Stoner takes pole at Valencia
Ducati's Casey Stoner took a comfortable pole position for tomorrow's MotoGP season finale at Valencia
The Australian, who had also topped the free practice runs this weekend, set the pole time of 1m32.256s with six minutes left in the one-hour session, which he practically led throughout.
Honda's Dani Pedrosa will start the race from the second spot on the grid thanks to a lap in the final two minutes, that allowed him to get in front of the two works Yamaha riders. The Spaniard's time was 0.263s slower than Stoner's.
Jorge Lorenzo, who hopes to hold on to second in the championship ahead of Stoner, qualified third, almost four tenths quicker than team-mate Valentino Rossi, who appears to be struggling this weekend after winning this year's title at the last race in Malaysia.
Americans Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) will join Rossi on the second row of the grid.
The third row will see the Hondas of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Toni Elias (Gresini) leading World Superbike champion Ben Spies.
The American qualified ninth one second behind Lorenzo, after being entered as a wildcard by Yamaha ahead of his joining the customer Tech 3 team next year.
Pos Rider Team Time Gap 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m32.256s 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m32.519s + 0.263s 3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m32.537s + 0.281s 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m32.922s + 0.666s 5. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m33.085s + 0.829s 6. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m33.154s + 0.898s 7. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 1m33.391s + 1.135s 8. Toni Elias Gresini Honda 1m33.475s + 1.219s 9. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m33.539s + 1.283s 10. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m33.678s + 1.422s 11. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati 1m33.809s + 1.553s 12. Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda 1m33.844s + 1.588s 13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m34.097s + 1.841s 14. James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha 1m34.107s + 1.851s 15. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki 1m34.188s + 1.932s 16. Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati 1m34.308s + 2.052s 17. Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda 1m34.357s + 2.101s 18. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m34.537s + 2.281s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments