Casey Stoner was once again the class of the MotoGP field during qualifying for the Aragon Grand Prix at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain on Saturday, obliterating the previous lap record by over a second on the way to his ninth pole position of the season. Stoner set the pole time despite having to use his backup bike after damaging his number one machine in a crash during the extended morning practice (the morning FP3 session was extended to 75 minutes from its normal 45-minute length after power issues with the Aragon facility’s electrical system caused the second afternoon practice yesterday to eventually be canceled). Following a few tenths behind Stoner was Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, who was the only other rider to dip into the 1:48s, with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies getting onto the front row for the fourth time this season just ahead of teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Ducati’s Nicky Hayden qualified seventh, ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi on the aluminum-framed GP11.1 who only was able to get up to 13th spot. Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards uncharacteristically qualified in a lowly 15th spot.
Casey Stoner used his "B"...
Casey Stoner used his "B" bike to shatter the lap record and grab pole position at Aragon.
“I’m satisfied with the whole day to be honest,” said Stoner. “Yesterday was a little bit of an upset with not getting the afternoon session, and put everybody I suppose on the back foot. But this morning we had the extra session; unfortunately it was in cold conditions, so this afternoon was pretty important. I was pretty happy with the bike this morning, but this afternoon with the hotter temperatures we had to change and adapt the bike a little bit more. We got the bike working reasonably well; we’d still like to get it a little bit better, but in general we seem to be pretty fast around this circuit at the moment, and the bike’s working well, so we couldn’t really complain.
“The only hiccup was when I went out on my first qualifying tire. My first fast lap, I was a little bit cautious in the first part of the track just to warm the tire up. So the next lap I went to push as hard as I could, and I had a lot more grip than I had previously in that corner so we went to the next corner a little bit too quick and when I got on the brakes, I realized I was banked over too far. So I decided to pick the bike up and run it off, but I couldn’t get any grip to slow the bike up. As soon I got on the tarmac (runoff) I tried to brake a little bit more, but I kept losing the front, so I had to keep releasing the brakes. We seemed to be gaining speed as I got closer to the wall. I tried to pull it up as best I could, but we weren’t going to be able to stop unless I laid it down. Unfortunately we couldn’t get that bike restarted, but we managed to get back on the second bike and go fastest, so we’re very happy with the way things went. I’m not sure how the race is going to go tomorrow, we’ll have to see how the weather is. Today was colder than yesterday, and supposedly tomorrow’s going to be even colder, so we’ll just have to wait and see the conditions and adapt to those.”
Dani Pedrosa appears to be...
Dani Pedrosa appears to be the only rider with a chance to challenge Stoner for the victory at Aragon.
“Yes, I’m satisfied we did a good job today,” said Pedrosa. “Front row is always important, especially here with the first turn very close. Casey is going very fast here, so it’s going to be difficult in the race. But I’ll try to improve my bike as much as I can to hopefully get closer to him and have a good race. At the moment he’s a little faster, so we’re trying to improve a little bit, just in general. For the race, I think that the medium compound will be our choice, but we’ll have to wait for the weather and see how it is.”
Yamaha's Ben Spies put his...
Yamaha's Ben Spies put his M1 on the front row for the Aragon GP, his fourth front-row start of the season.
“Actually the whole weekend’s been pretty good for me,” said Spies, despite a minor fall in morning practice when he lost the front end in Turn Two. “I’ve been happy with it. Struggled a little bit this morning, but the bike’s been working good. We’ve just been looking over a bunch of data and trying to find the best compromise. We found with 30 minutes to go in qualifying. With the race tires we were about third or fourth quickest; and when we put the soft tires on, we were able to go quicker and stay in that top four, so that was good. It was working good, the crew’s done an amazing job to get the bike working good. Just lacking a little bit of speed to front two guys, but you know, we gotta try to fix that. Hopefully it’ll happen tomorrow, but right now we’re just trying to challenge for the podium.”
Jorge Lorenzo qualified fourth...
Jorge Lorenzo qualified fourth just behind teammate Spies, but knows there's a big gap to the make up if he has any chance at victory.
Lorenzo was not happy with how his qualifying session went, and sees Stoner and Pedrosa having enough of an advantage that he’s resigned himself to battling for the podium. “We struggled here last year, and this year we’re struggling again…maybe even more this year,” lamented Lorenzo. “We have so many problems with the rear traction. We are not getting enough traction to be fast. So tomorrow I think the maximum we can get is the podium, the third position if nothing strange happens. Of course this very long straight is not the best for us, but I think also in the corners we are slow, slower than the Hondas. In general we are slower, we have to do something tomorrow. It’s almost impossible (to win) if nothing happens.”
MotoGP Aragon qualifying results:
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 1:48.451
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 1:48.747
3. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1:49.155
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha 1:49.270
5. Andrea Dovisioso (ITA) Honda 1:49.372
6. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Honda 1:49.528
7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 1:49.752
8. Karel Abraham (CZE) Ducati 1:49.777
9. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Honda 1:49.813
10. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Ducati 1:49.826
11. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Suzuki 1:49.883
12. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 1:49.893
13. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati 1:49.960
14. Hector Barbera (SPA) Ducati 1:49.976
15. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 1:50.105
16. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 1:50.752
17. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda 1:51.073