Buzzin MotoGP

Casey Stoner

It was torrential rain for the qualifying session of the MotoGP today ahead of tomorrow’s Brno race, but that didn’t hinder Casey Stoner, who claimed six consecutive pole position of the season.

Valentino Rossi took second followed by John Hopkins on the Kawasaki who will take his first front row start this year.

Suzuki rider, Chris Vermeulen was fourth followed by Alex de Angelis in fifth and Anthony West in sixth position.

Randy de Puniet crashed again today but managed to claim seventh place ahead of Shinya Nakano.  Loris Capirossi starts from ninth despite his crash followed by Sylvain Guintoli in tenth.

The fastest times were set early in the session while the rain was still light but as time went on riders were commenting on the amount of standing rain on the saturated track.

The fastest Michelin runner was Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda in twelfth place.

Jorge Lorenzo failed to qualify today after getting the timing all wrong and catching the worst of the weather.  However, the race director has agreed to let him race at the back of the grid.

Both Yamaha Tech 3 riders, will also start at the back of the grid with Lorenzo, after Colin Edwards qualified in fifteenth place and James Toseland in sixteenth place.

The three back markers, are all on Michelin tyres and although they were not blaming Michelin, it was obvious that this was the main problem.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:11.657
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  2:12.846  + 1.189
 3.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  2:12.959  + 1.302
 4.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:13.002  + 1.345
 5.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  2:13.352  + 1.695
 6.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:14.064  + 2.407
 7.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  2:14.535  + 2.878
 8.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  2:14.718  + 3.061
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  2:14.805  + 3.148
10.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  2:14.861  + 3.204
11.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  2:15.880  + 4.223
12.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  2:16.032  + 4.375
13.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  2:16.510  + 4.853
14.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  2:17.632  + 5.975
15.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:20.074  + 8.417
16.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  2:23.303  + 11.646
17.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  2:23.701  + 12.044

In the 250cc, Marco Simoncelli claimed his third pole position of the season on a track that started out wet at the beginning of the session but dried towards the end.

Simoncelli and Hector Barbera staged an exciting battle for their place at the front, with Simoncelli even runnihg off track and into the gravel before hitting the barrier, picking-up his machine and going even faster.

Alex Debon was the second fastest rider, followed by Hector Barbera in third and Mattia Pasini in fourth position.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   2:10.723
 2.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  2:11.489  + 0.766
 3.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  2:11.578  + 0.855
 4.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia  2:12.168  + 1.445
 5.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  2:12.762  + 2.039
 6.  Julian Simon      KTM      2:13.074  + 2.351
 7.  Mika Kallio       KTM      2:13.698  + 2.975
 8.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda    2:13.944  + 3.221
 9.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  2:13.970  + 3.247
10.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  2:14.577  + 3.854
11.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  2:14.664  + 3.941
12.  Eugene Laverty    Aprilia  2:14.918  + 4.195
13.  Fabrizio Lai      Gilera   2:15.103  + 4.380
14.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia  2:15.416  + 4.693
15.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia  2:15.659  + 4.936
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM      2:15.785  + 5.062
17.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   2:15.836  + 5.113
18.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  2:16.552  + 5.829
19.  Federico Sandi    Aprilia  2:17.550  + 6.827
20.  R.Wilairot        Honda    2:18.009  + 7.286
21.  Toni Wirsing      Honda    2:18.764  + 8.041
22.  DT Pradita        Yamaha   2:19.018  + 8.295
23.  Russell Gomez     Aprilia  2:21.402  + 10.679
24.  Manuel Poggiali   Gilera   2:34.770  + 24.047

In the 125cc second qualifying session, on a dark, cold and wet track, Gabor Talmacsi will start from pole position tomorrow.

Nicolas Terol was in second place followed by Andre Iannone in third and Britain’s Bradley Smith in fourth to complete the front row of the grid.

The current Championship leader, Mike de Meglio will start from fifth ahead of Sergio Cortese, Pol Esparago and Simone Corsi.