Hayden snatches pole from Stoner

The Repsol Honda rider set a fastest lap of 1:36:301 with just over a minute of the session to go, beating Stoner by only four hundredths of second after the Australian points leader looked certain of increasing on this year's tally of five poles.

Seven-time champion Valentino Rossi had to settle for the last spot of the front row, with his Fiat Yamaha ending up 0.275 behind Hayden.

Makoto Tamada demonstrated the good form of his Dunlop qualifying tyres was no fluke in practice by taking the fourth spot with his Yamaha Tech 3, four tenths behind pole.

Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa finished the session with the fifth fastest time, over half a second behind the American. The Spaniard was 0.075 seconds quicker than Rossi's teammate Colin Edwards in sixth.

Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri ended qualifying with the seventh fastest time, ahead of Yamaha Tech 3's Sylvain Guintoli, Melandri's teammate Toni Elias, and Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins rounding up the top ten.

The other works Suzuki of Chris Vermeulen finished 12th, while Loris Capirossi's Ducati could do no better than 15th. The Kawasakis of Anthony West and Randy de Puniet had to settle for 16th and 18th respectively.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:36.301        
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:36.341 + 0.040
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:36.576 + 0.275
 4.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  1:36.736 + 0.435
 5.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  1:36.829 + 0.528
 6.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:36.904 + 0.603
 7.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  1:37.157 + 0.856
 8.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:37.189 + 0.888
 9.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  1:37.246 + 0.945
10.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:37.280 + 0.979
11.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:37.296 + 0.995
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:37.365 + 1.064
13.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:37.530 + 1.229
14.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:37.550 + 1.249
15.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:37.733 + 1.432
16.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:37.885 + 1.584
17.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    (B)  1:37.959 + 1.658
18.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:38.271 + 1.970
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  1:39.017 + 2.716