Stoner on top at San Marino

Added on Saturday, September 3rd, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner continued his strong run by taking pole positions at the Misano circuit, ahead of tomorrow’s San Marino race.

Not only did the Repsol Honda rider steal pole position, but he also broke his own lap record which he set at the circuit three years ago. With a fastest time of 1m33.138 seconds he secured the top spot on the grid.

Having lead the session for much of the hour, Jorge Lorenzo was unable to stop a charging Stoner, with the Yamaha rider settling in second place. Repsol Honda continued their strong form with Dani Pedrosa taking third place and the final spot on the front row of the grid.

Ben Spies will head the second row of the grid in fourth place, whilst Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso will line up alongside in fifth and sixth. Colin Edwards steered his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine to seventh place, ahead of Alvaro Bautista in eighth. The two final top ten positions were awarded to Hector Barbera and Hiroshi Aoyama in ninth and tenth place.

Valentino Rossi just missed out on the top ten, after setting the eleventh fastest time, whilst brit Cal Crutchlow managed thirteenth place. Rossi’s Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden struggled to fifteenth place.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, San Marino:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.138
2	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’33.258
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.318
4	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’33.947
5	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’33.990
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’34.026
7	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’34.054
8	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’34.360
9	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’34.592
10	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’34.637
11	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’34.676
12	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’34.727
13	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’34.791
14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’34.870
15	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’34.955
16	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’35.502
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’36.167