2009 MotoGP

Casey Stoner will start the 2009 MotoGP World Championship from pole position in Qatar after a dominant performance in today's single qualifying session, which saw Nicky Hayden suffer a spectacular crash that has left him battered, bruised and doubtful for his Ducati race debut tomorrow night.

The American is suffering severe pain in his back and after undergoing some initial x-rays at the circuit medical centre, he has been taken to a local hospital for further checks. He also required three stitches in a cut on his chest and a decision on his participation in the race will be made tomorrow.

As he had done in each of the free practice sessions, Stoner set the pace throughout this evening's 45-minute grid shoot-out and rarely looked threatened at the top of the time sheets, leading nearest rival Valentino Rossi by over a second for the majority of the session before the Italian closed the gap to 0.432 seconds at the end.

However, the Australian's first question to his mechanics on his return to parc fermé was not about his own authoritarian performance but about the condition of Hayden, who he had seen left strewn in the gravel at turn eight following a sickening high-side. It was the latest episode in a luckless weekend for the American, who suffered an engine breakdown in today's final free practice.

"It rained a little bit at ‘lunchtime' between the two practice sessions today but it was gone as quickly as it arrived and we were relieved that we were able to ride at all. There is a little bit of dust and dirt that seems to come down with the rain here so we knew the track conditions would be slick and the lap times wouldn't come down much.
The reality was that there was so much dirt out there that the softer compound tyres worked virtually like a qualifier and only lasted for a couple of laps”, he said. “Even on a race tyre it is hard to predict whether your set-up is going to work because the conditions are different every time we go out so we're going to have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. It's impossible to guess what could happen in the race but generally I'm happy with our set-up and the main thing for us at this early stage is to pick up points, keep working on our weaknesses and make sure we don't make the same mistakes as last year by getting to the middle of the season with problems to fix. The whole team are keeping our fingers crossed for Nicky too. Hopefully he can ride tomorrow but the most important thing is that he's okay."

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Qualifying

Pos. Rider Nation Team Lap time
1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 1'55.286
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.473
3 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.497
4 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team + 0.691
5 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.863
6 C. EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 0.908
7 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 1.072
8 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.207
9 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.504
10 M. KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing + 1.566
11 M. MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team + 1.676
12 T. ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.939
13 J. TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 2.224
14 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 2.443
15 S. GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando + 2.613
16 N. HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team + 2.929
17 Y. TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 3.498
18 N. CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing + 3.713

 

Due to adverse weather conditions, the MotoGP race at the Commercial bank Grand Prix of Qatar has been postponed.

Following discussions between FIM, IRTA, Dorna and the QMMF, a proposal was put to the MotoGP teams to run the race tomorrow evening. Thanks to a huge effort from all parties concerned, and out of respect to fans of motorsport around the world, it has been decided that the race will take place on Monday 13th April, 2009.

The warm-up will run at 6.30pm local time (GMT+3), with the race scheduled to start at 9pm.

 

Did anyone else notice that Stoner's team looks like the Ferrari team (colours etc), they're both sponsored by Marlboro and Stoner's race number is 27!!

 

Photo or it never happened.

 

I say BS then!

 

Time will tell.

 

Rossi's not a bad rider.