Stoner tops home qualifying
Added on Saturday, October 16th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Stoner tops home qualifying
Casey Stoner stamped his mark on his home turf at Phillip Island today, by stealing pole position at a track very close to his heart.
With it being his home race, Stoner would always want to do well at the Australian Phillip Island circuit, and as expected has stormed to pole position. With the arrival of his 25th birthday so came his 25th pole position, really giving him something to celebrate. Newly crowned MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo followed Stoner onto the front row, being the only other driver to break into the 1:30 times.
Commenting on his pole position, Stoner told MotoGP.com: “We have had virtually every single condition you could imagine thrown at us this weekend so we’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow before we make any decisions on set-up but so far I think we have done the best possible job in every condition.”
“I’m quite happy with the setting in the wet even though we haven’t had a fully wet session, which made it difficult to get a good reading from the bike. We have had two good sessions today, making progress in the last half an hour of this morning and another big step again in the last half hour of the afternoon. With the last two soft tyres I was able to make a substantial improvement to the lap time and we’re in the best possible position for tomorrow so I’m pretty happy so far,” he added.
Ben Spies enjoyed a strong performance during qualifying to slide onto the front row of the grid in third, achieving his third front row start of the season. By the end of the session, Spies was just 1.279 seconds adrift of the pole time.
The second row of the grid will be headed up by rookie Marco Simoncelli, with the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider recording his best qualifying position of the year. American’s Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden will line up alongside Simoncelli on row two, after setting the fifth and sixth fastest times, respectively.
Randy De Puniet will start seventh tomorrow, with race winner last time out, Valentino Rossi, just inches adrift in eighth. The remainder of the top ten will see Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Melandri make their mark in ninth and tenth.
After fracturing his collarbone a few races ago, Dani Pedrosa is back and ready to show what he can do. After enduring a lengthy operation to insert a titanium plate into the site of his injury, Pedrosa missed the last two races, however is eager to make amends this weekend. Still no doubtedly suffering from his injury, the Spaniard only managed the fifteenth quickest time during qualifying, with Hector Barbera and Loris Capirossi completing the grid.
Qualifying Positions, MotoGP, Phillip Island:
| Pos. | Rider | Nation | Team | Time |
| 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Ducati Team | 1’30.107 |
| 2 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1’30.775 |
| 3 | Ben SPIES | USA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1’31.386 |
| 4 | Marco SIMONCELLI | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1’31.402 |
| 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1’31.415 |
| 6 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | 1’31.530 |
| 7 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1’31.554 |
| 8 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1’31.627 |
| 9 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Repsol Honda Team | 1’32.018 |
| 10 | Marco MELANDRI | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1’32.367 |
| 11 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Pramac Racing Team | 1’32.542 |
| 12 | Mika KALLIO | FIN | Pramac Racing Team | 1’32.816 |
| 13 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | Interwetten Honda MotoGP | 1’33.190 |
| 14 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | 1’33.224 |
| 15 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | 1’33.384 |
| 16 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Paginas Amarillas Aspar | 1’33.390 |
| 17 | Loris CAPIROSSI | ITA | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | 1’34.269 |
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