Stoner steals Valencia pole

Added on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner continued his strong practice dominance to romp to pole position, for tomorrow’s MotoGP extravaganza from Valencia.

Ahead of the final round of the 2009 season, Australian Stoner cast a qualifying time of 1m32.256 seconds, a strong 0.263 seconds ahead of second placed Dani Pedrosa. Since returning to the MotoGP fraternity, Stoner has been on top form, topping the times whenever possible.

Just 0.4 seconds behind Pedrosa qualified FIAT Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, with the Spaniard managing to out qualify his more experienced teammate, Valentino Rossi. Having qualified fourth, Rossi, the 2009 MotoGP World Champion was also awarded the BMW M Award, which is awarded to the top qualifier of the season.

Joining Rossi on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s season finale is the American duo of Monster Yamaha Tech 3′s Colin Edwards and Stoner’s Ducati teammate, Nicky Hayden. Both riders are eager to make another good impression, once again putting in strong qualifying performances.

Randy De Puniet just missed out on a second row start, with Hayden just pipping him to sixth, forcing the former to accept a seventh place grid start, despite suffering a crash earlier on. Toni Elias, for San Carlo Honda Gresini will line up eighth, with 2009 World Superbike Champion, Ben Spies, in only his fourth MotoGP qualifying session, in ninth. Spies will be taking to the track this weekend as a one-off entry for the Sterilgarda Yamaha Team. Andrea Dovizioso will line up tenth, putting in a good performance to secure the Repsol Honda rider a strong starting position.

James Toseland, on what will be his final MotoGP qualifying session, recorded the fourteenth fastest time ahead of tomorrow’s race.

MotoGP, Valencia – Qualifying Results:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Lap time	Gap
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’32.256
2	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’32.519	0.263
3	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’32.537	0.281
4	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’32.922	0.666
5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’33.085	0.829
6	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’33.154	0.898
7	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’33.391	1.135
8	Toni ELIAS	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’33.475	1.219
9	Ben SPIES	USA	Sterilgarda Yamaha Team	1’33.539	1.283
10	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’33.678	1.422
11	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing	1’33.809	1.553
12	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’33.844	1.588
13	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’34.097	1.841
14	James TOSELAND	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’34.107	1.851
15	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	Hayate Racing Team	1’34.188	1.932
16	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing	1’34.308	2.052
17	Gabor TALMACSI	HUN	Scot Racing Team MotoGP	1’34.357	2.101
18	Chris VERMEULEN	AUS	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’34.537	2.281

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Stoner steals Valencia pole

No Comments

Add a comment

Carole Nash