Casey Stoner took his sixth pole position of the season this afternoon at Sachsenring with all the confidence that he has in whipping his Repsol Honda around the tight and short German track in a qualifying thriller, that was all about thousanths of seconds, until the Australian dropped the hammer leaving team mate Dani Pedrosa in second and 0.
252s adrift.
Jorge Lorenzo pipped Marco Simoncelli for a front row start in his final fast lap which ended the Italian’s run of six consecutive front row starts, while Assen winner Ben Spies who is suffering from a cold took the fifth spot, and had a couple of crazy moments on his way to grabbing the position, when his M1 gave him a couple of warning shakes, which the Texas Terror managed to contain.
Andrea Dovizioso was sixth and Colin Edwards, on the track where he doesn’t have fond memories of, bagged seventh.
Nicky Hayden qualified eighth and 7 tenths off pace, after having gotten some angry head shakes and the finger from Hector Barbera.
Hayden’s team mate Valentino Rossi had another and even more disastrous and dramatic qualifying session.
Rossi, who will start his 250th race tomorrow in his worst ever starting position with Ducati.
He finished only 16th and 1″639 adrift from the top of the chart, with only Sylvain Guintoli, who is subbing for ailing Loris Capirossi behind him.
No doubt Ducati will be burning the midnight oil this evening in their garage and one of the rumors floating (we’ll get back to that later) around might become true.
Closing out the top ten are Randy de Puniet on his Pramac Ducati and Alvaro Bautista.
Cal Crutchlow had an ugly crash at turn 8, but was able to walk angrily away, while Karel Abraham crashed both his bikes during the session but salvaged a 13th spot on the grid.
MotoGP Sachsenring Qualifying results:01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 1’21.
68102- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
25203- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
26304- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 0.
27305- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
37506- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
47607- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
68708- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.
70709- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.
82210- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 0.
92311- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.
99512- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
99513- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
48314- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 1.
52015- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.
56716- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 1.
63917- Sylvain Guintoli – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 3.
026