The Repsol rider achieves his seventh pole position of the season. Dani Pedrosa, fourth and Andrea Dovizioso, fifth, will start from the second row
The Indianapolis Grand Prix saw again the best version of Casey Stoner, who setting a pace fastest than any other rival, gathered today his seventh pole position of the twelve possible. Dani Pedrosa, who set the fourth fastest time, will start from the second row, and will have beside him the third rider of the Repsol Honda Team, Andrea Dovizioso, who signed the fifth fastest time.
Stoner had already warned in the third free session, taking the initiative again from the start. When Ben Spies set a time under 1 minute 40 seconds by midsession, the Australian of the Repsol Honda Team fought once more against the clock and stopped it in 1 minute, 39 seconds and 538 thousandths, which was finally the fastest time. Together with Stoner and Spies, the other rider that was able to lap under 1 minute and 40 seconds, was Dani Pedrosa, third, who finished two places ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, fifth.
Adapting himself to the Indianapolis track lap after lap, Casey Stoner kept improving his times consistently in the qualifying session, showing a pace clearly superior to that of his rivals. The Repsol rider was able to ride regularly not only under 1 minute and 29 seconds, but also under 1 minute and 38 seconds, a time he has set in four occasions and that no other rider was able to match. The Australian stopped the clock in a definitive 1’38.850, more than half a second faster than the second placed, Ben Spies.
Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso will start from the second row, from fourth and fifth position, respectively. The Spaniard was quickly able to ride in 1 minute and 39 seconds and, trying to improve his setup for tomorrow, he was not able to improve his time of the free practice. Andrea Dovizioso finished again in the top five and kept taking steps ahead to finally set a time of 1 minute, 40 seconds and 24 thousandths, which will allow him to start tomorrow from the centre of second row of the grid.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3 – 1:39.896, 20 laps, 84 km.
QP – 1:39.947, 26 laps, 110 km.
“We had some issues in the session with the front tyre, I didn’t feel very comfortable with it and we couldn’t get the most from it. I was not going super fast and I lost the first row, but I’m not worried about the position. We would like to be closer to Casey [Stoner] and Ben [Spies] —they have been very fast and consistent—, so I hope to find something more tomorrow morning in the warm up to help us fight for the podium. The race will be hard because it’s very hot out there, and it will also be a big challenge for the tyres, but I hope we perform better in the race”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
FP3 – 1:40.326, 22 laps, 93 km.
QP – 1:40.024, 28 laps, 118 km.
“Starting from the second row tomorrow is not too bad. It will be important to have a good start and ride consistently, trying to manage the tyres for the twenty eight lap race. The rear grip is too strong compared with the front which causes the front tyre to overheat, this remains the main issue so we need to continue working with the set up to rectify this. During qualifying the ground temperature reached fifty one degrees, these conditions are really demanding for the tyres. Concerning the pace, I have good rhythm and even though the gap to Casey [Stoner]remains too big for my liking, I think we can fight with Dani [Pedrosa] and Lorenzo for a podium position, this is our target and we will continue working to improve the machine for the race”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
FP3 – 1:39.538, 18 laps, 76 km.
QP – 1:38.850, 25 laps, 105 km.
“I’m very happy with Pole here in Indy, the team have been doing a great job under difficult conditions this weekend, but the race is tomorrow and we will keep working right up until the last moment to try and get the set up right. Obviously without the bumps from previous years the track is performing a lot better, but the lack of consistency in the grip levels are causing issues, everyone is loosing the front and it doesn’t give you a lot of confidence, when you hit these patches the bike just seems to drop away from you. We haven’t changed too much since FP1, just a few small steps and trying to get the front tyre to work more as with such little grip, we are destroying it. For race distance we’re looking pretty good, we did more than race distance on soft front and soft rear and had good stability, we’ll wait and see what the conditions are like for tomorrow and decide from there”.
