Honda: Hopkins cost Pedrosa pole.

Repsol Honda team manager Makoto Tanaka believes last lap traffic cost Dani Pedrosa pole position during Saturday's qualifying session at Istanbul Park.

Pedrosa caught John Hopkins early in his final pole attack and was subsequently unable to pass the Rizla Suzuki rider - despite repeated attempts. Nevertheless, Pedrosa still crossed the line just 0.176secs from pole sitter Valentino Rossi for third on the grid.

"It was a shame for Dani today because, without the traffic on his last lap, I really think he would have been on pole position," said Tanaka. "Still, he put in a very strong performance and his speed on race tyres is fast so he is looking in a good position for the race."

"I think everybody had quite a lot of traffic at the end of the session because there were many riders going for a fast lap, so it wasn't just a problem for me," stated Pedrosa. "I slowed up and tried to get some free space for my lap but Hopkins came in front of me and I was with him for the whole lap. Without this I think I could have been a little faster, but I'm on the front row which is the important thing for the start of the race tomorrow. Also, I'm in a much better position than last year when I was right at the back. Hopefully I can make a great start and get away well because the first corner here is very difficult. Our bike set-up is quite good and the Michelin tyres too, so I hope I can have a good race tomorrow."

Meanwhile, team-mate and reigning world champion Nicky Hayden enjoyed his best qualifying of the season so far - leaping from 19th and last with ten minutes remaining to sixth at the chequered flag. Nevertheless, his front end problems remain.

"That's the best I've qualified this year so it's nice to be starting up near the front. It would be good to get one the starts that I had at the last race in Jerez and get stuck in, though my race pace hasn't been as fast as I'd like which means it could be a chore tomorrow," admitted Nicky. "We've made some changes to the bike to improve things and a big thanks goes to the team because they've definitely been working hard this weekend, changing a lot of things and working long hours. And the Michelin qualifier worked well today which helped me. We changed the transmission around on the bike to try to increase the top speed but it didn't really help and we're still giving up a lot at the top end. Still, we'll come here tomorrow and try to make a good start and fight with those guys at the front."

"Nicky did a great job to improve his position with his qualifying tyres after having problems with set-up today," said Tanaka. "The team will be working really hard to try and improve things for him so that he can make the most of starting on the second row.

"The race tomorrow should be very exciting. There are twelve riders with lap times within 0.5secs on race tyres so the battle at the front could be very close..."

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