Stoner scores pole at Indianapolis

Added on Saturday, August 27th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner scored his seventh pole position of the 2011 season at the Indianapolis circuit today, setting a new lap record in the process.

After topping the times earlier in the day during free practice, Stoner was on form for a strong qualifying outing. As the chequered flag signalled the end of the qualifying hour the Repsol Honda rider scored top spot with a quickest time of 1m38.850 seconds.

Behind Stoner Ben Spies slotted into second place infront of the American fans, while Jorge Lorenzo secured third courtesy of a new set-up on his Yamaha machine.

The second row of the grid will be headed by the second Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa, eager for a strong finish, whilst the third Repsol Honda of Andrea Dovizioso will start alongside in fifth place. Colin Edwards was the second American to wow the fans after qualifying sixth, alos rounding out the second row of the grid.

Seventh place went the way of Marco Simoncelli, who after his first MotoGP podium finish last time out, will be keen to echo his earlier performance. Nicky Hayden will join Simoncelli on the third row of the grid with an eighth place start, whilst Alvaro Bautista and Hector Barbera will round out the top ten.

Brit Cal Crutchlow narrowly missed out on a top ten starting position for tomorrow’s race, qualifying eleventh, with Randy De Puniet and Hiroshi Aoyama following behind. Valentino Rossi suffered an incident early on in the qualifying hour, however after rejoining the session on a second bike he struggled to fourteenth place. With three positions left at the rear of the field, Toni Elias, Karel Abraham and Loris Capirossi completed the field.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Indianapolis:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’38.850
2	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’39.373
3	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’39.629
4	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’39.947
5	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’40.024
6	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’40.098
7	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’40.204
8	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’40.244
9	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’40.333
10	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’40.360
11	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’40.620
12	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’40.815
13	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’40.925
14	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’40.975
15	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’41.030
16	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’41.085
17	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’41.092