Stoner on top at Jerez

Added on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner took the early control of another weekend in the MotoGP, after taking pole position at Jerez this afternoon.

After earning pole and the victory at teh season opener at Qatar just a few weeks ago, Stoner has yet again shown he means business, with a dominant performance at the Spanish Jerez circuit. The qualifying was filled with bumps, scrapes and tumbles, however the Australian prevailed to top the time once more.

Commenting on his pole position, Stoner told MotoGP.com: “We’re happy, we’re on pole position again, but we still need to finish the race tomorrow and I will fight for a podium position and hopefully the race victory, but I never underestimate the Spanish riders. They find something extra for this race and they are very hard to beat.”

2010 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo lead the qualifying hour for much of the session, before a charging Stoner dropped him down the order. Stoner’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa will line up to make it a one-two on the grid for the outfit, with Lorenzo alongside in third.

Ben Spies had a fall in teh closing stages of the hour, however still managed to post the fourth quickest time to hold a good starting position for tomorrow’s race. Alongside the Yamaha rider will be Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso in fifth and sixth, respectively.

Randy De Puniet recorded the eighth fastest time around the infamous circuit, qualifying one place higher than the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo of Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow. Hiroshi Aoyama secured the final position in the top ten, with Ducati teammates Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi just missing out. MotoGP veteran Rossi suffered a fall at the beginning of the session, which left his Ducati machine in the gravel trap. Fortunately he was able to return to the pits to retrieve the spare bike.

A close grid is set to give us another thrilling race tomorrow, as the MotoGP riders prepare for their second race of the season.

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’38.757
2	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’38.915
3	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’38.918
4	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’39.390
5	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’39.486
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’39.709
7	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’39.892
8	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’39.895
9	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’40.019
10	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’40.168
11	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’40.175
12	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’40.185
13	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’40.217
14	John HOPKINS	USA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’40.310
15	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’40.523
16	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’40.601
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’41.114

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.