Casey Stoner impressed his home crowd on a cold and windy day at Phillip Island by securing the pole position. Stoner will be joined by Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies on the front row. It was Stoner's third pole position of the season, the 25th of his Grand Prix career, and he accomplished it on his 25th birthday.
"I always seem to celebrate my birthday here at Phillip Island but I guess there are worse places to be,” Stoner said.
Lorenzo was the only rider to stay within a second of Stoner's fast time. Lorenzo finished .67 seconds behind leading man, and was the only other rider to finish below the 1'31 barrier.
"These conditions were really risky because it was so cold and also incredibly windy. It was hard to stay on the bike sometimes!” said Lorenzo, who claimed his 15th front row start of the season.
Rookie Ben Spies was also able to find a spot on the front row. Spies took his third front row position at Phillip Island, but was 1'27 seconds off of Stoner's pace.
Marco Simoncelli was another rookie to have a quick qualifying time. Simoncelli earned his best starting position of the season, and will lead the second row of the grid during tomorrow's race. Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden will complete row two.
Valentino Rossi finished 8th behind Randy de Puniet. Dani Pedrosa, who is still recovering from a fractured collar bone, only managed to finished 15th. But Pedrosa's starting position won't matter, as the Repsol Honda rider has decided not to partake in tomorrow's race.
“Phillip Island is a very fast circuit, I have to grip the handlebars very tightly, and this makes me very tired and gives me a lot of pain,” Pedrosa said. “To ride around three seconds off the pace in the race tomorrow and maybe collect just a few points wouldn’t make much sense. But I think it has been worth it to at least try to ride here because we really didn’t know how I would be on the bike until we tried.”
“I don’t want to take more risks so that I can recover in time for Estoril. I discussed the situation with HRC Team Director Kazuhiko Yamano and we have the same opinion.”
