Ducati MotoGP Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi will
start tomorrow's Australian GP from the first and second rows of
the grid following a thrilling qualifying session at Phillip Island this
afternoon. Both men took their turn at the top during qualifying,
Stoner ending up third, six tenths off pole, and Capirossi fifth
quickest, a further 0.274 seconds back. This will be Stoner's tenth
front-row start of the season so far.
The recently crowned World Champion - who today received a
letter of congratulations and good wishes from Australian Prime
Minister John Howard - isn't concerned that he's not on pole
because his pace on race tyres has been devastatingly quick here
and Phillip Island is a fast, open circuit where overtaking isn't an
issue for fast, brave riders. The Aussie was relentlessly quickest
in all three previous sessions, using race tyres, and is confident of
a good home GP tomorrow despite a crash during this morning's
damp practice session. Japanese GP winner Capirossi made the
best of the only fully dry session of a cold and damp weekend to
put himself in with a chance of another great race.
STONER: "Qualifying was probably our worse session so far this
weekend and the front row or the second row is okay here. We
went out quite early with a qualifying tyre because every other
session had been interrupted by rain..." full story on ducati.com