Ducati Marlboro Team rider Nicky Hayden will line up on the front row of the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix tomorrow following an outstanding performance in qualifying practice at Sepang this afternoon. The American took more than two seconds off his best lap time from yesterday to propel himself up the order, sitting on provisional pole until the final lap, when he was dislodged by Jorge Lorenzo.
Casey Stoner has been consistently on the pace all weekend in race trim but struggled to improve his pace on a softer tyre at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session. As such his best lap was only enough for a second row start in fifth place but the Australian is confident of making up positions tomorrow as he aims to build on back-to-back wins in the last two rounds.
NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 2nd – 2’01.637
“This is a bit of a surprise, I didn’t expect to be on the front row today. We only missed pole by one tenth but don’t anybody feel sorry for us, we’re pretty happy! The lap itself was obviously a good one, I don’t think I could have got any more out of myself or the bike, but overall we’ve done a good job today. We were struggling yesterday but we went back to a setting that worked for us in the test and even though I didn’t get the lap time this morning I told the guys not to make too many changes to the bike because I felt comfortable and knew I could improve purely through riding. Once again my thanks go to the team because everybody knows it’s tough on the riders in this heat but it’s tough for them too and they’re doing a great job.”
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 5th – 2’02.023
“I’m a little disappointed with the way qualifying went today. We made a little progress with the race setting on the harder tyre. We didn’t get a lot of laps in but we are happy with the work we did on the bike and feel reasonably confident. When I went to use the softer compound to set a qualifying lap on we lost feeling completely. There was no traction on the rear yet it was still pushing the front at the same time. We couldn’t do the lap time we wanted or even deserved but we know our pace is faster than a couple of the guys in front of us on the grid so we’ll see if we can get past them in the race.”
Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati – 2009), 2’02.108 – 163.566 Km/h
Best Pole: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2009), 2’00.518 – 165.724 Km/h
