Casey Stoner smashed the track record on Saturday as he claimed pole position for the Indianapolis Grand Prix, before blasting the layout as one of the worst on the MotoGP circuit.
The Australian, chasing a US double having also triumphed in California last month, will start from pole for the seventh time this season as he aims to build on his 32-point lead over Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo at the top of the championship standings.
Stoner guided his Honda around the 4.2km layout in a record 1 minute, 38.850 seconds to finish ahead of American Ben Spies.
Photo: AFP
World champion Lorenzo was third quickest on another Yamaha, ahead of compatriot and last year’s Indy winner Dani Pedrosa.
Not even his record qualifying effort could put a smile on Stoner’s face though.
After Friday’s opening practice sessions he talked about the lack of grip on the resurfaced circuit and slicing nearly a second off the record did nothing to change his opinion.
“The grip isn’t actually the main issue, for me it is the inconsistency of the grip,” Stoner said. “You can deal with low grip levels if it’s consistent, but the fact you hit patches that want to throw you off is something different, a little bit scary.”
The 25-year-old had been quick out of the blocks, jumping to the top of the timings table on one of his opening laps and he remained there for the rest of the session.
Since crashing out in the second race of the season in Spain, Stoner has been on the podium in nine straight races.
He has won six times this season including the last two races.
Valentino Rossi was also unimpressed with the conditions, the Italian’s miserable season continuing when his Ducati slid out from under him 10 minutes into qualifying.
The seven-time world champion was quickly back on the track, but was unable to coax a decent effort out of his backup bike and starts well down the grid in 14th place.
Rossi, winner of at least one race every year since his career began in 1996, has gone 14 races without a victory.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but