Casey Stoner will start from the front row of the grid in the San Marino Grand Prix after qualifying third fastest at Misano, the Ducati home circuit.
Stoner felt comfortable on his GP10 since the beginning of the session ad set immediately a fast lap which was his best for long even if he suffered a front end crash at the midway stage. He then was able to improve it again with the bike he felt les comfortable with and to secure his front row start for the tomorrow race. Nicky Hayden, after a positive second free practice session in the morning, encountered several little problems in the qualifying session and faces an uphill battle from fourteenth on the grid.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 3rd (1’34.397)
“We definitely found something for the bike today. This morning we went back to the old fork and immediately we knocked a second off the lap time and then we worked even better this afternoon. We tried something different in bike one, which I didn’t feel comfortable with, but bike two in general felt better and I immediately made a fast lap. When I wanted to try to improve my lap time a little bit I was trying to carry a bit more corner speed and lost the front in a small corner. Anyway, I’m not worried – we just have to improve the front feeling, especially with the number one bike because I had a better feeling with the second one today even though I crashed it. In general the bike is working a lot better here than it was at faster tracks so we are more comfortable for the race tomorrow and we will see what we can do. We don’t know how the weather is going to be but we are looking for a podium.”
NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 14th (1’35.303)
“Qualifying didn’t go well from the start – we had a few problems we couldn’t fix and the lap time didn’t just come this afternoon. This morning we gained a second from yesterday and reduced the gap to the front quite a lot and I was quite confident for the afternoon. Unfortunately from the beginning it wasn’t good, we had a couple of problems here and there. But regardless the bike is much better than fourteenth – Casey is on front row. I apologize to the team because the bike was better than me and at Ducati’s home race it’s terrible to start so far back and I take responsibility for that. I was on the front row a week ago and even here in some parts of the track I’m really okay, like in the second section I’m third fastest but then I lose a lot. Starting at the back is never good but the race is long so we’ll give it our best shot.”
Circuit Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2009), 1’34.746 – 160.572 Km/h
Best Pole: Casey Stoner (Ducati – 2008), 1’33.378 – 162.924 km/h
