Stoner wins MotoGP pole at Indy with new record

Casey Stoner powers out of a corner

Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) has yet to finish on the podium in two career starts at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, but his new pole position record of 1'38.850 indicates that may soon be changing. The Australian will start from pole position for the seventh time in the 2011 season.

Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) who started from pole least year, qualified second behind Stoner with a 1'39.373, while Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) bettered his morning pace with a new bike set up by nearly one second with a best lap of 1'39.629, giving him the final spot on the front row.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa held off Andrea Dovizioso to take the first spot on row two with a time of 1’39.947, the Spaniard’s time was 0.077s faster than that of his Italian team mate though a tenth slower than his earlier practice time. American Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completes the second row after posting a time of 1'40.098.

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) leads the third row, his time of 1'40.204 was a tenth quicker than the pace he lapped at in the morning practice outing. Nicky Hayden of the Ducati Team upped his pace to qualify eighth on the grid with a time of 1'40.244, nearly a second quicker than he was running in the morning. The final spot on row three went to Ã�lvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), who trailed Hayden’s time by just 0.040s.

Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) was the final rider in the top ten times, while Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) went down at the start of the session, rejoining the field aboard his second bike although the set up was clearly not ideal, as the nine time World Champion finish the qualifying in fourteenth.

Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) both had run offs into the gravel, the two will start from eleventh and twelfth, respectively, on the grid.

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