Simoncelli grabs maiden MotoGP pole

After Stoner's clean sweep of fastest practice times, the Honda rider had looked odds on for his fourth pole in five races as he dominated the majority of the hour - staying upright amid some spectacular moments - and seemed to be leaving his rivals to battle for second.

But then Simoncelli blasted to a 1m42.413s time on his penultimate lap, to give Gresini Honda its first pole position since the end of the 2005 season and his first in MotoGP. He made a mistake on his next lap, but pole was secure. In the wake of his clash with Dani Pedrosa in France and recent arguments with Jorge Lorenzo - incidents that have led to him receiving plenty of boos from the crowd this weekend - for Simoncelli's first MotoGP pole to come in Spain was highly ironic.

Stoner held second, with Jorge Lorenzo beating his Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies to third, after the American had sat in a provisional second for while.

Andrea Dovizioso had to settle for fifth on the second Honda, with Cal Crutchlow doing a great job to represent Tech 3 Yamaha solo in a brilliant sixth place.

Valentino Rossi took his best qualifying position for Ducati so far in seventh, just ahead of his team-mate Nicky Hayden.

Suzuki will start in the top 10 for the first time this season with Alvaro Bautista taking ninth, followed by Aspar Ducati's Hector Barbera.

Karel Abraham had the only fall of the session, and initially looked like he might be in doubt for the race as he headed for the medical centre with pain in his left wrist. But the Czech rookie was able to rejoin on his Cardion AB Ducati later in the session.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m42.413s
 2.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m42.429s  + 0.016s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m42.728s  + 0.315s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m42.742s  + 0.329s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m42.749s  + 0.336s
 6.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m43.202s  + 0.789s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m43.223s  + 0.810s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m43.228s  + 0.815s
 9.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m43.447s  + 1.034s
10.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m43.656s  + 1.243s
11.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m43.734s  + 1.321s
12.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m43.764s  + 1.351s
13.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m44.068s  + 1.655s
14.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m44.510s  + 2.097s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m45.661s  + 3.248s