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MotoGP News
Sensational Stoner takes Sachsenring top spot
14/07/2008
Ducati’s Casey Stoner has stormed to his fourth consecutive pole position of the season with a sensational lap of the Sachsenring this afternoon. Stoner’s best lap, set using a Bridgestone rear qualifying tyre in the final minutes of the hour-long session, was nearly 0.4s quicker than second-placed man Dani Pedrosa, and 0.8s faster than the existing pole position record set by Pedrosa in 2006. Colin Edwards will complete the front row after finishing third this afternoon.
Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi claimed the seventh best time after a busy afternoon session which saw the Italian miss the front row by three-tenths-of-a-second. However, Rossi showed improved pace on race tyres at the start of the session and was able to lap in the mid 1m22s bracket.
Only half-a-second separates Pedrosa in second from the San Carlo Honda Gresini duo of Shinya Nakano and Alex De Angelis in ninth and tenth positions respectively. Both riders have also shown encouraging race pace this weekend, with De Angelis in particularly competitive form, and will be hopeful of making progress up through the order in tomorrow’s 30-lap race.
Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development
How would you summarise today’s qualifying session?
“It was another supreme lap from Casey today, so again congratulations to him and Ducati for their fourth pole position in a row. It is the fifth in a row for a rider on Bridgestone tyres, equalling the run that we had last year which Chris Vermeulen started in Assen and which Casey continued for four races thereafter. In that respect, I am pleased, but our other riders were unable to produce similar performances on qualifying tyres this afternoon with just three additional riders – Valentino, Shinya and Alex – claiming top ten results. It was very closely-fought for the second and third rows of the grid with just a few tenths-of-a-second making a big difference in position, so hopefully this will give us good racing tomorrow afternoon.”
How is the performance on race tyres?
“For race tyre performance, I am much more satisfied and many of our riders already have a good indication of the specification tyre for tomorrow’s race. We could not carry out longer runs today, but the initial performance with several of our riders is very pleasing. Casey, of course, continues to set the benchmark, but Alex and Valentino also appear to be in good shape. We will, however, only find out about the longevity of our tyres in the race itself.”
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