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.
source: MotoGP Official Website
