Lorenzo claims pole at Mugello

His Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi will have to start his bid for an eighth Mugello win from the second row, having been pushed back to fourth by Casey Stoner and the superb Loris Capirossi.

The fourth title contender, Dani Pedrosa, salvaged eighth having been near the back earlier on as he struggled with pain from a hip injury sustained when he was jolted on a bump in practice.

Yamaha held a provisional one-two-three for much of the session as the riders worked on race preparation early on, before Stoner's Ducati hit the front with a quarter of the hour to go.

Rossi then sent his home crowd into raptures by pushing the Australian off the top spot, before Capirossi sprung a surprise by grabbing provisional pole for Suzuki with two minutes remaining.

However as Capirossi received congratulations from his crew in the garage, Stoner and both Yamahas were all on their last flying laps. Lorenzo and Stoner duly demoted the Suzuki to third, with Lorenzo edging out the former champion by 0.021 seconds to become the first man to earn a second pole in 2009.

Rossi failed to improve sufficiently on his last run and had to settle for fourth, alongside another strong qualifying effort from LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet, and Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards.

Andrea Dovizioso was the best factory Honda rider in seventh, as his team-mate Pedrosa eventually scraped through to eighth place after earlier languishing near the back due to the pain from his injury.

Toni Elias threatened to challenge for the first few rows for Gresini Honda, only to crash heavily in the closing minutes, leaving him eighth.

Scot Honda rider Yuki Takahashi completed the top ten after his best MotoGP qualifying performance yet.

Among those with less to celebrate were Le Mans hero Marco Melandri, who was only 15th on the Hayate Kawasaki, and Ducati's Nicky Hayden, who took a lowly 16th for his team's home race.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           1m48.987s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           1m49.008s  + 0.021s
 3.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           1m49.121s  + 0.134s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           1m49.148s  + 0.161s
 5.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        1m49.499s  + 0.512s
 6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    1m49.547s  + 0.560s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            1m49.648s  + 0.661s
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            1m50.073s  + 1.086s
 9.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    1m50.078s  + 1.091s
10.  Yuki Takahashi    Scot Honda       1m50.305s  + 1.318s
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           1m50.405s  + 1.418s
12.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    1m50.448s  + 1.461s
13.  Niccolo Canepa    Pramac Ducati    1m50.528s  + 1.541s
14.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    1m50.537s  + 1.550s
15.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  1m50.710s  + 1.723s
16.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           1m50.924s  + 1.937s
17.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    1m51.008s  + 2.021s