Stoner shatters lap record taking ninth pole

This afternoon in Aragon, Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner claimed his ninth season pole position and with it smashed his own lap record by almost half a second.

After a difficult day yesterday at the Alcaniz track, when FP2 was cancelled due to an electrical short circuit, all riders made the most of today's longer morning session. In the afternoon when track temperatures were 12 degrees higher than the morning, Stoner fine tuned his bike for an intense final twenty minutes of qualifying.

After a cautious first lap on the softer option tires, Stoner narrowly escaped impact with the safety barrier. He was able to return to the pits in time and on his second bike he recorded a new lap record of 1'48.451 almost five tenths faster than his record set here in 2010 of 1'48.942. It is Stoner's ninth pole of the season and second year in succession at the Aragon circuit.

Alongside him on the front row is teammate Dani Pedrosa who set a time of 1'48.747. Pedrosa, fresh from his second place finish in Misano two weeks ago will be looking to continue his strong end to the season.

Tomorrow in Aragon, the Repsol Honda bikes and riders will have a special 'look' created by Spanish designer David Delfin. The new design has been inspired by superheroes and supermen and incorporates David Delfin's trademark typography to give the team a unique personality for the Aragon GP which will start at 14h00 local time.

CASEY STONER – 1st 1'48.451
"It was a very eventful qualifying session for us! Everything has been going very well this weekend, we have a good feeling with the bike and I'm feeling great. At the end of the session we put on the soft tire and on the first lap I was a little too cautious in T1 as I wasn't sure if the tires were warm enough, then I pushed on the second lap and I had a lot more grip than I expected so I went through the corner much faster and I wasn't able to slow down, I pulled the bike up but it was difficult to reduce the speed and I ended up needing to lay the bike down to avoid the wall. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to restart the bike which is a shame as I was happier on that one, but even on the second bike we were able to improve our time. Now we need to see what the weather brings for tomorrow but we're feeling good and I hope for a good race".

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