Stoner Takes Pole Position in Qatar

As expected, Honda’s Casey Stoner did not disappoint the audience at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday night and clinched pole position for this weekend’s MotoGP opener, Qatar GP. The Australian rider therefore continued his commanding run this week, after he had managed to top all 3 practice sessions prior to the Saturday action.

Stoner set the tempo from early on and was hardly challenged for the top spot throughout the qualifying session, yet his teammate Dani Pedrosa did manage to give him a scare a few minutes before the end of the session. The Spaniard took 1st place with his best lap time of 1:54. 758, but that only “woke up” Stoner for the closing stages of the session.

Minutes later, the Aussie lapped the Losail circuit in 1:54.375, before further improving to 1:54.137 for his 5th consecutive pole position in Qatar.

Although improving himself later on, Pedrosa had to settle for the 2nd best placed rider in qualifying, as he finished the Saturday action more than 6 tenths of a second ahead of Yamaha’s reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

The second row on Sunday will be headed by Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli, who managed to put one tenth of a second between him and the second works Yamaha of Ben Spies. Ducati made its first presence inside the Top 10 with Aspar’s Hector Barbera, who was only 0.006s faster than Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s and rookie Cal Crutchlow scored the 8th best time of the day, ahead of 7-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi and Tech 3 teammate Colin Edwards.