World champion Casey Stoner will start on pole in Sunday’s Catalunya motorcycling Grand Prix after the Honda rider posted the quickest time in qualifying at the Montmelo circuit on Saturday.
The Australian picked up the 40th pole of his career by edging Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo by 0.146sec with Lorenzo’s Yamaha teammate, Briton Cal Crutchlow, in third, at 0.253.
Stoner is bidding to win here for the second year in a row in a season which will be his last in MotoGP after announcing his shock decision to retire at the French MotoGP last month.
He set his pole-securing lap time of 1min 41.295 eight minutes from the end of the session.
1. Casey Stoner Honda 1m41.295s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m41.441s + 0.146s 3. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m41.548s + 0.253s 4. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m41.552s + 0.257s 5. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m41.656s + 0.361s 6. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 1m41.687s + 0.392s 7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m42.029s + 0.734s 8. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m42.065s + 0.770s 9. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m42.175s + 0.880s 10. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m42.356s + 1.061s 11. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 1m42.375s + 1.080s 12. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m43.266s + 1.971s 13. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m43.500s + 2.205s 14. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 1m44.024s + 2.729s 15. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m44.041s + 2.746s 16. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 1m44.356s + 3.061s 17. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 1m44.763s + 3.468s 18. Mattia Pasini Aspar Aprilia 1m44.764s + 3.469s 19. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m44.833s + 3.538s 20. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Aprilia 1m45.730s + 4.435s 21. Ivan Silva Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki 1m45.962s + 4.667s
– AFP