Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC213V) will start from the pole position for his assault on a record sixth consecutive Australian Grand Prix win after rebounding from an early crash to set the fastest time on a cold and blustery day on his beloved Phillip Island Circuit. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa will join him on the front row after qualifying third.
Stoner was the leader almost from the start of the one-hour session, held in typically changing Phillip Island weather. And he was on top when he fell for the first time since his return to racing at the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Ironically, he fell on the entry of Honda Corner, a hairpin right, one of the few rights on the heavily left-biased track. Fortunately, Stoner was able to avoid the tumbling motorcycle in the gravel trap and did no further damage to his surgically repaired right ankle. That was evident when he bounded to his feet to return to his pit box.
After only a five minute respite he was out on his second bike. He would improve his lap time three more times, finishing with a best of 1m, 29.623s to capture his fifth pole position and first since the U.S. Grand Prix before the summer break. Stoner was then denied a chance to further lower his pole time when a light rain fell in the waning moments of qualifying.
Having earlier announced that he would be retiring at the end of his final campaign, Stoner is determined to go out with a victory in front of what promises to be a record crowd of his fellow countrymen.
Pedrosa was not able to challenge for the pole after encountering a few problems. First was that he was not able to get heat into the hard rear tyre option. Then came the realisation that he had chosen the wrong motorcycle for his final charge at pole. On the last run he finally got feeling into his tyres and was able to set his best lap time.
Having won five of the past six races, Pedrosa goes into Sunday’s race hopeful of further cutting into the championship lead of Jorge Lorenzo, the Yamaha rider who qualified second.
Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda: Pole position – 1m 29.623s
“It's been a good progression over these past few races and it's great to get pole for my home grand prix. The bike has been good since Friday and I'm feeling comfortable on it again. It wasn't an easy session this afternoon. We went out on a hard tyre and on my out lap, as I was peeling into the Honda turn; the bike decided to flip me. I tried to make sure I kept my leg out of the way as I came off, fortunately it didn't get caught up. My left hip is hurting a little as I landed on it, but hopefully we shouldn't have any issues with it tomorrow. The bike feels pretty good for race pace. We would have liked to have done some more work in this afternoon's session, but we lost time after the crash. A big thanks to all the fans for coming out and putting up with this weather, hopefully we can turn this pole into a win tomorrow.”
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd – 1m 30.575s
“I was trying some different things on the bike to get a little more comfortable, but they didn't work out very well for the middle of the session. On my first soft rear tyre I couldn't improve and then on my last run I was going quicker on the first lap and rain arrived. Anyway, to be on the front row again is very good and I think we found a good bike setting for tomorrow's race. Casey (Stoner) is unreachable, he's on another level and doing an amazing job this weekend, but my pace is quite similar to Jorge's, (Lorenzo) so I hope to be at least constant for the fight with him.”
Repsol Honda Team Press Release
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Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/YamuLJIP5wz/Casey+Stoner+takes+pole+Phillip+Island+MotoGP
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