The Repsol Honda Team rider achieves his eighth pole position of the year. Dani Pedrosa will start from the other side of the first row, third, just in front of Andrea Dovizioso, sixth.
As he did seven days ago at the Indianapolis Circuit, Casey Stoner broke the Misano Circuit record, held by himself since 2008. The Repsol rider stopped the clock in 1 minute, 33 seconds and 138 thousandths, 120 ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and 180 faster than Dani Pedrosa, who will also start from the first row. Andrea Dovizioso will begin from the second row after achieving the sixth fastest time in the qualifying.
Stoner had already sent a warning during the third free practice where in only 4 laps he rode almost 4 tenths faster than yesterday. The Australian set a time of 1 minute, 33 seconds and 567 thousandths, a register no other rider was able to beat. Pedrosa was who got closer —99 thousandths away—, and Andrea Dovizioso repeated yesterday’s sixth place.
In the 60 minutes of the qualifying session, Lorenzo, Stoner y Pedrosa quickly took the initiative again, but the Australian of the Repsol Honda Team repeated his performance of seven days ago in the United States, doing a record lap and setting an astonishing time of 1’33.138, two tenths faster than his own record from 2008.
120 thousandths behind finished Jorge Lorenzo and the third position went to Dani Pedrosa, who concluded 60 thousandths behind his countryman. The Repsol rider greatly improved his times from yesterday, showing a consistent pace for tomorrow’s race, where Andrea Dovizioso will start from sixth. The Italian finished 888 thousandths behind Stoner’s record after 30 laps, which will allow him to start tomorrow’s race from the last place of the second row, just behind his team mate, Dani Pedrosa.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3 – 1:33.666, 20 laps, 85 km.
QP – 1:33.318, 28 laps, 118 km.
“I’m happy with the qualifying session, I spent most of the time working on the tyres, swapping from the soft to the medium compound, trying to find the right one for tomorrow; normally before the qualifying session you have almost decided, but here it’s been more difficult because of the weather and track conditions. We were working on that a lot this afternoon and in the last couple of laps I was pushing to be on the front row. We’ve made it, which is very important here because the first corners are very tight, and the times between the three of us are very close, so that’s positive. For race pace, Casey [Stoner] and Jorge [Lorenzo] are still slightly faster than me, but we will look for something more on the settings tonight and try to be with them tomorrow for whole race”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
FP3 – 1:34.420, 24 laps, 102 km.
QP – 1:34.026, 30 laps, 127 km.
“This morning we worked on the set up, reducing the issue of the pitching we had yesterday. This afternoon we improved the rhythm with the hard tyre in preparation for the race. Our target was to start from the first two rows, so the final result is not too bad. Tomorrow it will crucial to make a good start and try to stay with the front riders. Casey [Stoner] and Lorenzo are really strong and Dani is very fast off the start so it will be important to stay with them if we want to gain some points on Lorenzo and control Dani [Pedrosa]. We will continue working but the good point is that we are more competitive in the race pace than in using the soft compound for the qualifying. With these high temperatures and humidity the race will be really tough tomorrow. I hope that the Italian spectators will give me an extra boost”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
FP3 – 1:33.567, 18 laps, 76 km.
QP – 1:33.138, 26 laps, 110 km.
“It’s been a pretty good weekend for us here, steadily improving the bike each session. We struggled a little with the hard tyre this afternoon, trying to find the correct balance but then we made an improvement and got the bike feeling better. Then when we put the soft tyres on, we got a great lap in but the bike wasn’t working too well in the front, which is something we need to improve for tomorrow. It will be a tough race, Dani [Pedrosa] and Jorge [Lorenzo] are both running very well so I’ll try to get a good start but there are a few more overtaking opportunities here at Misano, it’s not a track with only one line. The weekend on a whole is going well, tomorrow we’ll have to decide on tyres depending on what the weather is doing, hopefully it will cool down a little which would be nice!”.
