Stoner sustains leadership status in warm up

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Pole starter Casey Stoner strengthened his place at the top of the MotoGP field by posting the fastest time in the morning warm up session ahead of the ahead of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland race.

Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner set a lap of 1'22.132 to put him first of the field in the MotoGP warm up at Sachsenring, after setting pole the previous day for his sixth time this season. The Australian was 0.177s ahead of third place starter Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) and 0.280s faster than team mate Dani Pedrosa.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) set the fourth fastest time, a 1’22.555, before he crashed out of the warm up session, with Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team), who starts from the second row, in fifth and Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) 0.016s behind the Italian in sixth.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) posted a time of 1'22.765 to rank him seventh, with Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) rounding out the top ten. Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) slightly improved his best time from yesterday to finish eleventh with a 1’23.260.