Pedrosa wins frantic pole fight

Dani Pedrosa denied champion Jorge Lorenzo and Honda team-mate Casey Stoner MotoGP pole with a scintillating record lap in qualifying for the MotoGP season-ending Valencia Grand Prix.

It was the departing Stoner who kicked off a frantic 10-minute pole shoot-out in which Cal Crutchlow’s Tech 3 Yamaha was also a factor.

For a while it seemed the Australian’s 1m31.568s would hold. It featured a mighty final sector sufficient to deny Pedrosa, Crutchlow and Lorenzo several times even when all three had been up over the first three splits.

Lorenzo eventually bested Stoner with seven minutes to run, only for Stoner to once again seize control with a new benchmark two minutes from the end.

The drama was not finished however, as Pedrosa bolted to pole with a new Valencia record of 1m30.844s, eclipsing Valentino Rossi’s 2006 mark.

Lorenzo was still out on track, and while he ultimately could not touch Pedrosa, he was able to do enough to demote Stoner into third.

Having also been in the mix until Pedrosa’s late rally, Crutchlow had to settle for fourth and a share of the second row alongside LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and his Tech 3 stablemate Andrea Dovizioso.

Ducati’s Nicky Hayden was seventh, four spots ahead of team-mate Rossi in the Italian’s final qualifying session for the team.

Alvaro Bautista, Hector Barbera and CRT rider Aleix Espargaro managed to split the pair.

As well as marking Stoner’s final qualifying session, it was also the last before the qualifying format undergoes major changes for next year.

Pos  Rider               Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
  1.  Dani Pedrosa        Honda                     1m30.844s
  2.  Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                    1m31.195s  + 0.351s
  3.  Casey Stoner        Honda                     1m31.428s  + 0.584s
  4.  Cal Crutchlow       Tech 3 Yamaha             1m31.512s  + 0.668s
  5.  Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda                 1m31.757s  + 0.913s
  6.  Andrea Dovizioso    Tech 3 Yamaha             1m31.795s  + 0.951s
  7.  Nicky Hayden        Ducati                    1m32.503s  + 1.659s
  8.  Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda             1m32.585s  + 1.741s
  9.  Hector Barbera      Pramac Ducati             1m32.605s  + 1.761s
 10.  Aleix Espargaro     Aspar Aprilia             1m32.834s  + 1.990s
 11.  Valentino Rossi     Ducati                    1m32.877s  + 2.033s
 12.  Randy de Puniet     Aspar Aprilia             1m33.346s  + 2.502s
 13.  Karel Abraham       Cardion Ducati            1m33.442s  + 2.598s
 14.  Colin Edwards       Forward Suter-BMW         1m33.453s  + 2.609s
 15.  Michele Pirro       Gresini FTR-Honda         1m33.971s  + 3.127s
 16.  Katsuyuki Nakasuga  Yamaha                    1m33.979s  + 3.135s
 17.  Danilo Petrucci     Ioda Suter-BMW            1m33.980s  + 3.136s
 18.  Ivan Silva          Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m34.407s  + 3.563s
 19.  Roberto Rolfo       Speed Master Aprilia      1m34.866s  + 4.022s
 20.  James Ellison       Paul Bird Aprilia         1m34.918s  + 4.074s
 21.  Hiroshi Aoyama      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m35.363s  + 4.519s
 22.  Claudio Corti       Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m36.531s  + 5.687s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/motorcycles/motogp/pedrosa-wins-frantic-pole-fight

Walt Hansgen Mike Harris Cuth Harrison Brian Hart Gene Hartley