With Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo completing the front row
A best lap of 1’21.681 in MotoGP qualifying secured Casey Stoner pole position for Sunday’s race at Sachsenring. Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner secured his sixth pole position for the 2011 season, 0.252s ahead of team mate and three time premier class winner at the Sachsenring circuit, Dani Pedrosa.
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) lead the session at the 40 minute mark, to finally post his best lap of 1’21.933 to take the final front row spot.
Perfect conditions at the German circuit allowed the MotoGP class riders to post their best times of the weekend, with Stoner the first rider to break 1’22” with 16 minutes remaining, followed by Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) then Pedrosa, and finally Lorenzo, who was the final rider to post a time inside the 1’21” times.
Simoncelli’s time of 1’21.954 put him in fourth place and is only the second time this season the Italian did not qualify on the front row. Joining 24 year old Simoncelli is Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), who finished 8th last year in Germany, with a time of 1’22.056. The American was followed by Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), who is still looking for his first podium at Sachsenring, his best finish thus far at the circuit a fifth.
Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) heads up the third row after posting his best lap of 1’22.368. The Texan’s best finish thus far was a fourth in 2007. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), who finished seventh in 2010, joins Edwards in eighth position, while as Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) completes row three with a posted time of 1’22.503 and Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) completes the top ten riders.
Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar), who qualified sixth for the German GP last year, starts from eleventh, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), whose challenging first weekend at Sachsenring included crashing out of ninth place in the final minutes of the session, to finally end up 12th on the grid.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) finished the session down in 16th, with Loris Capirossi’s stand in on the Pramac Racing team, Sylvain Guintoli, in 17th.
Result: Sachsenring, Saturday, July 16, 2011
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time | Gap 1st/Prev. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 283.4 | 1’21.681 | |
| 2 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 283.8 | 1’21.933 | 0.252 / 0.252 |
| 3 | 1 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 279.2 | 1’21.944 | 0.263 / 0.011 |
| 4 | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 279.2 | 1’21.954 | 0.273 / 0.010 |
| 5 | 11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 275.6 | 1’22.056 | 0.375 / 0.102 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 283.1 | 1’22.157 | 0.476 / 0.101 |
| 7 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 276.6 | 1’22.368 | 0.687 / 0.211 |
| 8 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 277.6 | 1’22.388 | 0.707 / 0.020 |
| 9 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 274.8 | 1’22.503 | 0.822 / 0.115 |
| 10 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | Suzuki | 279.9 | 1’22.604 | 0.923 / 0.101 |
| 11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 279.5 | 1’22.676 | 0.995 / 0.072 |
| 12 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 274.5 | 1’22.676 | 0.995 |
| 13 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 273.7 | 1’23.164 | 1.483 / 0.488 |
| 14 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | SPA | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 280.2 | 1’23.201 | 1.520 / 0.037 |
| 15 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 280.2 | 1’23.248 | 1.567 / 0.047 |
| 16 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 279.1 | 1’23.320 | 1.639 / 0.072 |
| 17 | 50 | Sylvain GUINTOLI | FRA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 273.8 | 1’24.707 | 3.026 / 1.387 |
source: motogp.com
Round 9: German GP – Qualifying
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Hard, Extra Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Medium, Hard
After a very close qualifying session for the German Grand Prix in which the provisional front row was separated by just hundredths of a second for most of the hour of track time, it was Casey Stoner with a final charge who leapt 0.2seconds clear of the field to set his sixth pole position of the season and his 27th on Bridgestone tyres.
Stoner was the only man to dip below the existing lap record, set by Dani Pedrosa last year, and did so twice: once on a harder rear tyre and again using a softer rear right at the end of the session. His fastest time came using the harder front slick tyre too, which was used by all riders as the track temperature reached a weekend-high of 46 degrees Celsius.
If conditions remain the same, which current forecasts suggest they will, based on today’s rider preferences race tyre choice tomorrow is likely to be the harder front and harder rear options.
Behind Stoner just 0.02seconds separates Dani Pedrosa in second, Jorge Lorenzo in third and Marco Simoncelli in fourth. Around the 3.6km Sachsenring circuit, the top twelve riders are within one second, suggesting a close race. Tomorrow’s 30-lap race gets underway at 1400hrs local time.
Hirohide Hamashima – Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division
“In general the temperature has been much higher today and the track condition has been better so we have not seen the front grip issues experienced yesterday morning. In fact, during qualifying every rider favoured our harder front option because of its increased stability and wear resistance given the track temperature. I am pleased to see that Casey could set a time under the lap record using both the harder and softer rear slicks, both of which are softer this year compared to last season here, as this shows that both are working well and the performance of our revised rear tyre selection is good. Casey also completed nearly race distance on the harder slicks and durability and consistency were good as he was still able to lap fast at the end with no complaints at the start of the run. The forecast is that it will be hotter tomorrow, so managing the tyre temperature especially for the rear will be very important during the race.”