Rossi leads Yamaha 1-2 in qualifying

The pair were divided by 15 hundredths of a second, and were followed by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa in third, the Ducatis of Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi in fourth and fifth respectively, and by Nicky Hayden on the other works Honda in sixth.

The first half of the session saw Capirossi taking an early lead, but he was then pipped by Rossi for first and then by Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins for second.

When Pedrosa managed to get second place behind Rossi, he was soon demoted to third by Capirossi himself, whose time was then bettered by Stoner. Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki then managed to slot between the two Ducatis.

Half-way through the session Randy de Puniet took the top spot, with a time six tenths faster than Rossi. It wasn't until 12 minutes of the session remained that Rossi shot back to the top of the timesheets with a time six tenths faster than the Frenchman.

The Kawasaki rider's best time didn't improve for the rest of session, but was good enough for eighth spot in the end just behind Hopkins.

While the other riders were swapping positions behind Rossi, the Italian put his pole beyond anyone's reach with four minutes to go, when he went a further three tenths quicker than his own time.

With the flag dropping, Capirossi took second spot, but was immediately demoted to his final fifth position first by Pedrosa, then Stoner, and finally Edwards.

Hayden lingered at the bottom of the times for most of the session, managing to get into the top ten with 12 minutes remaining, and finally finding the sixth fastest time at the end.

Marco Melandri qualified a disappointed 14th, with Honda Gresini's teammate Toni Elias in tenth, just behind Vermeulen.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:52.795
 2.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:52.944  + 0.149
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:52.971  + 0.176
 4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:53.375  + 0.580
 5.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:53.559  + 0.764
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:53.613  + 0.818
 7.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:53.637  + 0.842
 8.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:53.706  + 0.911
 9.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:53.771  + 0.976
10.  Toni Elias        Honda     1:53.835  + 1.040
11.  Olivier Jacque    Kawasaki  1:53.847  + 1.052
12.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:53.988  + 1.193
13.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:54.082  + 1.287
14.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:54.143  + 1.348
15.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:54.206  + 1.411
16.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:54.221  + 1.426
17.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:54.421  + 1.626
18.  Kenny Roberts Jr  KR        1:54.527  + 1.732
19.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:54.845  + 2.050