Pedrosa takes third pole in a row

For much of the second half of the session, Kawasaki's Anthony West sat comfortably on pole with a time of 2:02.202. But in the final ten minutes the mad rush began, with Casey Stoner first to take over the top position with a 2:02.144 with eight minutes remaining in the session.

There it stayed until the very end of the session. Nicky Hayden got close but couldn't beat it before Stoner lowered his earlier time to a 2:01.918. There were still challengers on track however, even if the chequered flag had already fallen.

Pedrosa was one of them and he managed to sneak under Stoner's effort with a time of 2:01.877, pushing Stoner down to second as Pedrosa took his third consecutive pole position.

Marco Melandri was just a tick slower with a 2:01.944 and will line up third on the grid, less than a tenth of a second off pole.

In all the excitement Randy de Puniet snuck under the radar and bumped his own teammate down to fifth with a time of 2:02.107. Just behind West and completing the second row is Nicky Hayden.

The third row is headed by Chris Vermeulen on his Suzuki, who with two minutes remaining was set for a front row start on an all-Australian front row.

Toni Elias follows a tenth further back, while Valentino Rossi ended up a disappointing ninth after showing pace in the closing minutes, and looked capable of a possible front row start on his final lap before aborting it.

Tenth for John Hopkins was a big drop after setting third fastest time in this morning's practice, but both he and Loris Capirossi in 11th are less than a second off Pedrosa's pace.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  2:01.877
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:01.918  + 0.041
 3.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  2:01.944  + 0.067
 4.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.107  + 0.230
 5.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.202  + 0.325
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  2:02.225  + 0.348
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:02.301  + 0.424
 8.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  2:02.432  + 0.555
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  2:02.466  + 0.589
10.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  2:02.697  + 0.820
11.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  2:02.708  + 0.831
12.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  2:03.022  + 1.145
13.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:03.040  + 1.163
14.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  2:03.233  + 1.356
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  2:03.408  + 1.531
16.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  2:03.525  + 1.648
17.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    (B)  2:04.197  + 2.320
18.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  2:04.314  + 2.437
19.  Nobuatsu Aoki     Suzuki    (B)  2:04.604  + 2.727
20.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  2:05.404  + 3.527