MotoGP news

Stoner takes pole in Mugello

Casey Stoner gave Ducati pole position in front of its home crowd in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen took second on his Rizla Suzuki whilst Valentino Rossi claimed the final spot on the front row in the dying moments. Olivier Jacque, Loris Capirossi and Marco Melandri will make up the second row respectively.

The track started out very damp after rain this morning. The Bridgestone runners showed that the Japanese trye-maker's wet compound was superior to Michelin as they dominated the first half hour. Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen traded times at the top of the timesheets initially before Marco Melandri put his Honda Gresini in the running as the track started to dry out. The times were about 12 seconds off dry pace until Casey Stoner raised the bar by almost undercutting the two-minute mark with a 2:00.359s as he went over a second quicker than the rest of the field. The sun then started to shine as it seemed we might have a dry session only for the rain to start pouring on certain parts of the track on the half hour mark. This caused a bit of confusion in the pits amongst the riders as they watched those brave enough to try their luck on the track.

It was not until the last ten minutes when the track was drying out again that some riders managed to improve on their earlier times. Dani Pedrosa, who was fastest in the dry this morning, was the first to improve and took his Michelin-shod Repsol Honda into the top five. Then cue Valentino Rossi who threatened to spoil the Ducati party in front of its home crowd by going significantly faster on his 8th fastest time to take third. That prompted Stoner to come back out but he was unable to improve his time but it did not matter as, despite Rossi's charging efforts, the five-time world champion could not usurp his championship rival from the top.

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