virgivaughn: 2012 Aragon MotoGP Saturday Round Up: Of Soft And Hard Fronts, Gambling On Tires, And Changes To Qualifying

The weather at Aragon is a fickle thing. The weather forecasters had predicted rain all day, but the rain lifted during the morning and stopped falling completely before lunchtime, leaving only threatening skies looming over the track like a slate-grey cloak. The track dried surprisingly quickly, the Moto3 riders going out on rain tires and with a wet set up once pit lane opened for the first of the three qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon, only to return straight away for slicks and stiffer springs front and rear, the dry line appearing on the track now wide enough to push very hard.

It stayed dry for Moto3, MotoGP and Moto2, more or less, but there is more to going fast than just having a dry track. It was cold and overcast, and the chilly track temps caught a lot of riders out, especially on the finicky Bridgestone tires which, while vastly improved, still give problems in very cold conditions. The combination of the track temperature, a stiff breeze and the lack of right handers mean that the right side of the tire soon loses temperature, and the few right handers there are at Aragon are not turns which you spend braking into, loading the tire and generating heat, Andrea Dovizioso explained.