A rejuvenated Casey Stoner clinched pole position for his home Australian Grand Prix after emerging on top of a see-saw tussle with world champion Valentino Rossi in qualifying yesterday.
Stoner, who missed three races with a mystery illness before returning at this month’s Portuguese Grand Prix, edged out Rossi with a time of 1 hour, 30.341 seconds on a greasy 4.45km Phillip Island circuit.
After slamming slick patches on the track following Friday’s practice, Stoner was more approving of conditions a day later, despite morning showers, but said his team still needed to tinker with his Ducati.
PHOTO: AFP
“The track was in pretty good condition in the wet this morning and it slowly got better and better as the weekend went on,” the 24-year-old, who is chasing his third consecutive home Grand Prix, told Australian television.
“We’ve improved the turning in the long corners, we’ve definitely got a lot more corner speed but we’ve lost the rear grip coming out of the corners,” he said. “The general bike’s been perfect and you know, we’ll just see what we can do tomorrow.”
Rossi, who holds an 18-point lead over Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo in the championship standings, went faster than Stoner toward the end of the session, only to have pole snatched from him with little more than two minutes left.
The Italian’s time of 1:30.391 on his Yamaha edged him closer to a seventh premier class title and his championship hopes were further bolstered when Spaniard Dani Pedrosa recovered from a crash to pip Lorenzo to the front-row by 0.001 seconds.
“Under the championship point of view, it’s okay because I’m faster than Jorge, we have a good advantage,” Rossi said. “So I hope tomorrow it’s possible to fight for the victory together with me and Casey.”
Pedrosa appeared at a loss for words to explain his crash, which saw his Honda’s nose give way on the track’s Southern Loop and sent the Spaniard skidding across the tarmac.
“I just touch the brake and — boom — and then the big crash,” Pedrosa said.
Lorenzo, who also suffered a fall during practice and said he was battling a case of food poisoning, posted a time of 1:31.071 to be fourth on the grid, his first finish outside the front row this year.
Fellow Yamaha-rider Colin Edwards of the US and San Marino’s Alex de Angelis joined Lorenzo on the second row.
Raffaele De Rosa clocked a time of 1.33.389 to take pole in the 250cc class ahead of world champion Marco Simoncelli and Honda teammate Hiroshi Aoyama.
In the 125cc class, Spaniard Pol Esparago took his first pole position of the year with a time of 1.37.770 ahead of fellow Spaniard Nico Terol.
Julian Simon, who is bidding to wrap up the title today, will start third on the grid.
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