Casey Stoner will start tomorrow’s German Grand Prix from pole position after a thoroughly dominant qualifying performance.
The Australian bettered his own fastest time after the chequered flag fell – resetting the benchmark from 1:21.81s to 1:21.68s.
Amazingly, Stoner’s best lap on the hard tyre, a 1:21.92s set with 16 minutes remaining, would also have been good enough for pole position.
Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa ended the session second fastest, some 0.25s adrift of Stoner’s best.
Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo stole third from Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli with the last lap of the session, while Ben Spies rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were Andrea Dovizioso, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Randy de Puniet and Alvaro Bautista.
Valentino Rossi’s difficult weekend continued, with the Italian legend managing no better than 16th on the Ducati.
Karel Abraham also had a difficult session, adding two crashes to his earlier fall in the final practice session.
See below for the full session result
|
Pos. |
Rider |
Nation |
Team |
Bike |
Time |
Gap |
|
1 |
Casey STONER |
AUS |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
1’21.681 |
|
|
2 |
Dani PEDROSA |
SPA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
1’21.933 |
0.252 |
|
3 |
Jorge LORENZO |
SPA |
Yamaha Factory Racing |
Yamaha |
1’21.944 |
0.263 |
|
4 |
Marco SIMONCELLI |
ITA |
San Carlo Honda Gresini |
Honda |
1’21.954 |
0.273 |
|
5 |
Ben SPIES |
USA |
Yamaha Factory Racing |
Yamaha |
1’22.056 |
0.375 |
|
6 |
Andrea DOVIZIOSO |
ITA |
Repsol Honda Team |
Honda |
1’22.157 |
0.476 |
|
7 |
Colin EDWARDS |
USA |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
1’22.368 |
0.687 |
|
8 |
Nicky HAYDEN |
USA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
1’22.388 |
0.707 |
|
9 |
Randy DE PUNIET |
FRA |
Pramac Racing Team |
Ducati |
1’22.503 |
0.822 |
|
10 |
Alvaro BAUTISTA |
SPA |
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP |
Suzuki |
1’22.604 |
0.923 |
|
11 |
Hector BARBERA |
SPA |
Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP |
Ducati |
1’22.676 |
0.995 |
|
12 |
Cal CRUTCHLOW |
GBR |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
Yamaha |
1’22.676 |
0.995 |
|
13 |
Karel ABRAHAM |
CZE |
Cardion AB Motoracing |
Ducati |
1’23.164 |
1.483 |
|
14 |
Toni ELIAS |
SPA |
LCR Honda MotoGP |
Honda |
1’23.201 |
1.520 |
|
15 |
Hiroshi AOYAMA |
JPN |
San Carlo Honda Gresini |
Honda |
1’23.248 |
1.567 |
|
16 |
Valentino ROSSI |
ITA |
Ducati Team |
Ducati |
1’23.320 |
1.639 |
|
17 |
Sylvain GUINTOLI |
FRA |
Pramac Racing Team |
Ducati |
1’24.707 |
3.026 |
