Stoner scores record pole at Mugello

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

MotoGP championship leader Casey Stonerscored a record breaking pole position lap time at Mugello this afternoon, as he strives to extend his advantage at the top.

On a weekend marred by more weather problems a busy start to the session saw the entire field fight for track space, in a desperate bid to score the best qualifying position. Threatening rain gave cause for concern up and down the pitlane, as everyone waited to see if it would fall or not.

Sure enough, the rain did fall and soon made things exciting out on track. A flying Stoner fired his Repsol Honda around the Italian circuit in 1m48.034 seconds, setting a new lap record in the process.

Behind it was a battle to see who could try and catch the Australian, with Ben Spies continuing his strong form from just one week ago to score second place on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Marco Simoncelli fought back after a difficult outing at Assen last weekend to qualify third.

Stoner’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso headed the second row of the grid, securing a fourth place start, whilst Jorge Lorenzo will start fifth and Colin Edwards sixth. Cal Crutchlow continued his return to form by qualifying seventh, ahead of the returning Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden. The final top ten spot was awarded to Hector Barbera, whilst Karel Abraham and Valentino Rossi just missed out on the top ten with eleventh and twelfth grid spots.

The remaining grid positions were filled by Hiroshi Aoyama, Alvaro Bautista, Randy De Puniet and Toni Elias.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Mugello:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’48.034
2	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’48.479
3	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’48.485
4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’48.694
5	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’48.756
6	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’48.974
7	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’49.021
8	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’49.398
9	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’49.509
10	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’49.663
11	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’49.678
12	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’49.902
13	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’50.156
14	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’50.460
15	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’50.651
16	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’50.742