Rossi grabs pole from Lorenzo in wet

Just when proceedings looked settled in the young Spaniard's favour, and with the one hour session time already expired, the championship leader pulled together the perfect lap of 1m32.520s to beat Lorenzo's time by a massive 0.640 seconds.

Casey Stoner completes the front row, despite his Ducati being over 1.2s slower than the leading Yamaha. The Australian will start just in front of team-mate Nicky Hayden, who seems to have come to grips with his machinery in these last couple of weeks.

The Kentucky man, however, was at the centre of a scary accident with eight minutes remaining. While overtaking Niccolo Canepa on a left-hander, he lost control of his bike and suffered a high-side that flung his body onto the Italian's back.

Both riders crashed in the gravel on the outside of Turn 7, with Pramac Ducati's Canepa needing the help of a stretcher to leave the scene.

That same turn saw many other riders crashing viciously during the session: first it was Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), then it was Canepa on his own, followed by Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki), and Gresini Honda team-mates Toni Elias and Alex de Angelis within five minutes of each other.

After the Hayden-Canepa crash, Dani Pedrosa also went off at the same spot, but managed to stay on his Honda, while Loris Capirossi crashed his Suzuki when time ran out.

De Angelis and de Puniet will round up the second row of the grid alongside Hayden, followed by Colin Edwards's Tech 3 Yamaha and Pedrosa. Capirossi will start the race from the ninth spot, ahead of Mika Kallio (Pramac Ducati) in tenth.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           1m32.520s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           1m33.160s  + 0.640s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           1m33.759s  + 1.239s
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           1m34.404s  + 1.884s
 5.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    1m34.490s  + 1.970s
 6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        1m34.564s  + 2.044s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    1m34.607s  + 2.087s
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            1m34.725s  + 2.205s
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           1m34.741s  + 2.221s
10.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    1m34.771s  + 2.251s
11.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            1m34.892s  + 2.372s
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           1m34.937s  + 2.417s
13.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  1m34.938s  + 2.418s
14.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    1m35.005s  + 2.485s
15.  Niccolo Canepa    Pramac Ducati    1m36.012s  + 3.492s
16.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda       1m36.055s  + 3.535s
17.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    1m36.531s  + 4.011s