Casey Stoner will start the Iveco Australian Grand Prix on pole position for the second year running, after topping Saturday’s qualifying timesheet. The Ducati rider remains on course for a hat-trick of Phillip Island victories at his home circuit.
Having enjoyed wins in the past two seasons at the Australian track, Stoner’s best time of 1’30.341 on his Desmosedici GP9 was just 0.050s faster than nearest rival Valentino Rossi.
The battle with Rossi – who will take his place on the front row for the ninth consecutive race – throughout Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session was an engrossing affair, as the fastest time swapped hands towards the end of the session.
Dani Pedrosa survived a crash to secure third place, a 0.679s margin behind paceman Stoner, with a second bike, after his RC212V lost its nose going into Southern Loop, whilst Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo took fourth spot.
Lorenzo had third place snatched off him by the Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa by just one thousandth of a second, thus depriving the Majorcan of a front-row start for the first time this season.
Making up the second row on Sunday will be Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards – just 0.025s off Lorenzo’s time – and Alex de Angelis, who followed up impressive some practice times in sixth place, despite an early spill in qualifying.
Stoner’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden, LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet, Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) all made the top ten as well.
Raffaele de Rosa will start on pole position in the 250cc class after beating World Champion Marco Simoncelli and Scot Racing team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama to the front of the grid.
The rain played havoc with the opening stages of the qualifying practice session, with both Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) and Mattia Pasini (Paddock GP Racing Team) crashing on their first laps.
Héctor Barberá (Pepe World) looked to have sealed first place, but an exciting final few minutes of qualifying saw De Rosa post a 1’33.389 lap, with Simoncelli and Aoyama being joined on the front row by Debon.
Debon recovered from his crash to take fourth place, whilst Barberá will line up in fifth with Mike de Meglio (Mapfre Aspar), Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG) and Pasini making up the remainder of the second row, all within a second of De Rosa. Héctor Faubel (Honda SAG) and Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar) completed the top ten.
Form rider Pol Espargaró will head the grid in the 125cc category after securing his first pole position of the year.
The Derbi Racing starlet – who has won two of the last three GPs, at Indianapolis and Estoril – was the fastest rider in free practice, and bettered his pace with a best lap of 1’37.770 on Saturday afternoon to secure only the third pole position of his career.
Hot on his heels was fellow Spaniard Nico Terol, who at 0.279s behind pushed Julían Simón down to third place. Simón, who is bidding to seal the world title this weekend, was a further 0.018s behind Terol to also secure a place on the front row of the grid.
Joining the Spanish trio, Simone Corsi (Fontana Racing) took fourth spot with a best time of 1’38.136 to make the front row for the first time this year, and heading up the second row is Simón’s Bancaja Aspar team-mate Bradley Smith who, before a late crash at Honda Hairpin, managed to take over 0.5s off his best practice time to claim fifth place.
Sunday’s racing at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix commences with the 125cc riders getting away at 1pm local time. The 250cc riders commence their contest at 2.15pm and the MotoGP race begins at 4pm.
MotoGP Qualifying Results
- Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1’30.341 322.404
- Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1’30.391 316.749 0.050
- Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1’31.070 318.705 0.729
- Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1’31.071 316.379 0.730
- Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1’31.096 316.379 0.755
- Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1’31.260 321.161 0.919
- Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1’31.325 318.799 0.984
- Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1’31.380 315.642 1.039
- Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing Ducati 1’31.384 323.173 1.043
- Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1’31.472 318.799 1.131
- Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1’31.640 324.043 1.299
- James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1’31.722 317.213 1.381
- Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1’31.873 315.274 1.532
- Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 1’32.190 318.799 1.849
- Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1’32.338 313.632 1.997
- Gabor TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 1’32.752 313.723 2.411
— Ducati Report
Casey Stoner will start his home Grand Prix at Phillip Island from pole position for the second successive season tomorrow after snatching top spot by just 0.050 seconds in an exciting finale to today’s single qualifying practice. With dry but cool conditions prevailing once again this afternoon, track conditions were not ideal but the Australian produced a late charge to topple Valentino Rossi on a soft tyre.
His team-mate Nicky Hayden will start from the front of the third row after an improved showing on his Desmosedici GP9. The American bettered his fastest lap from yesterday on his first outing in this morning’s final free practice session before the onset of heavy rain, although he continued to make progress in the afternoon and registered the seventh quickest time overall, just over two tenths off the front row. Stoner, who was comfortably the quickest rider in that brief wet spell this morning, will run a special livery tomorrow.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) (1st; 1’30.341)
“It’s a great feeling to be on pole position again, especially here at my home race. I’ve had great support from the fans here this weekend and it is nice to give them something to cheer for today, although the real work starts tomorrow. To be honest we’re still struggling for traction, which seems to be the same problem for everybody, but we have worked hard this season to create a bike that turns well – trying things like going back to the aluminium swingarm – and it has paid off so far this weekend. This is a great track to ride at when you’re comfortable with your bike and even though we still don’t have a perfect set-up I still felt confident enough to push it at the end and it was good fun. Now I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, especially because we’re going to be running a special livery and I’d really like to thank our sponsors for that.”
NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) (7th; 1’31.325)
“The bike felt a lot better this morning compared to yesterday although to be fair we only ran it on new tyres before the rain came and maybe that gave us a false impression of just how good it was. Having said that, it felt okay this afternoon too and I was able to push it pretty hard and enjoy myself – probably for the first time this weekend. I was in fifth place for a good while in the first half of the session but ended up seventh, just over two tenths off the front row, and I’m disappointed with that because I really hoped we’d be closer to the front at this track. Anyway, it’s tomorrow that counts and I’m looking forward to the race because as I said I’ve finally started to enjoy myself this afternoon. The problem could be that the race doesn’t start until 4pm so it will be approaching 5 by the time we finish, and that is going to have a massive effect on tyre choice and everything else.”
— HRC Report
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa will start tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix from the front row after an admirable performance in qualifying at Phillip Island this afternoon. The 24-year-old Spaniard was totally unfazed by a high-speed tumble in the middle of the session and returned to the track on his spare bike to steal third on the grid by just one thousandth of a second, fractionally edging out fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo.
It was a fair result for Pedrosa who had been on the pace in a rain-interrupted morning session too – finishing the hour in second place with a gap of just 0.048s to top spot. Indeed, due to his disrupted qualifying session, Pedrosa’s time from the morning of 1m 30.674s was four tenths of a second faster than he achieved this afternoon. Now he and his pit crew will be looking to make a few final adjustments to the set-up of his factory RC212V in the morning warm-up to give him the best chance of running at the front in the 27-lap race.
His Repsol Honda team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, was naturally less than satisfied with his starting position of 10th – despite his best lap time being just 0.4s behind Pedrosa’s front row position. The Italian was able to make significant improvements to his machine set-up today, but a packed mid-field where the riders from third to 13th are covered by a single second, saw Dovizioso end up further back than he would have liked. However, with a fast start from the fourth row, Dovizioso has a good chance of a strong finish.
Round 15 of the 17-race MotoGP World Championship begins tomorrow at the unusually late time of 16.00 (GMT +11 hours).
DANI PEDROSA – 3rd – 1m 31.070s
“I’m pleased to be on the front row because it’s always good to have a clear track ahead of you at the start of the race – and especially since it came after I had quite a big crash in qualifying. It was at high speed on the way into Turn Two so it’s a relief that I wasn’t injured and I was able go straight back out on track for the second half of the session. I’m not sure yet why I fell – I just touched the brake and boom – I was down. We’ll take a look at the data and try to find out exactly what happened. For tomorrow we’ll work on finding a little something in terms of pace to allow us to compete for the win because the riders in front are going quickly. It will be a long race tomorrow so we’ll need to be fully concentrated – and of course it will be important to see what the weather does.”
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 10th – 1m 31.472s
“We made progress today and, in spite of the grid position, we actually improved our situation a little here. During the first three quarters of the qualifying session we tried some different set-up solutions that didn’t really give any improvements. We were also using the hard option tyres that were proving too hard for the conditions so, when we switched to the soft tyres, we improved our rhythm and the lap times came down. I’m a little disappointed because we upped our pace, but not by enough and this means the grid position is not the best. On the plus side, we are only four tenths behind the third fastest time which is actually encouraging, though the grid slot is a pity because starting from the fourth row makes everything more difficult. Anyway tomorrow I will give 100 per cent to make a good start and recover as many positions as possible.”
KAZUHIKO YAMANO – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“Dani did well to take a front row start and this is a fair result for him because he was looking fast in the morning too. He fell at quite high speed so it’s good that he is unhurt and was able to ride at qualifying pace immediately after returning to the pits. Our rivals at the front are very quick so the Repsol Honda team will be working hard tonight to give both riders the best chance of competing at the front tomorrow. Andrea wasn’t far behind in terms of pace so naturally he’s a little disappointed with 10th on the grid. It’s a long race tomorrow though, and with a good start he can also make significant moves forward.”
— Suzuki Report
Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen have a big mountain to climb during tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix after the pair qualified on the fifth row of the grid today.
Capirossi (P13, 1’31.873, 30 laps) did make steps forward with his bike in the early part of the morning practice session, before heavy rained intervened, and was consistently posting times within the top-10. He continued with the programme for getting the best set-up during the qualifying session and although his times were comparable with the other riders on the harder compound of tyre, Capirossi was unable to make a big enough jump with the softer compound to propel himself up the grid.
Vermeulen (P15, 1’32.338, 29 laps) was left bitterly disappointed after his qualifying session this afternoon. He improved dramatically on his times from yesterday, but couldn’t find enough to get in a challenging grid position for tomorrow’s race. One positive note for Vermeulen was that when the heavy rain fell in the morning practice he was one of the fastest and most consistent riders in the wet and will almost certainly be in contention during tomorrow’s race if conditions like those of this morning repeat themselves.
Today’s qualifying was held in very overcast conditions with a threat of rain always in the air, a strong breeze blowing off the Pacific made conditions feel considerably cooler than they were and gave the venue a feel more like ‘Phillip Iceland’ than Phillip Island. Local hero Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati took pole position as he goes in search of his third successive home GP victory.
Tomorrow’s 27-lap race will get underway at 16.00hrs local time (05.00hrs GMT) with both Rizla Suzuki riders looking to make a good start to give them a fighting chance of a competitive race and higher places than their grid positions.
Loris Capirossi:
“It was another tough day for us today, even though we did make another step with the overall setting of the bike. During the morning session we were making some good progress, but after 30 minutes it started to rain and ruined what we were doing. In the qualifying the conditions were better and we made some good runs with the harder compound tyre and it wasn’t too bad for us, but when we tried to go quicker with the softer one we just couldn’t make a big difference. We struggled on the left corners because we were spinning a lot and we need to find a good solution to give us better traction. We have improved the feeling from the front compared to yesterday, but it is not enough because we need better traction to go faster. It is bad to be starting so far back, but for sure in tomorrow’s race I won’t finish in the same place in the race as I did in the qualifying!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We had difficult weather this afternoon; the rain could have come at any moment just like it did this morning. We did a few laps in the wet this morning – in fact I think I was the first one out – and the bike felt pretty good and I managed to get lots of information if it’s wet tomorrow. In the dry it was tough in qualifying and we’re really struggling with rear grip on the left-hand-side and the performance of the tyre seems to drop off after only a few laps, so we need to try and improve on that. We tried some things today that helped a bit and we went over a second quicker than we did yesterday, but it’s still not where we need to be. We need to find some positives from today and go and give it 100% tomorrow.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Phillip Island has been our nemesis over the last few years and I am now starting to dislike the place as much as our bike obviously does! There is no hiding the fact that the qualifying result is a disaster, but it’s also true that we have taken a decent step compared to 2008 and the difference in our lap-time to pole position and the second row shows that. Unfortunately lap-times count for nothing and the positions are not where they should be. The only silver lining is that if it’s dry we have a similar pace to a lot of the field on the harder tyre and everyone else seemed to find a big step on the softer compound to give them better grid positions, so fingers crossed we’ll be able to keep reasonable consistency in the race and try to aim at least for the top-10.”
— Yamaha Report
Valentino Rossi will start his Phillip Island assault from second on the grid tomorrow, after sealing his twelfth front-row start of the season in Australia this afternoon. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who was still feeling under the weather following yesterday’s upset stomach, missed out on the front row by just 0.001 seconds, the first time he has been out of the top three this season.
This morning’s practice was interrupted by rain, which allowed the riders a quick chance to check their wet-weather settings in case of more rain tomorrow. By the afternoon the weather had cleared up and qualifying was run in the dry, albeit with grey skies and a cold wind. Rossi spent most of the hour-long session a few tenths off Casey Stoner in second but a late setting update gave him the extra pace to challenge the Australian and he duly moved to the top of the time sheets with nine minutes to go. Stoner hit back five minutes later however and set a best time that knocked Rossi off pole by 0.050 seconds.
Lorenzo felt much better today but he was still not at 100%, having been unable to eat much since yesterday’s illness. The 22-year-old was still struggling for rear grip but he was able to improve his time in the later stages and looked like he would make it onto the front row before a late charge from Dani Pedrosa edged him off by just one thousandth of a second. He will now have to mount his challenge from the head of the second row tomorrow, something of a novelty for him having qualified in the first three at all fourteen previous rounds this year.
Rossi – Position: 2nd Time: 1’30.391 Laps: 30
“We are on the front row which is the most important thing and I think we can definitely have a good race tomorrow. We have a few things to check in the morning, depending on the weather, including the final tyre choice – of course we hope for it to be dry. I have a good setting and with the last modification we made I was able to make another step and we were quite fast. The pole position was possible today but unfortunately I made a mistake in the last section on my flying lap and Stoner was able to go a little bit faster than me. We have an advantage on Lorenzo, which is important for the championship points, and I hope that I will be able to fight with Stoner for the win.”
Lorenzo – Position: 4th Time: 1’31.071 Laps: 31
“I’m a bit disappointed to lose my 100% front-row qualifying record by such a tiny amount, but today we just didn’t quite have enough pace. We still don’t have enough grip on the rear and the tyre is spinning too much, which makes it difficult to be fast enough. Tomorrow I will try to adapt my riding style instead in order to try to make it onto the podium. I feel better than yesterday but I’m still not at 100%; I feel quite weak still because I haven’t been able to eat much. I will have to try before tomorrow in order to have enough strength for the race. I don’t feel any pressure, I will just go out and do my best.”
Team Manager
“So far all the sessions have gone well for us. We’ve got a good starting position for tomorrow and we’re in good shape for the race. As far as our strategy goes, of course we will have one eye on Lorenzo and the championship but also one eye on Stoner and the chance to win the race if possible! The only issue is the late time of the race, because at 4pm it could be quite a lot colder and therefore this might throw up some surprises.”
Team Manager
“It’s a real pity to miss out on the front row by just one millisecond after we have been so consistent all season! We still have rear grip issues at the moment, the team have done a good job to improve it over the sessions but we still have some work to do. The warm-up will be very important for us tomorrow in order to try to solve the problem and put us in a position to be able to challenge in the fight for the race and the championship tomorrow.”
— Bridgestone Report
Bridgestone compounds available: Front: Wets – Soft Slicks – Soft, Medium Rear: Wets – Soft Slicks – Hard, Extra hard (asymmetric)
After a morning of rain that saw both Bridgestone’s slick and wet tyres used in the free practice session, Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner made the best use of his softer option front and rear Bridgestone slicks in the hour-long qualifying session to secure pole position for tomorrow’s race by just 0.05seconds.
The session concluded with a shootout for pole between Stoner and Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, both of whom used Bridgestone’s softer options. Rossi held pole with just six minutes to go, until the Ducati Team changed Stoner’s rear Bridgestone slick and the Australian put in two fastest laps to end the session ahead, just under 0.3seconds shy of the circuit lap record.
In another close fight for position, on his penultimate lap Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa recovered from an earlier fall to edge ahead of Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo for third on the grid by just 0.001seconds.
The morning rainfall meant that the track temperature was quite cool and so every rider favoured the softer option slicks front and rear, although some completed laps on the harder variants to compare their performance before tomorrow’s race. The rain held off just long enough for the qualifying session to be run in the dry, but just minutes after the chequered flag it started falling again to demonstrate the unpredictability of the weather here just off Australia’s southern coast.
Pramac Racing’s Niccolo Canepa missed the session after sustaining an arm injury when he fell during yesterday’s free practice session.
Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“The fair conditions during the qualifying session allowed some comparisons between the softer and harder option slicks, but the softer option fronts and rears were favoured because of the available grip. In the cool conditions, the extra hard compound rear did not have enough traction, so based on this I can say that if the weather tomorrow is similar the softer slicks will be the preferred choice for the race too. The rainfall during the free practice session meant that riders completed laps on our wet tyres, and I am happy with their performance.”
