the 125cc class in 2004 and then the 250cc division in 2006 and 2007, victories that helped him to back-to-back world titles in the sport’s second tier contest.
In the MotoGP race last year, however, he failed to score a point after crashing out although he did have the consolation of breaking the track record.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946