MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner has his best chance of victory since the opening Qatar round, after taking his first pole position of the season on Saturday in Catalunya.
Stoner, previously on pole at last September's San Marino Grand Prix, overcame a six-strong Michelin attack to put his Bridgestone-shod Ducati at the head of the 17-rider grid.
Stoner's nearest rival was home hero Dani Pedrosa, who qualified just 0.083secs slower and is sure to be a threat in the race, but world championship leader Valentino Rossi was only ninth fastest. Stoner best both Rossi and Pedrosa to take victory in the 2007 Catalan Grand Prix.
maksunya"If I'm honest I really didn't expect to be on pole today, it's a big surprise!" smiled Casey. "Practice has been going well and we've been getting gradually better on race tyres. The guys have worked really hard and come up with two different set-ups that I'm happy with on two different machines. At the moment we're torn between which one we're going to use in the race but that's a nice problem to have!
"When we put the final qualifying tyre in I thought we were going to be lucky to be on the front row but I was able to keep it smooth - the lap itself didn't actually feel all that fast but the time was great and in general we couldn't have asked for more from the session."
After a perfect start to the 2008 season in Qatar, Stoner has taken just two podiums from the following five rounds and is currently fourth in the standings, 46 points behind Rossi. However, he arrives for this weekend's race fresh from an inspiring second place finish at Mugello.
"Over the past four races we've been able to iron some things out, work out why we weren't as fast as we perhaps could have been at the start of the season and things are getting continually better," he explained. "This pole position shows that we're going in the right direction so hopefully that trend can continue through to the race tomorrow."
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