Edwards takes pole in China

The American had taken provisional pole around the 40 minute mark of the hour-long session, but was soon demoted by Ducati's Casey Stoner. Stoner lowered his best again in the final ten minutes before it was almost immediately beaten by Valentino Rossi.

Rossi went faster again after the chequered flag, but as the session was ending Edwards took four tenths off Rossi's earlier mark to take pole position with a 1:58.139. His former teammate Valentino Rossi will start alongside him on the front row, along with 2007 champion Casey Stoner who was unable to improve on his final lap.

Heading the second row of the grid is the remarkable Jorge Lorenzo, almost unable to walk when not on his bike, yet able to achieve impressive feats while on it, just over half a second slower than Edwards.

Fifth fastest was Dani Pedrosa, fast on his Repsol Honda early in qualifying but unable to find that little bit extra at the end, just edging out a strong performance by Loris Capirossi on his Rizla Suzuki.

James Toseland looked set for a top-five start with just a couple of minutes remaining, but the final flurry pushed him down to seventh, just ahead of Chris Vermeulen and Randy de Puniet.

Like teammate Pedrosa, Nicky Hayden looked set for a better result than his tenth-fastest time, two places ahead of Marco Melandri on the second factory Ducati.

Shinya Nakano's efforts in practice showed more promise than his eventual qualifying position of 13th, one place better than John Hopkins who had set the second-fastest time just after the 30 minute mark of the session.

   
Pos Rider                 Bike      Tyre    Time         Gap
 1. Colin Edwards         Yamaha     (M)    1:58.139         
 2. Valentino Rossi       Yamaha     (B)    1:58.494  +0.355 
 3. Casey Stoner          Ducati     (B)    1:58.591  +0.452 
 4. Jorge Lorenzo         Yamaha     (M)    1:58.711  +0.572 
 5. Daniel Pedrosa        Honda      (M)    1:58.855  +0.716 
 6. Loris Capirossi       Suzuki     (B)    1:58.941  +0.802 
 7. James Toseland        Yamaha     (M)    1:59.254  +1.115 
 8. Chris Vermeulen       Suzuki     (B)    1:59.325  +1.186 
 9. Randy de Puniet       Honda      (M)    1:59.357  +1.218 
10. Nicky Hayden          Honda      (M)    1:59.507  +1.368 
11. Andrea Dovizioso      Honda      (M)    1:59.559  +1.420 
12. Marco Melandri        Ducati     (B)    1:59.678  +1.539 
13. Shinya Nakano         Honda      (B)    1:59.716  +1.577 
14. John Hopkins          Kawasaki   (B)    1:59.740  +1.601 
15. Toni Elias            Ducati     (B)    1:59.933  +1.794 
16. Alex de Angelis       Honda      (B)    2:00.316  +2.177 
17. Sylvain Guintoli      Ducati     (B)    2:00.760  +2.621 
18. Anthony West          Kawasaki   (B)    2:00.838  +2.699