Stoner snatches home pole, Rossi crashes

While the outgoing world champion will start from first position, the newly-crowned 2008 champion Valentino Rossi is only 12th on the grid after a heavy crash.

As the session drew to a close, it appeared one of a group of Michelin riders would take pole position, Honda's Nicky Hayden setting a time of 1:28.756 with eight minutes remaining, with Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo just two tenths of a second behind him.

But having set the pace early in the session on race tyres, the Australian went out one more time as the session concluded, and managed a time of 1:28.665, setting a new circuit record, the old record having been broken by one of Hayden's efforts earlier in the session.

Lorenzo also was on track and improved after the chequered flag had fallen, with a time of 1:28.734 returning him to second position, less than a tenth off pole. Hayden's earlier 'pole' time was good enough for third, just 0.022 of a second slower than Lorenzo.

LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet put in a superb lap at the end of the session to secure the first position on the second row, followed by James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha) and the second Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa.

After topping the times halfway through the session, Colin Edwards (Tech 3) was only able to set the seventh fastest time, despite finding another half a second from that session-leading lap.

However, he will line up ahead of Valentino Rossi, who hadn't set a pole-contending lap when he crashed his Yamaha after going off the track exiting Southern Loop with fifteen minutes remaining.

The 2008 world champion fell hard into the gravel, but returned to the pits before the session ended. He returned to the track in the closing two minutes of the session, but rode around rather than putting in an attempt to move up the order.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:28.665
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:28.734  + 0.069
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:28.756  + 0.091
 4.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:28.808  + 0.143
 5.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:29.031  + 0.366
 6.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)  1:29.277  + 0.612
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:29.513  + 0.848
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:29.558  + 0.893
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:29.710  + 1.045
10.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:29.925  + 1.260
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:29.942  + 1.277
12.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:30.014  + 1.349
13.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:30.202  + 1.537
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:30.297  + 1.632
15.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:30.545  + 1.880
16.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:31.157  + 2.492
17.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:31.939  + 3.274
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:31.995  + 3.330