2009 Phillip Island MotoGP Qualifying Practice Report

The weather at Phillip Island for the MotoGP qualifying session was exactly as you would expect in the South Atlantic spring - cool and blustery, the Antipodean sun breaking through the clouds and warming the track, chasing off the morning rain. But Phillip Island's fickle weather has made it supremely difficult to find a race setup so far this weekend, and so when the bikes hit the track for qualifying, the focus was at first on weighing up the tire options, most teams still undecided on whether to run the softer or harder option for the race on Sunday, especially at the rear.

Grip or no grip, Casey Stoner was the first and fastest out of the blocks, the Australian - sporting a special helmet paint scheme today, to match a special livery due to be run tomorrow - heading into the 1'30s and the top of the timesheets in the first six minutes of practice. Valentino Rossi was soon approaching Stoner's pace, but still over half a second off the Australian's time as he gradually lowered his lap times towards that 1'30 marker.

While Rossi was content to leave the lead to Stoner, the man he has set his mind to beating this weekend was making slower progress. For the first half of the session, Jorge Lorenzo ran long series of laps in the mid 1'31s, running much further up the order than he has previously this weekend, diving up into 3rd with 20 minutes of the session gone, only to see Dani Pedrosa nip ahead of him 6 minutes later. 

Pedrosa's progress would be halted shortly afterwards, folding the front as he touched the brakes going into the Southern Loop on his very next lap. The crash was a big one, going down while still carrying a lot of speed, but the Repsol Honda rider walked away unscathed. Only his leathers bore the scars of battle from the incident, and Pedrosa was forced to switch to his second bike for the remainder of the session.

As the session approached the two-thirds mark, the MotoGP field turned their collective attention from the search for setup to the chase for grid position, and the white-banded softer tires now dominated the track. Despite the bikes being put into qualifying mode - less fuel, more power, modified suspension - Casey Stoner's mark still stood, out of the reach of everyone but Valentino Rossi, and even The Doctor was still a couple of tenths off Stoner's time. There was one rider who could beat it though, and that was Stoner himself, taking a quarter of a second off his own time to set the bar at 1'30.466.

That did not prevent Rossi from trying to snatch the pole from Stoner, but he was still too far off the pace. Alex de Angelis benefited from Rossi's efforts, though, the Italian drafting Rossi on his fast laps, dropping his times and climbing up into a provisional 4th spot on the grid. De Angelis improvement saw Lorenzo demoted to 5th, and the Fiat Yamaha man set about improving his own times. With 14 minutes of the session left, Lorenzo went faster, then next lap leapt up into 3rd, with a time of 1'31.112.

As session entered the final 10 minutes, Casey Stoner was once again out on track and chasing his own pole time, but the Australian kept losing time in the last section, the lack of traction he had complained about all weekend catching up with him in the final long lefts. But while Stoner struggled, Rossi closed, improving his time with 8 minutes to go, and then finally taking pole from Stoner with 6 minutes of the session left, with a lap of 1'30.391.

But Casey Stoner was not done yet. He exited pit lane with less than 5 minutes in the session left, circulating slowly and looking over his shoulder, keen to avoid picking up hitchhikers who might use his draft to beat his time. It took him just a single fast lap before he had the pole back, shaving five thousandths of a second off Rossi's time with a lap of 1'30.386, but two laps later he made it more emphatic, setting a lap of 1'30.341. The gap had risen from five thousandths to five hundredths, Rossi still very close to the Australian's time.

Dani Pedrosa took the final place on the front row, setting the 3rd fastest time as the flag fell, and beating out Jorge Lorenzo by just one thousandth of a second. Lorenzo's 4th place in qualifying is the first time the Spaniard has been off the front row this season, a fact that bitterly disappointed Lorenzo, especially because of the narrow margin by Pedrosa had beaten him. Both men, though, are nearly three quarters of a second off Casey Stoner, and just under seven tenths off Rossi.

Colin Edwards finished the session the best of the rest, as ever, taking 5th just a couple of hundredths behind Lorenzo, while Alex de Angelis rounds out the second row a tenth behind the Texan. Nicky Hayden will start the race from 7th, on the third row of the grid.

Qualifying reflected earlier practice, with Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi in a league of their own. But with Dani Pedrosa beside them on the front row, the chances of the Spaniard getting his usual rocket start and taking the lead have got to be high, holding up the Ducati and the Yamaha. That has got to be what Jorge Lorenzo will be hoping for, as the Fiat Yamaha man is struggling with his health this weekend, suffering from a suspected case of food poisoning. According to MCN, Lorenzo is on a drip for extra vitamins, as the Spaniard is finding it hard to eat. He will need all the help he can get if he is to minimize his losses to Rossi this weekend, and hope for an improvement next weekend at Sepang. 

The race will come down to whether Valentino Rossi can stay with Casey Stoner, who has been setting a scorching pace all weekend. An added complication are the tires, as riders still aren't sure which of the two compounds to bet on for the race. The weather is set to be sunny but cool, making tire choice a bit of a gamble, and a factor which could come into play later in the race. The rider who can manage tires going off is likely to benefit most, and as both Stoner and Rossi have mastered this art, there will be little to choose. It should be quite a spectacle.

Full results of qualifying practice