Casey Stoner stormed to his 12th pole position of the season with a dominating performance in the final qualifying of 2011 at the Gran Premio Gernerali de la Comunitat Valenciana. The World Champion lapped a second quicker than Dani Pedrosa and third place qualifier Ben Spies.

The last qualifying of the season for the MotoGP class saw newly crowned Champion Stoner put his Repsol Honda on pole again with a best lap of 1’31.861 to equal the record of 12 pole positions in a single season set by five-time 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan.

Dani Pedrosa was 1.014 seconds behind his team mate to take the second spot on the starting grid, with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies lapping a tenth behind the Spaniard to claim the final spot on the front row.

Pramac Racing’s Randy de Puniet concluded his strong practice performances, just missing a front start with a time 0.061s behind Spies placing him on row two for the second time this season. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) lapped three tenths behind de Puniet to claim a second row start, with Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) completing the row after setting a best lap of 1'33.478 on lap 25 of 27.


Nicky Hayden heads the third row with his Ducati Team Desmosedici after pacing a tenth behind his Italian team mate. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) starts next to the American on the eighth grid position after setting a time just over a tenth behind Hayden. The Italian suffered a crash and tumble just as the checkered flag was shown but was up and walking away immediately.

Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) suffered a mechanical failure in the early part of the one hour qualifying. The Spaniard was able to get aboard his spare bike to finish the session in ninth which puts him in the final spot on row three for tomorrow’s race. Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) completed the top ten, with Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Pramac Racing’s Loris Capirossi, who sports the number 58 on his machine to honor Marco Simoncelli, joining the Czech rider on row four.

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