“The preparation of the bike does not change too much, as you might think, with regard to the overall geometry of the bike. The suspension is used as it would be for the race, but possibly ‘hardened' up a little to exploit the qualifying tyre a little more, which is only useable for one lap, sometimes only a lap and a half. Instead, it's more the rider who tends to change his style of riding to exploit the increased grip, which is often disproportionate to the rubber used in the race. Think about it, if in any corner the rider can make up a tenth of a second on qualifying rubber and the circuit has ten corners, then a perfect lap would mean you're a whole second faster.
The rider who can better exploit this advantage of qualifying tyres takes pole – in theory!”

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