MotoGP: One Last Qualifying for the King of Phillip Island

In typical Phillip Island fashion, a range of weather was featured during qualifying for the Australian GP — though, it was mostly cold, cloudy, and windy. With spots of rain throughout the day, it was anyone’s guess when the weather would, could, or should arrive on the coastal track, which meant every minute of qualifying counted.

Unsurprisingly, Casey Stoner dominated the time sheets throughout Free Practice, and was heavily favorited for the pole-position for Sunday’s race. With the MotoGP Championship going down to the wire for Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, MotoGP fans were perhaps more concerned what was happening behind Stoner, despite this being his last home grand prix.

This doesn’t mean the session was business as usual for Stoner though, as the Repsol Honda rider found the gravel, after high-siding in Turn 4 of the Phillip Island Circuit. Limping away, Stoner was able to immediately rejoin the session, putting his best laps of the day in after the crash. The only man able to get into the 1’29 on his lap times, Stoner is still heavily favorited to win tomorrow’s Australian GP.

Coming into the pits to a series of high-fives, Jorge Lorenzo is taking his half a second behind Stoner as a win, especially since Championship rival Dani Pedrosa, in turn, is almost half a second behind him. If Lorenzo finishes ahead of Pedrosa tomorrow, he would clinch the 2012 MotoGP Championship. Conversely, if he makes a mistake, and ends up in the gravel though, he could hand Dani Pedrosa the opportunity for a title shootout in Valencia.

Notably off the pace were the Ducatis of Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Hector Barbera, and Karel Abraham, who found the CRT bikes of Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaro mixing it up with them on the time sheets.

Only Rossi was able to get clear of RdP, while Barbera found himself the only prototype rider to be behind Espargaro’s Aspar Aprilia ART machine. A fast track, but not necessarily a horsepower track, we could see some prototype scalps hanging from the belts of the Aspar riders tomorrow.

Qualifying Results from the Australian GP at Phillip Island, Australia:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	KM/H	Time	Diff.
1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	335.6	1’29.623	–
2	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	330.6	1’30.140	0.517
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	335.7	1’30.575	0.952
4	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	332.7	1’30.763	1.140
5	Stefan BRADL	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	337.1	1’30.798	1.175
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	334.7	1’31.200	1.577
7	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	334.9	1’31.490	1.867
8	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	337.4	1’31.661	2.038
9	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	323.6	1’31.667	2.044
10	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	334.4	1’31.681	2.058
11	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	Ducati	339.6	1’31.910	2.287
12	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	319.8	1’31.990	2.367
13	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	334.1	1’32.231	2.608
14	Michele PIRRO	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	FTR	316.8	1’33.050	3.427
15	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	315.4	1’33.069	3.446
16	Colin EDWARDS	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	Suter	321.7	1’33.450	3.827
17	James ELLISON	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	317.4	1’33.489	3.866
18	Roberto ROLFO	ITA	Speed Master	ART	314.0	1’33.577	3.954
19	Ivan SILVA	SPA	Avintia Blusens	BQR	313.5	1’34.156	4.533
DNQ	Kris McLAREN	AUS	Avintia Blusens	BQR	311.6	1’36.324	6.701