Stoner On Pole For Phillip Island GP

4 weeks ago 17th Oct 11:39

Stoner and Rossi seperated by less than 500th second in qualifying at Phillips Island

Casey Stoner took pole position in Australia Stoner qualifying for his home MotoGP edged world champion Valentino Rossi in Saturday's close qualifying session.

Stoner, chasing a third consecutive win at Phillip Island, clocked 1:30.341 seconds, while Rossi was just five hundredths of a second slower. Dani Pedrosa was third-fastest on Honda. Rossi's Yamaha team-mate and main title rival Jorge Lorenzo grabbed fourth.

Stoner's pole is his first since the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix which confirms his return to fitness after his earlier lay-off with a mystery illness.

Rossi had taken the top spot from the Ducati rider during the final 10 minutes of the session, but Stoner came back with the best time of the day.

Stoner told the press following qualifying the team had improved the turning in the long corners, but were still losing the rear grip coming out of the corners, so had been working all weekend to try and improve that, but the generally they felt the bike was perfect.

Stoner took second-place at Esteril in Portugal on his return from a three-race lay-off through a mystery illness.

Despite his health problems this season, Stoner still sits in fourth in the championship standings.

Rossi will be desperate to score big on Sunday with team-mate Lorenzo only 18 points behind he will be happy starting ahead of Lorenzo on the grid.

Rossi blamed a mistake he made for conceding the pole position saying the bike was working well with a good set-up different to Portugal where the bike and rider were both out of sorts.