TheAustralian of the Repsol Honda Team is still unbeatable in his country and achieves his eleventh ‘pole’ of the season. Dovizioso will start fifth and Pedrosa eighth.
Without reducing an inch his extraordinary performance of this season, Casey Stoner dominated again at home, in the Australian circuit of Phillip Island where today he set the fastest time in the qualifying for the fourth year in a row. It is his fifth consecutive ‘pole’ in the last five races and the eleventh of the season, in a Grand Prix where Andrea Dovizioso will start fifth and Dani Pedrosa, eighth.
Faithful to his own style, Casey Stoner did not leave any margin in another day in which he led both sessions with authority. In the free practice of the morning, the Repsol rider was the only one to lap under 1 minute and 31 seconds, leaving the second placed —Jorge Lorenzo— 6 tenths behind and 9 tenths ahead of the third —Dani Pedrosa—, in a session in which Andrea Dovizioso finished in sixth position.
Focused on finding a good pace with used tyres to prepare tomorrow’s race, Stoner was slightly unnoticed in the first half of the qualifying, which was led at the beginning by Jorge Lorenzo and then by Dani Pedrosa, followed closely by the Australian. The Spaniard of the Repsol Honda Team lapped for the first time in the weekend under 1 minute and 31 seconds by mid session; nevertheless, he was not able to improve his time further and tomorrow will be forced to start from the third row, in eighth place.
At the crucial moment, with fifteen minutes to go before the end of the session, Stoner went back to the track decided to strike another blow. In his first lap he set the fastest time —for now— of the weekend: 1 minute, 30 seconds and 42 thousandths, reducing by 8 tenths Pedrosa’s time, who was still leading the classification. Seven minutes before the end of the session, although Lorenzo was trying to get close to his times, the Australian improved his lap time even more, setting a register under 1 minute and 30 seconds. After several laps at an impressive pace of 1 minute y 29 seconds, Stoner secured his eleventh ‘pole position’ of the season, just one pole position away from the record set by Mick Doohan in 1997.
With all riders trying to improve his times, Andrea Dovizioso was also looking for a place in the first row, but he was surpassed by Álvaro Bautista, who lapped 66 thousandths faster, leaving the Repsol rider in fourth position, which became the fifth place when Simoncelli took the third place. The battle for the first positions of the grid was so close that Dani Pedrosa finally fell to the eighth position, despite finishing just one tenth and a half away from the fastest time.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3 – 1:31.465, 21 laps, 93 km.
QP – 1:30.871, 28 laps, 125 km.
“I had some problems with the hard tyre and I wasn’t able to be fast. Then when I put the soft on I improved my lap time a lot and was on top with fifteen minutes to go. Then we changed the set up of the bike a little and unfortunately it didn’t work, so when everybody improved the lap time I couldn’t and I was back to eighth place. The main issue I had today was changing direction in high speed areas. Let’s see what the weather brings tomorrow and if we can take profit from the warm up to improve the set up slightly. I’m feeling much more comfortable with the soft tyre, so we will see tomorrow if we can use it for the race or not depending on the temperature and weather conditions”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
FP3 – 1:31.791, 22 laps, 98 km.
QP – 1:30.780, 29 laps, 129 km.
“I’m very happy with qualifying because we made a big improvement which we needed to do for the race. We know there are many riders capable to fight for the podium, but now we are ready. Here it is always a very difficult race with the weather conditions, but I’m satisfied now because I can do low 1’31 laps with the hard rear tyre and hopefully we can return back on the podium. I had a much better feeling in the front and I was riding more aggressively, something you really need at this track”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
FP3 – 1:30.550, 21 laps, 93 km.
QP – 1:29.975, 24 laps, 107 km.
“So far so good, we have a good race pace and the bike’s feeling pretty good at the moment. We still need to improve the rear grip, but I think this is the same for everyone, we’d also like to get the harder rear tyre working better for the race. We began Qualifying with older tyres to understand where we are for the race and I’m quite happy as the lap times we were achieving were similar to Jorge [Lorenzo] and Dani [Pedrosa] who were on the new soft tyre. Then we put on the soft tyre for the first time since yesterday morning, everything felt good and we were able to improve our lap time consistently, but it’s still difficult on the left side of the tyre and we’re getting a lot of spinning and tyre degradation. We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow, it’s not looking too good right now but we’ll adapt to whatever it throws at us. Jorge is strong everywhere we go and I think my chances of taking the Championship here tomorrow is pretty slim to be honest, we’re just going to go out there and concentrate on winning the race”.
