Stoner claims pole for home race

The Australian Ducati rider was dominant for most of the hour, and fended off a strong late challenge from Yamaha's Valentino Rossi.

The result is only Stoner's second pole position of his illness-marred season.

While Rossi failed to get pole, he will be comforted by his title rival and team-mate Jorge Lorenzo's continued struggles. Lorenzo only qualified fourth, a scant 0.001s behind Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

Stoner was fastest throughout the race practice part of the session, extending his advantage to half a second before the flying laps started at the end and Rossi managed to close in.

Rossi deposed the local hero with six minutes to go, edging ahead by just 0.075s. But Stoner soon responded, squeezing back in front by a tiny 0.005s two minutes from the end.

Both stayed out hoping to squeeze some more speed from their existing tyres, and while Rossi failed to gain any time, Stoner managed to extend his pole margin to an only slightly more comfortable 0.050s.

Pedrosa recovered from a mid-session crash to take third. The Honda slid to the ground at high speed going into the Southern Loop as drizzle briefly fell. Despite tumbling across the grass, Pedrosa quickly got up unhurt and returned to the pits for his spare bike.

Lorenzo failed to qualify on the front row for the first time all year, but having languished further down the top ten for much of the hour, fourth still counted as damage limitation.

Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis also crashed during the session, falling at MG corner early on. But he too recovered rapidly and built on his promising practice form by qualifying sixth behind Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha).

Nicky Hayden put the second factory Ducati seventh, ahead of LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet, Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio, and Andrea Dovizioso on the second works Honda.

MotoGP's other Australian rider Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) had a terrible session in his last home appearance before heading back to Superbikes. He struggled for speed all afternoon and will start on the penultimate row, ahead of only Scot Honda's Gabor Talmacsi.

Only 16 bikes will take the start tomorrow, with Pramac Ducati's Niccolo Canepa sidelined by the arm injuries he suffered in his practice crash.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           1m30.341s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           1m30.391s  + 0.050s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            1m31.070s  + 0.729s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           1m31.071s  + 0.730s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    1m31.096s  + 0.755s
 6.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    1m31.260s  + 0.919s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           1m31.325s  + 0.984s
 8.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        1m31.380s  + 1.039s
 9.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    1m31.384s  + 1.043s
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            1m31.472s  + 1.131s
11.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    1m31.640s  + 1.299s
12.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    1m31.722s  + 1.381s
13.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           1m31.873s  + 1.532s
14.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  1m32.190s  + 1.849s
15.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           1m32.338s  + 1.997s
16.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda       1m32.752s  + 2.411s