Stoner takes pole at Valencia

Date published : 07 Nov 2009 - 14:02:02

Ducati's Casey Stoner took a comfortable pole position for tomorrow's MotoGP season finale at Valencia.The Australian, who had also topped the free practice runs this weekend, set the pole time of 1m32.256s with six minutes left in the one-hour session, which he practically led throughout.Honda's Dani Pedrosa will start the race from the second spot on the grid thanks to a lap in the final two minutes, that allowed him to get in front of the two works Yamaha riders. The Spaniard's time was 0.263s slower than Stoner's.Jorge Lorenzo, who hopes to hold on to second in the championship ahead of Stoner, qualified third, almost four tenths quicker than team-mate Valentino Rossi, who appears to be struggling this weekend after winning this year's title at the last race in Malaysia.Americans Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) will join Rossi on the second row of the grid.The third row will see the Hondas of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Toni Elias (Gresini) leading World Superbike champion Ben Spies. The American qualified ninth one second behind Lorenzo, after being entered as a wildcard by Yamaha ahead of his joining the customer Tech 3 team next year.Pos Rider Team Time Gap 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m32.256s 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m32.519s + 0.263s 3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m32.537s + 0.281s 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m32.922s + 0.666s 5. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m33.085s + 0.829s 6. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m33.154s + 0.898s 7. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 1m33.391s + 1.135s 8. Toni Elias Gresini Honda 1m33.475s + 1.219s 9. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m33.539s + 1.283s10. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m33.678s + 1.422s11. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati 1m33.809s + 1.553s12. Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda 1m33.844s + 1.588s13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m34.097s + 1.841s14. James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha 1m34.107s + 1.851s15. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki 1m34.188s + 1.932s16. Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati 1m34.308s + 2.052s17. Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda 1m34.357s + 2.101s18. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m34.537s + 2.281s