Stoner Holds Off Lorenzo In Misano Qualifying

Casey Stoner took his eighth pole position of the 2011 season at Misano but didn't enjoy the comfortable advantage of recent races, with Jorge Lorenzo pushing him all the way. The Australian led a Repsol Honda 1-2 in morning practice but when the session got underway, it became immediately apparent that Lorenzo was a pole contender.

The World Champion began the one-hour session with the kind of form that took him to the top of the timesheets yesterday, becoming the first rider to break into the 1:33s after just nine minutes. Lorenzo subsequently went quicker on each of the next three laps to set the benchmark at a 1:33.716 before returning to the pits, while Dani Pedrosa moved into second ahead of Stoner.

Pedrosa joined Lorenzo in the 1:33s on his second run but all attention shifted to Stoner as he bolted on the softer tyres 15 minutes from time. His first lap on the fresh rubber was impressive enough, a 1:33.495 but the championship leader piled on the agony for his rivals with a 1:33.138 next time around.

Stoner wouldn't run the soft tyres again so the closing stages saw Lorenzo and Pedrosa do battle for the two remaining places on the front row. Yamaha's number one struck the first blow with a 1:33.265, cutting the gap to Stoner to just a tenth of a second, but Pedrosa all but matched him in the final minute, keeping the World Champion firmly on his toes.

Lorenzo responded in typical fashion by improving again on his final lap although he still fell short of Stoner's pace, but with a gap of just 0.120s to the Honda, the battle for victory looks a mouth-watering prospect.

Pedrosa will be a threat off the line from third while Ben Spies confirmed Yamaha's prodigious pace by beating Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso to fourth. The fight for the second row was incredibly close though with a tenth covering four riders and Colin Edwards was the man who drew the short straw, having to make do with seventh. Alvaro Bautista qualified eighth for Rizla Suzuki while Hector Barbera earned the honour of top Ducati, as he's been in every session, with ninth for Mapfre Aspar.

Hiroshi Aoyama qualified in the top ten for just the third time this year which meant the Italian fans had to look all the way down to 11^th to find Valentino Rossi. The two-time Misano winner needed a late improvement even to get in front of Karel Abraham who had momentarily beaten him.

Cal Crutchlow will feel he should have been ahead of both Ducatis after holding 11^th himself two minutes from the end. Sadly though, the Briton crashed for the third qualifying session in a row which opened the door for Rossi and Abraham to knock him off the fourth row.

Two more Ducatis will start next to him on the fifth row with Randy de Puniet 14^th after a crash of his own, and Nicky Hayden a miserable 15^th. The back row will feature Loris Capirossi and Toni Elias after both had poor sessions, finishing over two seconds off the pace.

 

GP Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini: Qualifying Result

Pos	Rider	Nat	Bike	Team	Time/Gap
1	Casey Stoner	AUS	Honda	Repsol Honda Team	1:33.138
2	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	Yamaha	Yamaha Factory Racing	+0.120
3	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	Honda	Repsol Honda Team	+0.180
4	Ben Spies	USA	Yamaha	Yamaha Factory Racing	+0.809
5	Marco Simoncelli	ITA	Honda	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+0.852
6	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Honda	Repsol Honda Team	+0.888
7	Colin Edwards	USA	Yamaha	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	+0.916
8	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	Suzuki	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	+1.222
9	Hector Barbera	SPA	Ducati	Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP	+1.454
10	Hiroshi Aoyama	JAP	Honda	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+1.499
11	Valentino Rossi	ITA	Ducati	Ducati Team	+1.538
12	Karel Abraham	CZE	Ducati	Cardion AB Motoracing	+1.589
13	Cal Crutchlow	GBR	Yamaha	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	+1.653
14	Randy de Puniet	FRA	Ducati	Pramac Racing Team	+1.732
15	Nicky Hayden	USA	Ducati	Ducati Team	+1.817
16	Loris Capirossi	ITA	Ducati	Pramac Racing Team	+2.364
17	Toni Elias	SPA	Honda	LCR Honda MotoGP	+3.029
107% Qualifying Time: 1:39.658