Lorenzo secures pole at Motegi

Casey Stoner led the early running on race tyres, before Randy de Puniet became the first to set a time on qualifiers just after halfway through the session.

Over the next fifteen minutes the times steadily fell, before with sixteen minutes remaining, Stoner took seven-tenths of a second off to put in a 1:45.831.

Two minutes later Lorenzo went less than a tenth faster with a 1:45.750, and despite two more attempts Stoner failed to improve. No-one else could match Lorenzo either.

However, it didn't stop Lorenzo going out and beating his own time after the chequered flag had fallen, lowering his own mark by two-tenths to 1:45.543.

Stoner's effort was good enough to stay in second, with a late lap by Nicky Hayden bumping himself onto the front row in third. This pushed Valentino Rossi down to fourth, alongside Dani Pedrosa and Loris Capirossi who continued with his strong Motegi form.

After running fast in practice and signing for Honda for next season yesterday, Andrea Dovizioso didn't have a great qualifying, and will start from fourteenth, nearly 1.4 seconds off the pace.

A crash in the last minute of the session hurt any hopes Alex de Angelis had of improving, ending the session in eighteenth, but still almost a second clear of Suzuki's Kosuke Akiyoshi who qualified last, over three seconds off Lorenzo's pole position.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:45.543
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:45.831  + 0.288
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:45.971  + 0.428
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:46.060  + 0.517
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)  1:46.303  + 0.760
 6.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:46.450  + 0.907
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:46.496  + 0.953
 8.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:46.574  + 1.011
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:46.616  + 1.073
10.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:46.863  + 1.320
11.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:46.888  + 1.345
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:46.904  + 1.361
13.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:46.907  + 1.364
14.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:46.958  + 1.415
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:47.400  + 1.857
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:47.475  + 1.932
17.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:47.669  + 2.126
18.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:47.680  + 2.137
19.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Suzuki    (B)  1:48.671  + 3.128