September 13th, 2008 by R.J.

Valentino Rossi came on strong in qualifying for the Indianapolis MotoGP to take the pole for tomorrow’s race and break Casey Stoner’s streak of 7 consecutive pole positions.

Rossi was less than a tenth of a second faster than Stoner, who joins his tital rival on the front row of the grid in the 2nd position. Thanks to some last minute heroics by Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi’s teammate, Lorenzo was able to take the third spot and relegate local favorite Nicky Hayden to row 2.

Hayden leads off row 2 in the fourth position, with another American favorite, Ben Spies right beside him. I don’t think anybody thought Spies would do so well in qualifying, this being only his third race on a MotoGP bike; but as I mentioned before: he is the only rider to have experience on an 800cc machine at Indianapolis. I hope he does well.

Randy De Puniet was the fastest Honda rider on a satellite team and he rounds out Row 2.

Anthony West, who was the fastest rider in both practice sessions in the rain, qualified dead last on the dry qualifying track.

Here are the results:

1 - Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 1:40.776
2 - Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team - 1:40.860
3 - Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 1:41.177
4 - Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 1:41.271
5 - Ben Spies - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 1:41.464
6 - Randy De Puniet - Honda LCR - 1:41.492
7 - Andrea Dovizioso - JIR Honda Scot - 1:41.744
8 - Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 1:41.754
9 - Toni Elias - Alice Ducati - 1:41.886
10 - James Toseland - Yamaha Tech3 - 1:41.897
11 - Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech3 - 1:41.934
12 - Alex De Angelis - Honda San Carlo - 1:41.969
13 - Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 1:42.305
14 - Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Ducati - 1:42.405
15 - Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 1:42.551
16 - John Hopkins - Team Kawasaki - 1:42.673
17 - Shinya Nakano - Honda San Carlo - 1:42.732
18 - Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro Team - 1:43.807
19 - Anthony West - Team Kawasaki - 1:43.931