Ben Spies will start a MotoGP race from pole position for the first time on Sunday at Indianapolis after the rookie laid down a fantastic hot lap in qualifying. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rookie posted a best time of 1’40.105 on his 26th of 28 laps, delighting the home crowd and enjoying another highlight in what has already been an eventful weekend following confirmation of his factory ride for 2011.
Spies was 0.220s quicker than Championship leader and last year’s race winner Jorge Lorenzo who took his Fiat Yamaha M1 machine round in the second fastest time and there was further joy for the American fans as Nicky Hayden took the final front row spot. The Ducati Team rider was just a hundredth of a second behind Lorenzo on the timesheet in an action-packed and frantic hour-long session.
Andrea Dovizioso had held top spot briefly and his best time of 1’40.559 placed him fourth on the starting grid, with his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa fifth at just under eight-hundredths further back.
Casey Stoner, who had been fastest in both practice sessions, could only qualify in sixth as he lapped 0.559s off the pace of Spies on his Ducati Desmosedici GP10.
The third row will be headed up by Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) and the Italian was left angrily gesticulating when he fell at turn six with little over five minutes to go. That followed a crash in the earlier practice session for the World Champion, who escaped injury in both falls.
Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) also had a crash in the final stages of the session but managed to secure eighth place, equalling his best qualification so far this season, with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) completing the top ten.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team) was 13th in his first QP since returning from injury, whilst Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) had a fall at turn 13 and eventually qualified in 14th.
- Full Qualifying results
Sunday morning's warm-up begins at 9:40am local time (BST -5)
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