MotoGP Round 1 At Qatar – Qualifying
Casey Stoner’s quest for a fourth successive Qatar Grand Prix title continues when he qualifies fastest ahead of his rival, clocking 1:55.007. Meanwhile Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were also in strong form, taking the second and third spots on the grid behind Stoner to set up an exact rematch of last year’s Qatar race.
Selected rider quotes:
Valentino Rossi : “I’m really happy about the work we’ve done today on our set up and now we have a good race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres. With the soft one the rear is still sliding a little bit too much, but I think for the race we are okay. My final flying lap was very fast but then I had to pass a couple of riders in the final sector and I lost some time, but anyway we have a good grid position so I am happy. A strong start is going to be very important and we will have to push hard on the first lap to try to stay close to Stoner, who is always very strong here. Honestly I think it will be tough to beat him but we will try our best!”.
Jorge Lorenzo : “Considering my situation I am really happy about my grid position and I think we can be proud of our work. Unfortunately today though we have lost some feeling on the rear and it was difficult to go as fast as yesterday. My hand isn’t perfect and I still have some pain in braking but I am less worried about that than about the bike. We will use the warm-up to try to make some improvements and then I will just do my best in the race and try for the podium.”
Loris Capirossi : “Overall I am quite happy with tonight’s qualifying, because after my crash yesterday we struggled a bit in the earlier practice, but at the end of the session we tried something different and in the qualifying it seemed to work well. Once we made the change I immediately went quicker and we modified the bike a bit more for qualifying and from that we found a very good setting. I went well in qualifying and I did 1’56 laps many times and this is good. In the end I followed Valentino and got a bit of help with my lap, but that doesn’t matter because I am happy with the result. I am pleased for the team because they made a huge effort after I destroyed a bike last night and the guys didn’t get to sleep until about five o’clock this morning! This is a small present to them, but we really hope we can have something better tomorrow to enjoy.”
Qualifying Times :
1 Casey Stoner Ducati MotoGP 1:55.007
2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Factory +00.355
3 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory +00.513
4 Randy de Puniet Honda LCR +00.824
5 Loris Capirossi Suzuki MotoGP +00.892
6 Andrea Dovizioso Honda HRC +00.956
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda HRC +00.983
8 Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech 3 +00.998
9 Nicky Hayden Ducati MotoGP +01.156
10 Hiroshi Aoyama Interwetten Honda +01.220
11 Ben Spies Yamaha Tech 3 +01.264
12 Mika Kallio Ducati Pramac +01.276
13 Alvaro Bautista Suzuki MotoGP +01.443
14 Aleix Espargaro Ducati Pramac +01.645
15 Marco Simoncelli Honda Gresini +01.950
16 Hector Barbera Ducati Aspar +02.123
17 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini +02.318
Editorial : Nazim Idris
Photo : Fiat Yamaha Team and Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
