Casey Stoner once again stamped his authority on the proceedings during qualifying for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, being the only rider to dip into the 1:38s with a lap record of 1:38.850 on his way to pole position. With the increasing amount of rubber being laid down as the weekend progresses helping with traction on the racing line, the Australian was clearly in a class of his own at Indy, always responding to the threat imposed by American homeboy Ben Spies, who continually closed to within a few tenths of Stoner, only for the Repsol Honda rider to go back out and set another quick lap a good handful of tenths lower. When Spies got within a couple of tenths with about 14 minutes to go, Stoner quickly responded with his untouchable record lap that put him 0.477 seconds up on the American.
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner...
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner set the lap record at Indianapolis during qualifying.
“Track conditions on Friday definitely were a lot lower than what they are now,” said Stoner. “The grip level wasn't the main issue, for me it was just the inconsistency of grip. That's kind of continued throughout the weekend. We've got faster, and we're pushing a little harder now. But those inconsistent spots are still there. When you touch them and you're pushing a little bit more, then there's still that point where the front can close or the rear can come around on you. That's the issues we're having, not so much the grip. You can deal with, you know, low grip levels if it's consistent, but the fact that you'll hit one patch and want to throw you off is something a little bit scary and difficult to understand where they are.
“This morning was a big improvement from yesterday, but this afternoon wasn't a huge improvement. Maybe it's the temperature or maybe reached that limit of the circuit where it doesn't want to improve too much more. But we're going to have a tough race tomorrow; it's going to be hot, I think. It's going to be a lot of hard work just to understand for overtaking. I think it's going to be really difficult to find some clean spots on the track to overtake safely. We're just going to have to try and get a good start, get away well and see how the race pans out. But, also, tomorrow with the track coming in if it does come a little better, some riders are going to find a little more confidence than what they have now and maybe find a little bit more speed. So things could change by the race tomorrow.”
Ben Spies could only watch...
Ben Spies could only watch as Stoner repelled his every attack during qualifying, although the Yamaha rider is still in second spot on the front row.
Spies knows he’s got some work to do if he’s to stop Stoner from taking off and leaving the field, but at least his grid position is good. “Yeah, it was a good session. We weren't fast enough but pleased to be in the middle of the front row for, especially the way this track is the first five turns on the first lap. So we need to get a good start and don't make any mistakes in the first five or six laps. Hopefully we can put together a good race. Like Casey said, it's pretty tricky, especially when you start passing. We don't really know yet what's going to happen yet. But it's been slowly improving, but I think we've kind of hit a plateau on the way the track is going to be. We just have to see what the other riders do and see how the bikes react after 12, 13 laps with the tires. I think the race could be quite a bit different than qualifying. I don't think drastically, but I think it's going to be pretty interesting. So we'll just do the best we can and make the bike a little bit better. We need to find some more speed, but consistency is there, but we need to go a little faster if we want to hang on the back of (Stoner).”
Spies also had a small problem with a fuel tank pad that he uses to keep him back in the seat coming loose with a few laps to go, but he said it didn’t keep him from getting pole. “We definitely didn't get the last three laps in, but we maybe had another tenth and we didn't have pole. That's fine. We did the best we could. It wasn't a problem that held us back from doing anything special. (Stoner) was too fast today.”
Jorge Lorenzo made a last-ditch...
Jorge Lorenzo made a last-ditch effort to get on the front row that paid off in the end, after struggling all through practice and most of qualifying.
Lorenzo made a major improvement to leap past fellow countryman Dani Pedrosa in the closing minutes of the session, but the tire wear problems that are affecting everyone are weighing heavily on the Yamaha rider’s mind. “(It’s) been a nightmare before the qualifying or before the last minutes in the qualifying. When we just tried the other bike with some big modifications on the setup, I just came out and I find something really better (under) braking. So I could improve my lap times so much and get close to the front guys. But still I don't feel very safe on this tarmac. I feel not so much confident, especially in the front. Also the problem of (tire) graining that we all have is not the most comfortable situation, especially after four or five laps. The race is long, so it's going to be a very complicated race, and (I’ll try to) fight at least for the podium.
“Fortunately (the track) is improving every session and getting more grip. The problem is that if you make a mistake in some corners, you brake later or you go more wide or more tight than normal line, you can crash very easily, no? So for tomorrow the overtaking is going to be a key of the race and we must pay a lot of attention to this.”
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards was once again the top satellite rider, putting his M1 in sixth spot at the end of the second row. “The weekend has been great so far and now I'm really looking forward to the race tomorrow. I haven't been out of the top six in every session and everything has been working fantastic. I feel great on the bike, I'm sure a realistic goal is to finish in the top six. That would be a great result and I'm hoping to put on a good show for the Indy crowd tomorrow. The new pavement was a million times better today. Yesterday it was greasy and I was sliding around all over the place, but to finish third in that first practice session gave me a lot of confidence immediately and we have just built on that. Right at the end on one of the soft tires I knew I had to take a risk on the first lap. Normally I'm not the guy that pushes on the first lap, but I knew here that the soft tire needed to be hammered right out of the pitlane when it had a lot better grip than the second lap.”
Ducati’s Nicky Hayden is looking for any silver lining in what has been a very tough and demoralizing season. He had some difficulty getting used to the differing feedback of GP11.1 version of the Desomsedici, and it affected his feedback to his crew. “This morning we actually went a bit backwards, I couldn’t really get a feel for the bike,” said Hayden. “We tried some stuff, but my feedback probably wasn’t that clear to the team, and we just didn’t find a direction. And then this afternoon, we switched to the other bike about midway through, had a little different setup on it, and actually started to improve the lap time. In the end I got eighth, which kind of salvaged something because I was down around 12th, which would’ve been an absolute disaster. Eighth is not that great, but it definitely helps me out a bit, so we’ll see about tomorrow if we can put up a good fight. We’ll see if we can try something in the morning because we’ll need it. Tomorrow the weather’s supposed to be a bit cooler which could help me out a little bit; probably help everybody, but definitely me especially with some tire wear, but the track came in good today.”
“Very difficult,” said a very subdued Rossi about his horrendous qualifying session that left him back in 14th spot on the grid. “We are very, very sad because we hoped that we could confirm the performance of the last two races at Brno and Laguna because this morning was not so bad with the bike. But unfortunately this afternoon I had the crash at the beginning where I damaged the good bike and especially the two new tires, so I had to go with the other bike that had two used hard tires. I didn’t feel confident, I lose the feeling with the bike, and at the end we are very much behind. During this weekend yesterday and today, we can use better the bike in the morning in the cooler condition. But we always have pushing front problem in the afternoon so we have to try for tomorrow afternoon to try to understand the way to use the bike in the hotter conditions.”
MotoGP Indianapolis qualifying results:
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 1:38.850
2. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1:39.373
3. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha 1:39.629
4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 1:39.947
5. Andrea Dovisioso (ITA) Honda 1:40.024
6. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 1:40.098
7. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Honda 1:40.204
8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 1:40.244
9. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Suzuki 1:40.333
10. Hector Barbera (SPA) Ducati 1:40.360
11. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 1:40.620
12. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Ducati 1:40.815
13. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Honda 1:40.925
14. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati 1:40.975
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda 1:41.030
16. Karel Abraham (CZE) Ducati 1:41.085
17. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 1:41.092