Thursday, July 24, 2008

Stoner takes another pole at Laguna

Casey Stoner took a commanding pole position at Laguna Seca, his fifth consecutive this season, ahead of tomorrow's US MotoGP.

The Ducati Marlboro rider, who utterly dominated all free practice runs this weekend, shot to the top of the timesheets just six minutes into the one-hour session and never relinquished the position after improving on his own best lap six more times to finish with a 1:20.700.

In the end, the rider getting closest to the reigning world champion was championship leader Valentino Rossi, who sneaked in a lap within half a second of pole just as time ran out, to fend off the challenge from teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda rival Nicky Hayden.

The American rider will start the race from the front row, having qualified almost three tenths slower than Rossi, while the Spaniard, who is the only other rider to stay within one second of Stoner's time, will head row two, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland and LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet.

Toseland's teammate Colin Edwards could qualify no better than seventh, followed by Chris Vermeulen's Rizla Suzuki and Andrea Dovizioso's JiR Honda.

Despite sliding off in his last lap, Alice Ducati's Toni Elias enjoyed his best qualifying performance of the year with his tenth-fastest time, while Marco Melandri had a disappointing session that saw him end up 15th on the other factory Ducati, after having shown promising pace in practice.

The two Kawasakis will start last in 17th and 18th spot, with John Hopkins's stand-in Jamie Hacking beating regular rider Anthony West by 1.2 seconds, despite the American crashing and running back to the pits for the final 15 minutes after a couple of early off-track excursions.

Both Honda Gresini riders also suffered crashes, with Shinya Nakano sliding through the gravel and into the air fence, and Alex de Angelis crashing hard on the asphalt after a high-side and hurting his left forearm and thumb.

Despite looking to be in a lot of pain, the rider from San Marino was back on the bike ten minutes after the accident, but could qualify only 16th.

Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:20.700 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:21.147 + 0.447 3. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:21.430 + 0.730 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:21.864 + 0.936 5. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:21.848 + 1.148 6. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:21.921 + 1.221 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:21.947 + 1.247 8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:21.971 + 1.271 9. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:21.974 + 1.274 10. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:21.999 + 1.299 11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:22.039 + 1.339 12. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:22.092 + 1.392 13. Ben Spies Suzuki (B) 1:22.147 + 1.427 14. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:22.719 + 2.019 15. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:22.957 + 2.257 16. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:23.035 + 2.335 17. Jamie Hacking Kawasaki (B) 1:23.309 + 2.609 18. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:24.525 + 3.825

  • Ericsson takes pole at Brands Hatch
  • Stoner tops wet warm-up
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