Casey Stoner takes pole at Australian Moto GP
October 15th, 2011 - 10:48 pm ICT by IANSMelbourne, Oct 15 (IANS) Honda rider Casey Stoner Saturday dominated the qualifying for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix (GP) at Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit here, extending his record of 11 poles in the current season.
Stoner lapped the scenic seaside circuit in one minute and 29.975 seconds for his fourth straight pole on the circuit.
Stoner’s time was nearly a half-second faster than reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo of Spain, and puts him as the hot favourite to win his home race, Xinhua reported.
“Step by step we just continued to get faster and this afternoon we have done two race distances basically on hard tyres and everything feels good,” Stoner told reporters in Melbourne Saturday.
“The soft tyres will be quite a jump faster so we will see what the weather holds for tomorrow and how everything is, but we couldn’t ask for much more for this weekend.
“I actually feel a lot more relaxed this weekend than I have at any other times in the last four years.”
Lorenzo conceded the race was Stoner’s.
“It is very difficult for tomorrow because he is really fast on his home track,” he said.
The Australian race is round 16 of the MotoGP World Championship.
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Tags: australian motorcycle grand prix, casey stoner, honda, honda rider, jorge lorenzo, melbourne, moto gp, motogp, phillip island grand prix circuit, race distances, spain, tyres, weather, world champion, xinhua