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Casey Stoner secures Italian Grand Prix pole between showers at Mugello

Casey Stoner claimed his fifth pole position of the 2011 MotoGP season with a record lap in the very brief period of dry running that Italian Grand Prix qualifying allowed

The whole field came out on slicks on a drying track as soon as the session began, and by the halfway mark conditions were good enough for Honda rider Stoner to put in a 1m48.034s - narrowly beating Jorge Lorenzo's practice mark to become the fastest ever MotoGP lap of Mugello.

Shortly afterwards, the rain returned, starting as a persistent drizzle before getting harder, and that prevented anyone from improving. Indeed before a handful of riders emerged to try out the now fully wet track in the last five minutes, the circuit was completely empty for a long period.

Ben Spies followed up his Assen win by taking second for Yamaha, while Marco Simoncelli's third place on the Gresini Honda ended a string of five straight grands prix in which he had started first or second.

A frustrated Lorenzo did not manage to get a perfect lap in between the rainfall so ended up fifth, behind Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, and ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow.

Dani Pedrosa took ninth on his return for Honda after three races on the sidelines.

Seven-time Mugello MotoGP winner Valentino Rossi might have hoped his first appearance at his home race on an Italian bike would have been a joyful occasion, but his very tough campaign on the Ducati continued.

He will start way down in 12th - his GP11.1 outqualified not only by factory team-mate Nicky Hayden, but by the customer Ducatis of Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m48.034s
 2.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m48.479s  + 0.445s
 3.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m48.485s  + 0.451s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m48.694s  + 0.660s
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m48.756s  + 0.722s
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m48.974s  + 0.940s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m49.021s  + 0.987s
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m49.398s  + 1.364s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m49.509s  + 1.475s
10.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m49.663s  + 1.629s
11.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m49.678s  + 1.644s
12.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m49.902s  + 1.868s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m50.156s  + 2.122s
14.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m50.460s  + 2.426s
15.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m50.651s  + 2.617s
16.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m50.742s  + 2.708s

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