Stoner edges Simoncelli for pole position in Le Mans

2011-05-14 20:19
Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner set pole position for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France by a margin of just 0.059s over Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team). Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) will join the duo on the front row.

Stoner continued his form from the weekend at Le Mans but has fierce competition from his Honda rivals as the RC212V dominated the top four places on the grid. The Australian’s lap time of 1’33.153 was just 0.059s faster than Simoncelli as the Repsol Honda rider took his 25th premier class pole at a circuit he has never won at.

Simoncelli split the Repsol Hondas, as he had done in the final practice session earlier in the day, and will start from the middle of the front row. Fellow Italian Dovizioso will start from the front row for the first time this season after timing in third fastest. The 25 year-old factory Honda rider finished third at the French circuit in 2010 after passing his team-mate Dani Pedrosa on the final lap, and Pedrosa will head the second row after recording the fourth best lap of the qualifying session. This will be the first time in the 2011 campaign that the Spaniard has not started the race from row one.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) will start from fifth, and like his compatriot Pedrosa will not start from the front row for the first time this season. The reigning MotoGP World Champion is scheduled to become the youngest rider to reach the milestone of 150 Grand Prix starts across all classes on Sunday, and along with his fellow Spaniard Pedrosa was over half a second off the pole position lap time set by Stoner.

Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) recorded his best ever qualifying result in MotoGP in his debut season with sixth place. The British rider will start from the second row having improved on his previous best grid spot of eighth, in only his fourth MotoGP race. Team-mate Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was just behind in seventh.

Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) will start from his lowest grid place of the 2011 season so far in eighth place, behind the satellite Yamaha machines, but ahead of the Ducati Team duo of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. The Italian just got the edge over his team-mate and will start on the third row in ninth. The nine-time World Champion finished second here last season after Lorenzo passed him to claim victory.

Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) had a tough qualifying hour after crashing into the gravel at Turn 12 in the first ten minutes but managed to finish just outside the top ten in 11th. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) who missed the MotoGP race here last season due to injury and who is still recovering from his broken femur, finished a respectable 12th place, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) and Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing).

Bringing up the rear in Sunday’s race will be rookie Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) and Toni Elías (LCR Honda) who both crashed during the qualifying hour but were able to rejoin unharmed.




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Championship leader Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) set pole position for this weekend’s Moto2 Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) will join Bradl on the front row for Sunday’s race.

The German rider’s pole position lap time was 1’38.357 which was 0.045s quicker than Lüthi, meaning he will have started from pole in all four rounds of the 2011 Moto2 season to date. The predicted rain that had been feared did not arrive as the qualifying was run in dry, sunny conditions. Lüthi equalled his best qualifying in the Moto2 class with second in the middle of the front row. The Swiss rider has started from the front row on all four occasions this year. Takahashi on the Moriwaki will start from the front row and was 0.183s off the pole position lap.

Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) whose highest grid spot so far this season had been eighth in Spain, will start the race from the second row in fourth spot after being knocked off the front row by the Japanese rider in the final minute. Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) will start from fifth place on the second row and will be aiming for his first Championship points of 2011. Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) will be making his 50th Grand Prix start at the French GP from the second row in sixth position.

Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project), third in the Moto2 World Championship after finishing in the top six in the first three races will head the third row having placed seventh, one spot ahead of fellow Italian Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) who is nine points ahead of his fellow Italian in the standings.Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) who has yet to win a race in the Moto2 class will start from ninth, ahead of Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) in tenth, who had his best race finish in the intermediate category with fourth place at Estoril in the previous round.

Bradley Smith (Tech 3) had an early end to his qualifying after Axel Pons (Pons HP 40) crashed and caught him, sending him flying into the gravel. The Spaniard finished in 14th position as he had to helped away by the marshals. The British rider had to watch the final few minutes in the pit box but luckily was uninjured after the incident, and will start from 17th position on the grid.




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Bankia Aspar riders Nicolás Terol and Héctor Faubel will head a Spanish one-two-three on the front row for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France, with Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) in third.

Terol’s fastest lap of 1’43.578 was nearly fourth-tenths faster than that of his team-mate and close to breaking the pole record of Sergio Gadea. The Spaniard is set to start his 100th GP on Sunday, his third pole start of the 2011 campaign after a perfect beginning to the year with three victories from three rounds.

As the wind got up for the qualifying session, temperatures were not as warm as Friday afternoon. Faubel, whose last pole position came in Malaysia 2007, had to be content with second behind Terol. Sixteen year-old Viñales had an impressive qualifying session to join the Bankia Aspar duo on the front row for the Le Mans race, with his best ever qualifying result in his rookie year. His previous best qualifying position had been ninth in Qatar and he was 0.737s off Terol’s quickest time.

Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) has qualified either first or second in each of the first three GP races of the year but could not match that in qualifying in France. The German rider had two moments in the session, the latter cost him his chance of taking a front row start when he ended up in the gravel in the final three minutes. Cortese will start fourth and head the second row ahead of his compatriot Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) in fifth. Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) took the final spot on the second row in sixth place, for his home race.

The third row was an all Spanish affair with 18 year-old Adrián Martín (Bankia Aspar) recording his best every qualifying position in the 125cc class. Sergio Gadea (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) was eighth, 1.177s off Terol’s pole position and ahead of Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) in ninth. Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) took the final spot in the top ten.

Source: MotoGP

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