Repsol Hondas will sit on the first two places on the gripd after teammates Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa dominated Saturday night qualifying at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
The fight for the pole was waged between the pair, newcomer Stoner and Pedrosa, now in his sixth year with the team. The Australian and the Spaniard motivated each other, one-upping the other during the one hour session. Finally it was Stoner who was the best with a sizzling time of 1:54.137 mins. on the 20th of his 23 laps.
The lap time wasn’t far off the 1:53.927 mins. pole record held by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo from the qualifying tire era and earned Stoner a pole in his first race with the team.
The pole was the 27th of Stoner’s career and 23rd in the MotoGP class. His first pole came here in 2006, aboard the LCR Honda RC211V, in only his second MotoGP race.
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The pole also continued Honda’s total dominance of the season. Honda riders have led all eight pre-season test sessions, as well as the three practice sessions and qualifying here in Qatar, and the man at the top most of the time was Stoner. Cycle News
The final place on the front row went to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) who must be pleased with that effort after pre-season testing and results in practice. He finished 0.810 behind Stoner. He finished second in Qatar in 2010 after fighting his way through the field so will hoping to repeat the same success in the race. The riders on the front row were the only ones able to achieve a lap time in the 1’54s. The Spaniard also has the satisfaction of getting the better of his team-mate, Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), who finished qualifying in fifth place.
Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) was the surprise of the session with a great lap to finish fourth fastest, just four hundredths slower than the current MotoGP World Champion. The top Ducati was yet again Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) who was sixth fastest, 1.086 off the time set by Stoner.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 again produced a good showing with the sole British representative Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech) managing a stunning eighth place on the grid in his first MotoGP race, despite the awkward injury to his finger. His team-mate Colin Edwards was in tenth position. Motogp.com
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