Casey Stoner broke the circuit pole position record by nearly four-tenths of a second yesterday to qualify first for today’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.
The Ducati rider and defending race champion will start his home event from pole for the first time after a fastest lap of 1:28.665 seconds yesterday on the 4.445km circuit.
Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo will start from second, while his Yamaha teammate and newly crowned world champion Valentino Rossi crashed in qualifying and will start from 12th. American Nicky Hayden will start third for Honda.
PHOTO: AFP
Stoner’s eighth pole of the year prevented Lorenzo from taking a second consecutive qualifying win. The Spaniard, fastest in qualifying in Japan last week, was just 0.069 seconds from the top spot, but keeps his four-race front-row streak alive.
Hayden looked to be on course for a repeat of his 2005 and 2006 pole positions with just five minutes of qualifying remaining, but will start in the front row alongside Stoner and Lorenzo. Hayden held the previous pole position mark of 1:29.020 set in 2006.
Rossi will start from the fourth row after suffering an awkward crash when he ran off the course and into trackside stones with about 15 minutes left in the hour-long session.
He was reported by the MotoGP Web site to have picked up a slight neck injury, but was fit enough to come back out for a lap to assess his condition.
Rossi clinched his sixth MotoGP title with his win in Japan last week. He is attempting an 11th consecutive podium finish in Australia.
In 250cc qualifying, Marco Simoncelli of Italy also broke the previous pole mark in qualifying fastest.
His time of 1:32.075 broke Sebastian Porto’s 2004 record by nearly 1.3 seconds.
The Metis Gilera rider, who leads the world championship by 32 points, extended his streak of qualifying top spots to three in a row.
A week after taking his first career pole in Japan, 125cc world championship leader Mike di Meglio took his second in seven days yesterday at Phillip Island. The French rider had a time of 1:37.553 lap yesterday to confirm his provisional Friday spot.
The Ajo Motorsport Derbi rider was about two-tenths of a second faster than second-placed Bradley Smith of Britain, who moved his way back to the front row following a crash in the session.
The Polaris World Aprilia rider had to wait until his final lap to clinch second on the grid, sealing his ninth front row start of the year.
Meanwhile, Rossi says he is pushing to have the Australian Grand Prix moved to the season-opening race as it was before the event moved to Phillip Island in 1996.
“It is the wrong time of the year to be having the race in Phillip Island,” Rossi said yesterday. “I have been asking for two years ... along with all the other riders, to start in Phillip Island in March.”
The Australian World Superbike races will be staged at Phillip Island on March 1 and the Formula One Grand Prix held at Albert Park on March 29.
Rossi believes MotoGP officials are reluctant to make a switch because the month would be too crowded.
“The problem is the F1,” Rossi said.
But the Italian, who last week won his sixth MotoGP world title, said the rain and winds that often lash Phillip Island in October ruins the event for him.
“To come to this fantastic track with wind and rain it spoils it. Every time I come here I am very sad because it is the wrong time,” he said.
“Trust me, I tried to push a lot last year to change the race.”
The Australian GP is scheduled for October again next year, while the Qatar night race event will be the season-opener on April 12.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS