Stoner steals pole at Le Mans

Added on Saturday, May 14th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner scored the enviable pole position at Le Mans, France this afternoon, to claim the top spot for tomorrow’s MotoGP race.

Stoner had tough competition from Marco Simoncelli throughout the session, with the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider keen to take pole for himself. Despite the pressure, Stoner fought him off to take pole position, with a time of 1m33.153 seconds.

Simoncelli eventually settled in second placem whilst Andrea Dovizioso completed the front row in third. Fourth place saw Dani Pedrosa head the second row of the grid, whilst Jorge Lorenzo will line up next to him in fifth. This is the first time this season that the Spanish duo will start off of the front row of the grid. Cal Crutchlow posted a strong sixth fastest time, with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider completing row two.

Colin Edwards is set to head the third row of the grid, just behind his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammate in seventh, with Ben Spies in eighth. The Ducati duo of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will complete the top ten, with Rossi just pipping Hayden to ninth place.

The remaining seven positions were awarded to Randy De Puniet, Alvaro Bautista, Hiroshi Aoyama, Hector Barbera, with Loris Capirossi, Karel Abraham and Toni Elias at the back of the grid.

Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Le Mans:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Time
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.153
2	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’33.212
3	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.621
4	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.683
5	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’33.706
6	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’33.804
7	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’34.063
8	Ben SPIES	USA	Yamaha Factory Racing	1’34.206
9	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	1’34.206
10	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	1’34.277
11	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Pramac Racing Team	1’34.351
12	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’34.513
13	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’34.612
14	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	1’34.650
15	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Pramac Racing Team	1’34.866
16	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	1’35.010
17	Toni ELIAS	SPA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’35.433