Stoner secures Valencia pole

From motogp.com

Casey Stoner’s superb display at Valencia continued on Saturday afternoon, as the Australian secured pole position for Sunday’s Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana.

The Australian topped the timesheet by a clear 0.263 secs., with a best lap of 1:32.256 securing him the lead on the front row of the grid.

Fastest in both free practice sessions and qualifying, the Ducati man has been pleased with the way his Desmosedici GP9 has responded, which was evident in his performance, and is anticipating a tough final race of the campaign.

“I’m really happy, we had a bit of a bad run in Sepang, but this weekend everything’s gone really well and we’ve been quickest in every session,” said Stoner. “We’ve made small improvements to the bike each day. The only problem we’ve got now is the pretty windy conditions, which is making it very difficult to ride and understand where the limit is. I lost the front (of the bike) a few times on the last qualifying tire, but there’s no way we’re going to be pushing that hard in the race.

“I’m feeling pretty good and the bike feels good, we just need to make sure tomorrow morning that everything’s still going smoothly and we’re happy with the setting. It’s going to be a very hard race, there are a lot of people going for this win and trying to get the best result they can. There’s hopefully going to be fireworks tomorrow.”

A third successive win would be the perfect way to round off the year for the 24-year-old, who missed three races through fatigue earlier in the campaign.

“It’d be a nice end to the season we’ve had so far,” Stoner added. “It’s definitely not gone the way we wanted it to, but I’m very happy with the way things have gone so far in this last period, and we’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings. “

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was next quickest as he improved his own best practice time by over 0.4 secs. to secure second place, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.

With a single race victory to his name this season, the final Grand Prix of the season at Valencia is not only a chance for Pedrosa to improve that record, but to do it in front of a home crowd.

“At the end of qualifying we had a good lap time but we’ll try to improve our set-up a little bit,” said Pedrosa. “Lorenzo and Stoner are going a little bit faster than me, but we’re going to try and improve the main set-up.”

Lorenzo, who was third fastest overall in the practice sessions, was not far behind with a margin of just 0.018 secs. separating him from his fellow Spaniard.

Heading up the second row of the grid will be Lorenzo’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate and World Champion Valentino Rossi, whose fourth position was enough to secure him the BMW M Award for best qualifier in MotoGP in 2009.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) secured fifth spot for the eighth time this season, after improving significantly on his own practice times from earlier in the weekend.

Stoner’s Ducati Marlboro team-mate Nicky Hayden took the final second-row slot with his final lap, beating Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) to sixth.

De Puniet recovered from an early crash to ensure seventh place, after an impressive showing in both practice sessions carried over, whilst Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) will occupy eighth in the starting positions.

Ben Spies, riding as a wildcard entry for the Sterilgarda Yamaha Team and completing only his fourth ever qualifying session in MotoGP, will line up ninth, with Andrea Dovizioso also coming inside the top 10 times.

Alex Debón was the top performer in qualifying for the 250cc class, but suffered a suspected broken rib in a late crash in the session after ensuring pole position. The Spaniard had already recorded the best lap to take pole position before losing the back end of his bike in turn 1.

Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens rider Debón’s lap of 1:36.116 – set on his 20th and last of the session before his run off – was an improvement on his own time which had already placed him at the top of the timesheet. He was taken to the Clinica Mobile, where a suspected broken rib was diagnosed, with confirmation of his participation in Sunday’s race expected on the morning of the GP.

Following Debón onto the front row of the grid, Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) improved on his free practice times to take second spot, with Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) and Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG) in third and fourth respectively.

Hiroshi Aoyama, who needs to finish in only 11th place in Sunday’s race to take the 2009 World title, will lead the second row.

A seventh pole position of the year was secured by Julián Simón on Saturday afternoon, as the 125cc 2009 World Champion topped the qualifying practice timesheet.

Simón’s fastest lap of 1:41.472 placed him ahead of Simone Corsi (Fontana Racing), his Bancaja Aspar team-mate Bradley Smith and Red Bull KTM rider Marc Márquez on the front row of the grid.

MotoGP Qualifying Times
1. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1:32.256
2. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.263
3. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +0.281
4. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +0.666
5. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +0.829
6. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati +0.898
7. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +1.135
8. Toni ELIAS (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1.219
9. Ben SPIES (USA) Sterilgarda Yamaha Team Yamaha +1.283
10. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +1.422
11. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Racing Ducati +1.553
12. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1.588
13. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +1.841
14. James TOSELAND (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +1.851
15. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki +1.932
16. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Racing Ducati +2.052
17. Gabor TALMACSI (HUN) Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda +2.101
18. Chris VERMEULEN (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +2.281