Rossi stuns with Shanghai pole

Though never far off the pace in the three practice sessions, no-one was expecting the pace Rossi showed in the last ten minutes of qualifying, putting in two mid-1:58 laps to finish qualifying nearly a second ahead of his nearest rival.

Alongside Rossi will be Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins, his strong practice pace no match for Rossi's searing qualifying effort. Colin Edwards completes the front row, nearly a second slower than his pole-setting teammate.

Despite the large gap between first and second, just over a second separates Hopkins and fourteenth-fastest Loris Capirossi on his Marlboro Ducati.

John Hopkins set the early pace, with Casey Stoner next to top the times before Randy de Puniet set the first sub-two minute lap for the weekend with a time 1:59.985.

With around twenty minutes remaining, one of the favourites for pole, Casey Stoner, struck problems with his main bike and parked it, rushing back to the pits to head out on the spare.

Though Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards and Hopkins got close to the time as the session wound down to the final ten minutes, no-one was able to beat it, de Puniet still on pole with ten minutes remaining.

Seconds later, Valentino Rossi shattered de Puniet's (and everyone else's) hopes when he went over 1.5 seconds faster, setting a time of 1:58.424, with Marco Melandri putting in a 1:59.884 seconds later to move into second position.

Everyone returned to the pits for one last attempt at pole in the final minutes, Rossi not quite able to beat his earlier effort as Edwards demoted Melandri, seconds before Hopkins did the same to Edwards, while Stoner recovered from his earlier drama to just pip Dani Pedrosa to fourth place.

Pos  Rider              Bike      Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi    Yamaha    1:58.424  
 2.  John Hopkins       Suzuki    1:59.315  + 0.891
 3.  Colin Edwards      Yamaha    1:59.406  + 0.982
 4.  Casey Stoner       Ducati    1:59.516  + 1.092
 5.  Dani Pedrosa       Honda     1:59.602  + 1.178
 6.  Marco Melandri     Honda     1:59.863  + 1.439
 7.  Randy De Puniet    Kawasaki  1:59.985  + 1.561
 8.  Alex Barros        Ducati    2:00.052  + 1.628
 9.  Nicky Hayden       Honda     2:00.087  + 1.663
10.  Shinya Nakano      Honda     2:00.157  + 1.733
11.  Alex Hofmann       Ducati    2:00.175  + 1.751
12.  Toni Elias         Honda     2:00.205  + 1.781
13.  Carlos Checa       Honda     2:00.319  + 1.895
14.  Loris Capirossi    Ducati    2:00.369  + 1.945
15.  Chris Vermeulen    Suzuki    2:00.680  + 2.256
16.  Kenny Roberts Jr   KR        2:00.763  + 2.339
17.  Sylvain Guintoli   Yamaha    2:01.157  + 2.733
18.  Makoto Tamada      Yamaha    2:01.178  + 2.754