Sensational pole position for Casey Stoner

Will Casey Stoner give the win tomorrow to his teammate who is battling Lorenzo for the title?

Casey Stoner left no room for a surprise in today's qualifying practice at Phillip Island and will start his final Australian Grand Prix of his career from pole position. The 2011 World Champion, aiming for his sixth successive win at his home Grand Prix, will start in front of Spanish duo, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, second and third respectively, who continue to fight for the MotoGP World Championship.

The qualifying practice was a repetition of the previous four years: Casey setting the pace and the rest of the field chasing the Australian hero, who has been unstoppable during the whole weekend. Despite a crash on Turn 4, on his out lap of his third run, Casey didn't lose too much confidence and continued to improve his times to secure pole position with 1'29.623, his fifth of the 2012 season and fifth successive in Phillip Island.

CASEY STONER 1st 1'29.623

"It's been a good progression over these past few races and it's great to get pole for my home grand prix. The bike has been good since Friday and I'm feeling comfortable on it again. It wasn't an easy session this afternoon, we went out on a hard tire and on my out lap, as I was peeling into the Honda turn, the bike decided to flip me. I tried to make sure I kept my leg out of the way as I came off, fortunately it didn't get caught up. My left hip is hurting a little as I landed on it but hopefully we shouldn't have any issues with it tomorrow. The bike feels pretty good for race pace, we would have liked to have done some more work in this afternoon's session but we lost time after the crash. A big thanks to all the fans for coming out and putting up with this weather, hopefully we can turn this pole into a win tomorrow!".

Jorge Lorenzo 2nd – 1.30.140

“Casey is really on another planet here, he’s riding so comfortably, sliding a lot and full throttle always so it’s very difficult to be with him. We are closer now though; in qualifying I made a really good lap with the soft tire. Second place is a good position to be in for tomorrow, it’s important to be just behind Casey into the first corner and to follow his wheel for at least two laps as fast as we can be. A big thank you to the team who worked hard to improve the bike for me for today."

DANI PEDROSA 3rd 1'30.575

"I was trying some different things on the bike to get a little more comfortable, but they didn't work out very well for the middle of the session. On my first soft rear tire I couldn't improve and then on my last run I was going quicker on the first lap and rain arrived. Anyway to be on the front row again is very good and I think we found a good bike setting for tomorrow's race. Casey is unreachable, he's on another level and doing an amazing job this weekend, but my pace is quite similar to Jorge's, so I hope to be at least constant for the fight with him".

Qualifying Results