2011 MotoGP Jerez Photo Gallery

Dani Pedrosa was just 0.028 seconds adrift of Stoner in the first session on Friday.

Ducati's Valentino Rossi nabbed the third-best time on Friday.

Honda's Andrea Dovizioso placed sixth in the overall practice order on Friday with a lap of 1'40.429.

Casey Stoner - Jerez 2011

John Hopkins: "I am just extremely pleased to be in the MotoGP paddock again and out there with the best riders in the world. There is a huge sense of gratitude from me because I never thought I’d be in this position so soon again in my career, so I want to say a big thanks to everyone at Rizla Suzuki for giving me this opportunity. I just want to be able to improve my position a bit more over the weekend and pay everyone back for giving me this chance.”

Jorge Lorenzo picked up fifth in the order during practice at Jerez and was more than eight-tenths off the pace of Stoner.

Valentino Rossi: We have to improve the front feeling a little; the bike that I prefer still doesn’t turn like we want it to, which means we’ll have to find a compromise between the two setups. As for my shoulder, I don’t have much strength, but in terms of endurance, it’s a little better.”

Yamaha's Ben Spies finished Friday's practice at Jerez in seventh and wasn't pleased with his progress.

Ducati's Nicky Hayden was ninth in practice at the Jerez circuit.

Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama claimed 11th fastest during practice for San Carlo Honda Gresini.

Casey Stoner - Jerez 2011

Casey Stoner took the fastest time from Jorge Lorenzo late in the qualifying session at Jerez.

Dani Pedrosa was only 0.158 seconds shy of taking pole position in Spain and will start from the front row again.

Dani Pedrosa - Jerez 2011

Casey Stoner (left) & Dani Pedrosa (right) - Jerez 2011

Andrea Dovizioso - Jerez 2011

Casey Stoner - Jerez 2011

Casey Stoner: "I will fight for a podium position and hopefully the race victory, but I never underestimate the Spanish riders, they find something extra for this race and they are very hard to beat.”

Valentino Rossi suffered a low-side fall during qualifying and will have to start the race from 12th on the grid.

Valentino Rossi wrecked the bike he had made major progress with over the weekend and will now have to start from the fifth row at Jerez.

Valentino Rossi - Jerez 2011

Hiroshi Aoyama qualified in the top-10 at Jerez.

Nicky Hayden: “Eleventh isn’t exactly the ideal starting spot, by any means. This morning we made a pretty good step forward to start with and improved the lap time pretty well there in mid-session, but this afternoon, with the wind, I didn’t go much faster than I went this morning—under two tenths, which is certainly not good enough if you want to qualify well. I’m not happy about the performance."

Valentino Rossi tipping the front wheel toward the sky during Jerez qualifying.

Marco Simoncelli rounded out the top-5 during qualifying - Jerez 2011

Viessmann Kiefer Racing's Stefan Bradl once again dominated the Moto2 field, picking up his second pole of the season.

After recovering from a major crash on Friday, Yuki Takahashi was close to overtaking Bradl in the final minutes of the session but ultimately had to settle for second.

Thomas Luthi: "First of all, we hope the weather is okay for tomorrow. The forecast looks like rain, which would be a bit of a disaster after two days of dry practice, but it will be the same for everyone. I think we have done a good job here so far. We have a good race pace, so I think we are well prepared.”

Toni Elias: "This morning it seemed that we have found a good direction but as soon as we have tried to go a little bit faster I struggled again with rear grip problems and the bike was spinning a lot. We had different directions to try but every time we tried different adjustments the bike was worse. I cannot do what I am supposed to do, especially on this racetrack which I like so much. Anyway we have got some more things to try in tomorrow’s warm up...”

Honda's Dani Pedrosa stayed on the bike and out of trouble at Jerez to finish runner-up to Lorenzo.

Nicky Hayden scored his second podium finish for Ducati after earning third.

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo picked up his first win as defending champion after overcoming difficult racing conditions in Spain.

Ben Spies: "I put it all out there and caught Dani. As soon as I passed him I knew that we had second place under control, he wouldn’t be able to get back by but I needed to not make any mistakes. Every corner after I passed him I slowed down, taking it easy then all of a sudden I was on the floor. Obviously it was my mistake, but looking at the data I was going slower than I had all race. It was one of those things; I think the tyres were the limiting factor today."

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow was a victim of Jerez's slippery surface but recovered to finish eighth.

Andrea Dovizioso: "I am very disappointed with what happened today.
We have to understand exactly the reason why, but I felt the rear tire was not working properly, moreover the set-up of the traction control was not perfect for today’s situation and this made things worse. The traction control was too ‘low’, the bike was spinning a lot and the tires overheated. With ten laps to go I felt it was dangerous to go ahead so I entered the pit lane to change tires and finish the race to get some points."

American Colin Edwards recorded a DNF at Jerez after crashing in the gravel pit.

Stoner delivered hard words to Rossi with a smile in the paddock post-crash. After the race the Aussie voiced more upset at the bias of track workers, who flocked to Rossi after the incident - leaving the Aussie to struggle and unable to re-start.

Valentino Rossi's crash took out Casey Stoner in the process.

Casey Stoner: "With the accident, I heard Valentino arriving and I wasn't worried about anyone passing me at that point in the race so I gave him plenty of room. It was a racing incident and there's not much we can do, what is more frustrating is the reaction of the stewards and their assistance for Valentino and not for me, it was unbelievable."

Moto2 podium at Jerez (from left to right): Thomas Luthi, Andrea Iannone and Simone Corsi.

John Hopkins (#21) fulfilled his goal of finishing inside the top-10 at Jerez.

One of the costliest crashes at Jerez was by San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli. The Italian was on pace to secure his first ever premier class victory when a highside on Lap 11 shattered the opportunity.

Valentino Rossi survived a controversial collision with his rival Stoner and managed a fifth-place finish.

Andrea Iannone - 2011

2011 MotoGP Jerez Photo Gallery

See photos of the 2011 Jerez Grand Prix in the 2011 MotoGP Jerez photo gallery.