Casey Stoner enjoying 'near perfect' weekend at Aragon

The championship leader dominated the session, setting a new circuit record as he comfortably beat Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa to the top spot.

"Everything has gone almost perfectly this weekend," said Stoner, whose title rival Jorge Lorenzo is only fourth on the grid.

"I've been really happy from the start. The bike's been very close to what we want. We had to move a few things this afternoon because the temperature went up from this morning and yesterday, and it was our first chance to run in the hot conditions. We had to change to change the transfer and get everything a little bit more comfortable.

"But in general everything's been going really well. On old tyres, new tyres, the bike in general just seems to be flowing on this circuit."

Stoner set his eventual pole time on his spare bike after a minor crash.

"We had a little bit of a mishap on the soft tyre," he said. "We did the first lap and I was a little bit cautious in the first sector just to get the tyre warmed up.

"The next lap I went to push a little harder and I was a lot quicker and had a lot more grip than I had the laps before. When I went to get on the brakes I felt I had too much lean angle, and so I picked the bike up but I didn't really find anymore grip so I went off over the astroturf and just kept locking the front. So I had to lay it down before we hit the barriers.

"Unfortunately we couldn't get bike one started, but we came back, got bike two and went faster."

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Ben Spies (Yamaha) will line up alongside Stoner on the front row tomorrow.