Pedrosa beats Lorenzo to Mugello pole

In a session conspicuous by the absence of injured superstar Valentino Rossi, who broke his right leg in practice this morning, there was only 45 seconds left on the clock when Pedrosa crossed the line to set a 1m48.819s, pipping Lorenzo by 0.177s, after a stunningly aggressive lap.

"It was a good lap for today," said Pedrosa. "I think he [Lorenzo] has the best pace, so I'll try to stay with him. We need to be consistent for the entire laps, and push hard at the end."

Lorenzo said: "Without Valentino the races are less fun, but we have to think about ourselves. I'm losing a little bit of power for pole position - I don't have any this year! - but the important thing is the race tomorrow."

Casey Stoner also produced one of his best laps of the season to drag his Ducati onto the front row, with a 1m49.432s.

"It was probably one of my best-ever laps," said Stoner, who had languished at the foot of the top ten going into the closing stages. "It was as close to the limit to what I can get with what I have at the moment."

Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden will start fourth, just over a tenth off his fellow Ducati rider.

An excellent last-lap effort from Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards leapfrogged him ahead of the impressive Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) into fifth. Edwards' team-mate Ben Spies starts seventh, another man to improve late on, and he demoted Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) and Aleix Espargaro (Pramac Ducati).

Hiroshi Aoyama will start 10th, the Interwetten Honda rider having been as high as fifth early on.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m48.819s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m48.996s  + 0.177s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m49.432s  + 0.613s
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m49.546s  + 0.727s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m49.683s  + 0.864s
 6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m49.737s  + 0.918s
 7.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m49.861s  + 1.042s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m50.065s  + 1.246s
 9.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m50.168s  + 1.349s
10.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m50.224s  + 1.405s
11.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m50.434s  + 1.615s
12.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m50.479s  + 1.660s
13.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m50.561s  + 1.742s
14.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m50.664s  + 1.845s
15.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m50.970s  + 2.151s
16.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m53.243s  + 4.424s