Casey Stoner will start the 2009 MotoGP World Championship from pole position in Qatar after a dominant performance in today’s single qualifying session, which saw Nicky Hayden suffer a spectacular crash that has left him battered, bruised and doubtful for his Ducati race debut tomorrow night.

The American is suffering severe pain in his back and after undergoing some initial X-rays at the circuit medical center, he has been taken to a local hospital for further checks.  He also required three stitches in a cut on his chest and a decision on his participation in the race will be made tomorrow.

As he had done in each of the free practice sessions, Stoner set the pace throughout this evening’s 45-minute grid shoot-out and rarely looked threatened at the top of the time sheets, leading nearest rival Valentino Rossi by over a second for the majority of the session before the Italian closed the gap to 0.432 seconds at the end.

However, the Australian’s first question to his mechanics on his return to parc fermé was not about his own authoritarian performance but about the condition of Hayden, who he had seen left strewn in the gravel at turn eight following a sickening high-side.  It was the latest episode in a luckless weekend for the American, who suffered an engine breakdown in today’s final free practice.

Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st (1’55.286):  "It rained a little bit at ‘lunchtime’ between the two practice sessions today but it was gone as quickly as it arrived and we were relieved that we were able to ride at all.

There is a little bit of dust and dirt that seems to come down with the rain here so we knew the track conditions would be slick and the lap times wouldn’t come down much.

The reality was that there was so much dirt out there that the softer compound tires worked virtually like a qualifier and only lasted for a couple of laps.  Even on a race tire it is hard to predict whether your set-up is going to work because the conditions are different every time we go out so we’re going to have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

It’s impossible to guess what could happen in the race but generally I’m happy with our set-up and the main thing for us at this early stage is to pick up points, keep working on our weaknesses and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes as last year by getting to the middle of the season with problems to fix.  The whole team are keeping our fingers crossed for Nicky too.  Hopefully he can ride tomorrow but the most important thing is that he’s okay."

Nicky Hayden – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 16th (1’58.215):  “I don’t feel like going for a jog right now, I can tell you that much!  It was a big crash and I’m in a lot of pain so we’re going to get some more X-rays done and see what the score is”.

Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2008), 1’55.153, 168.193 Km/h
Best Pole: Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha - 2008), 1’53.927, 170.003 Km/h

Qatar Preview
For the second year in succession the first race will be run under floodlights at the Losail International Circuit in Doha and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi and last year's Rookie of the Year Jorge Lorenzo will be lining up alongside 16 other riders all out to claim motorcycling's biggest prize.

2008 saw Valentino Rossi return to the top after two difficult years, winning nine races, taking his eighth World Championship and ensuring that Fiat Yamaha took the Team title, while the Manufacturer's title when to Yamaha.

Rossi starts the season on 97 career wins - the second highest total in Grand Prix history - and although the all-time record of 122 wins, held by Giacomo Agostini, still stands some way off, with Rossi already signed with Yamaha for next year it is not too distant a target.

The irrepressible Italian turned 30 in February and has put in a strong showing during testing, finishing second in the Jerez 'qualifying' shoot-out.  He has two previous wins at the Losail desert track but last year saw him finish fifth, his second worst result of the season, in his first race with Bridgestone tires.

With a successful season on the Japanese rubber already behind him however there is nothing to hold him back this time and he will be out for victory this weekend.

2009 sees several rule changes brought in, the most major of which is a single-tire rule, with all riders now on Bridgestone tires. 

Each rider will have a maximum of twelve rear and eight front tires per weekend, excluding rain tires, with just two different compounds available to them at each race.

In an effort to reduce engine mileage and therefore costs Friday morning practice has been cancelled and all other practice sessions have been reduced to 45 minutes.  Post-race tests have also been outlawed, meaning that last week's test in Jerez was the last chance the teams will have to test this year's bikes outside of a race weekend this season.

The floodlit Qatar circuit features 3,600 light fixtures using 250, 1500 and 2500-watt bulbs and the system needs 13 megawatt generators to produce the required 5.4 million watts of power - creating enough light to cover an area equivalent to 70 football pitches.  Not very "Green", eh?

The bulbs are fixed on 1000 poles with mounting heights from 3 to 36 meters, all linked together by almost 500 kilometers of wire and supported by 300,000 kilos of concrete.

Grand Prix Results: Losail 2008
1. C.Stoner (Ducati) 42'36.587
2. J.Lorenzo (Yamaha) +5.323
3. D.Pedrosa (Honda) +10.600
5. V. Rossi (Yamaha) +13.305