Stoner romps to Aragon pole

Added on Saturday, September 17th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner stormed to a dominant pole position at the Aragon circuit this afternoon, to further cement his dominance in the MotoGP Championship.

After setting the fastest time early on in the session, Stoner was able to hold off his challengers. His Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa followed him towards the head of the field, with the Spaniard securing the second fastest time.

Despite setting a new lap record with thirteen minutes of the qualifying left to run, Stoner had a monet which saw him run into the gravel trap and tipple over. After recovering himself he managed to get back to the pits for his second bike. Now armed with his second machine, Stoner set an even faster lap, with an eventual pole position time of 1m48.451 seconds.

Ben Spies will join the Repsol Honda duo on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race, after suffering an incident during thr morning track sessions. Jorge Lorenzo will start from an uncharacteristic second row grid slot, with the Yamaha rider securing fourth place ahead of tomorrow’s thrilling adventure. Joining him on the second row will be the third Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli.

Nicky Hayden recorded the seventh fastest time of the qualifying hour on his Ducati machine, whilst Karel Abraham enjoyed a strong run to eighth place. Hiroshi Aoyama will start from ninth place, with Randy De Puniet set to complete the top ten.

Alvaro Bautista and Cal Crutchlow narrowly missed out on a top ten place, and will start from eleventh and twelfth, respectively. Valentino Rossi suffered a fall from his Ducati in the early stages of qualifying, however managed to return to the session in the closing phase to set the thirteenth fastest time. Hector Barbera and Colin Edwards will start from fourteenth and fifteenth, with Loris Capirossi and Toni Elias rounding out the field.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Aragon:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’48.451
2	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’48.747
3	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’49.155
4	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’49.270
5	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’49.372
6	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’49.528
7	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’49.752
8	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’49.777
9	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’49.813
10	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’49.826
11	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’49.883
12	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’49.893
13	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’49.960
14	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’49.976
15	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’50.105
16	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’50.752
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’51.073

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