Pedrosa grabs French GP pole

The Repsol Honda rider set his fastest lap of 1:32.647 in the last minute of the session, after his Tech 3 Yamaha rival, who was 0.127 seconds slower, had held the top spot for the previous 20 minutes.

This is Pedrosa's first pole position of the year, and by beating Edwards he ended the stranglehold Michelin-shod Yamahas had on qualifying this season, with the American and Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo having taken every previous pole this year.

The front row was completed by reigning champion Casey Stoner, who qualified his Ducati Marlboro in third with a time 0.347 slower than Pedrosa, but showed impressive race pace when on non-qualifying tyres.

The two Fiat Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo qualified in fourth and fifth position respectively.

Lorenzo, who is still recovering from the injuries sustained in an accident sustained in China two weeks ago, went through a gravel trap at high speed midway through the session.

He luckily just managed to stay on the bike as it hopped back on the track, after suffering no consequences in crashes in both yesterday's and this morning's free practice sessions.

The Spanish rookie also made a wrong turn towards the end of the session and went down a road used by the sportscar 24-hour race, forcing him to step off the bike to turn it around.

Nicky Hayden qualified his Repsol Honda in sixth place, ahead of James Toseland's Tech 3 Yamaha in seventh and Chris Vermeulen's Rizla Suzuki in eighth.

Kawasaki's John Hopkins will start the race from ninth, with JiR Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso completing the top ten.

Marco Melandri in the second works Ducati qualified in a lowly 17th place, over two seconds behind his teammate Stoner

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:32.647
 2.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:32.774  + 0.127
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:32.994  + 0.347
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:33.157  + 0.510
 5.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:33.269  + 0.622
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:33.286  + 0.639
 7.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:33.396  + 0.749
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:33.400  + 0.793
 9.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:33.628  + 0.981
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:33.689  + 1.042
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:33.707  + 1.060
12.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:33.723  + 1.076
13.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:34.077  + 1.430
14.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:34.561  + 1.914
15.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:34.670  + 2.023
16.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:34.747  + 2.100
17.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:35.082  + 2.434
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:35.349  + 2.702