Stoner claims fourth consecutive pole

The Ducati Marlboro rider beat the track's lap record, set by rival Dani Pedrosa in 2006 with a 990cc Repsol Honda, with 18 minutes of the one-hour session to go, and further improved twice to set a final time of 1:21.067.

Best of the rest, 0.353 behind the Australian, was championship leader Pedrosa himself, who as the time had already expired managed to snatch second from Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards, who himself had just taken it from JiR Honda's Andrea Dovizioso.

Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo will start the race from the fifth slot on the grid, with Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda rounding up the second row.

Lorenzo's teammate Valentino Rossi struggled with his front Bridgestone tyre and had to be content with seventh-best, almost eight tenths behind Stoner.

Nicky Hayden on the second works Honda qualified ninth, ahead of the two Honda Gresinis of Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:21.067
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:21.420  + 0.353
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:21.519  + 0.452
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:21.656  + 0.589
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:21.795  + 0.728
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:21.821  + 0.754
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:21.845  + 0.778
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:21.876  + 0.809
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:21.876  + 0.853
10.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:21.977  + 0.910
11.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:22.126  + 1.059
12.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:22.256  + 1.189
13.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.542  + 1.475
14.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:22.601  + 1.534
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:22.938  + 1.871
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:23.131  + 2.064
17.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:23.158  + 2.091