Casey Stoner sets a new pole record at Catalunya
World Champion Casey Stoner sets a new pole record at Catalunya, for his 1st top spot since the 2007 visit to Misano.
With his first pole position since the Misano race 2007, Casey Stoner broke his top spot drought in qualifying for the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya. He did so with a new record time of 1´41.186, preventing a home pole for Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa.
Last year´s racewinner, Stoner had a spectacular last lap of the Barcelona circuit where he cut his teeth in the Spanish championship, putting behind him any grip problems experienced early on Friday. He had been fastest in the previous two practice sessions.
For Dani Pedrosa, another front row won’t come as too much of a disappointment, with his other immediate title contenders either down the order or out of action. The big worry for him will be a breakaway from the man immediately to his left on the grid, and whether the standard Honda RC212V engine still being used by the factory team has the power to stick with the Ducati Desmosedici GP8 over the long home straight. A bike problem early on left him without time to test his race tyres, and using his 2nd machine.
The Repsol Honda representation on the front row will be two-strong tomorrow afternoon, Nicky Hayden taking off from the first line of attack for the first time in 2007. He put his cards on the table late on in the session, with only extremely impressive runs from Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa ousting him from the top spot.
Colin Edwards and James Toseland, the Tech 3 Yamaha´s completed the top six, astonishingly all within the pole position record set by Rossi last season. Edwards in particular is very confident for the race, having worked for distance over the past two days.
On the front row last year, Randy de Puniet was using a different machine and tyres to those of 2007, taking his Michelin-shod LCR Honda to the head of the second line. The Frenchman is still suffering from a finger injury picked up in Mugello, but showed that he has some serious pace despite the pain.
Andrea Dovizioso had a lot of work to do in order to correct a rear end problem from Friday, but appeared to have got to the root of the issue as he took seventh spot. The third row also includes Chris Vermeulen and Valentino Rossi, who lost his chance of pole when he caught his wheel on the grass late on.
There was a final five minute crash for Marco Melandri in the hour-long session, and also some usage of the newly-asphalted chicane run-off section by Loris Capirossi.
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