MotoGP qualifying for Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix has been concluded, and as predicted, Casey Stoner has come out on top, taking his seventh pole position of the season, and smashing the pole-position record set by teammate Dani Pedrosa in 2009, by more than seven tenths of a second.
Last year’s poleman Spies, will join him on the second position on the grid, with his teammate in third, completing Honda-Yamaha-Yamaha front row. I predicted Lorenzo to be off the front-row at Indy, but I was wrong.
Dani Pedrosa will start the race from fourth position on the grid, but with his trademark starts and a long straight ahead, it would not be much a problem to take the hole-shot.
As for Rossi, well, I did not expect him to be that far on the grid. He qualified fourteenth fastest. He had a crash in the early stages of the qualifying, and that complicated his QP session. I sincerely thought he would improve his lap times from free practice sessions, but I was wrong, and Rossi had another disaster qualifying session. He will start the race from the fifth row of the grid, and now, I cannot expect a top-six finish from the nine-time world champion. Rossi just cannot cope with the Ducati but he has not given up hope yet. He is still motivated for the Ducati Challenge.
Andrea Dovizioso and Colin Edwards will join Dani on the second row. Simoncelli, Hayden, Bautista and Barbera completed the top-ten.
Casey Stoner seized the Brickyard pole with a new lap record, and I do not expect anyone to catch him in the tomorrow’s race. Casey Stoner will again run away with the victory, in my opinion, and the show would all be about whether Spies can hold off Lorenzo (which I see clearly), but would Yamaha team orders come into play if Casey run away with the victory?
Earlier, Casey Stoner won at Brno and Laguna Seca, and I believe he can make it three in a row. If Casey does it, well, it would seriously dent Lorenzo’s hopes for seizing the title again this year.
Stay tuned for Brickyard race analysis tomorrow.
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