News

hayden  breaks the stoner stranglehold

15/09/07

By David Miller

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden has finally broken Casey Stoner's qualifying strangehold and claimed pole position for tomorrow's Portugese MotoGP race at Estoril.

The Repsol Honda rider nicked the prized number one slot from under Stoner's nose  with two minutes to go by putting in a blistering 1'36.301 lap, which was only four-one hundredths of a second quicker than the Australian.

And Hayden, who spent most of the session sitting in the bottom half of the timing screen, also got within one tenth of Valentino Rossi's circuit best lap. Rossi himself had gone to pole with five minutes remaining, taking out a 1'36.576 time but Stoner was already on a fast one and immediately demoted the Italian to third.

Hayden's team-mate Dani Pedrosa topped the timesheets early on and must have thought he was in with a chance of a front row as he was still there with 15 minutes remaining.

Unfortunately for the Spaniard, Stoner was clearly bored with sitting in ninth place, pitted in, stuck on a qualifier and went just under a second faster after a very steady out lap. Pedrosa ended the session in fifth.

Surprises of the day came from Makoto Tamada who occupies the outside of the front row after a 1'36.736 lap and the still injured Toni Elias who hauled hauled himself up to second at one point but wound up ninth

Colin Edwards, who has had a torrid time so far, found some pace right at the session's death and went under the 1'37s mark had been sitting in fifth until the Japanese rider's lap pushed him to sixth.

MotoGP final qualifying - conditions dry

1 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'36.301
2 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'36.341
3 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'36.576
4 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'36.736
5 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'36.829
6 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'36.904
7 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'37.157
8 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'37.189
9 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'37.246
10 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'37.280
11 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 1'37.296
12 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'37.365
13 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 1'37.530
14 4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'37.550
15 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'37.733
16 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'37.885
17 66 Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'37.959
18 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'38.271
19 80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 1'39.017

Ducati's Casey Stoner was in ominous form during free practice three this morning and shot a very fast warning across his opponents' collective bows by marmalising the Estoril lap record by nearly eight tenths of the second.

In a repeat of yesterday, only Valentino Rossi could stay with the young Aussie (Tamada's time was set on qualifying tyres) and was just over two tenths slower than the Ducati man.

It took the young Aussie just one flying lap to get under the 1'37s barrier, he then set a 1'37.173 inside seven laps. Finally, to add insult to injury, Stoner stuck in a string of circuits at lap record pace on race tyres which no one could match.

It took Rossi until the end of the session and 25 laps to post his time of 1'37.434 and the next nearest man on race rubber was Nicky Hayden who was more than half a second adrift. The Tech 3 Yamaha of Sylvain Guintoli was third fastest on 1'37.681 but he was on a qualifier.

Both Rossi and Hayden were lapping inside or around the late 1'37s and did virtual race distances in terms of the number of laps they put in.

In stark contrast to their team-mates, Colin Edwards and Loris Capirossi are struggling to find pace, ending in 13th and 17th places respectively with the Italian one and a half seconds slower than Stoner.

MotoGP free practice three - conditions dry

1 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'37.173
2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'37.434
3 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'37.681
4 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'37.785
5 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'38.013
6 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.068
7 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'38.091
8 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 1'38.185
9 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'38.217
10 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 1'38.260
11 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'38.260
12 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'38.355
13 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.400
14 4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'38.537
15 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'38.599
16 66 Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'38.724
17 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'38.725
18 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'38.941
19 80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 1'40.177