Stoner claims Laguna Seca pole

The Marlboro Ducati rider led throughout the first half of the session, until he was overhauled first by Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, and then by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

But Stoner reaffirmed his and his bike's great form by setting pole with one minute of the session to go, and further improving on it with an extra lap on the same set of qualifying tyres. His final pole position time was 1:22.292.

However, the main story of the day was Marco Melandri.

The Italian had a big crash ten minutes into the session, when he hit Team KR's Kurtis Roberts from behind, while the American was slowly running on the racing line on the penultimate, fast corner of the Laguna Seca circuit.

Melandri took avoiding action resulting in a light collision that made him slightly lock his front wheel. Both riders managed to stay on their bikes, but Melandri was forced to run through the gravel trap.

With the wall fast approaching, Melandri threw himself off his Honda Gresini bike and tumbled, coming to rest just before the end of the gravel trap.

After laying on the ground for a few minutes, with the session red-flagged to allow Melandri to be attended to and the tyre barriers to be sorted out, the rider was put on a stretcher and taken to the medical centre, where he was deemed fit enough to rejoin the qualifying session with just a bruised left ankle.

The session was restarted after 20 minutes, and when Melandri was driven back into the paddock, instead of entering the Gresini garage on his legs, he was carried on the shoulders of one of his mechanics.

When he later rejoined the track, he improved on his best lap to qualify in tenth place, seven tenths of a second slower than pole.

Pedrosa will start the race from second place, the Spaniard being two tenths slower than Stoner. Vermeulen will complete the front row with a time 0.089 seconds slower than Pedrosa.

Reigning champion Nicky Hayden could do no better than fourth with the other works Honda. The Kentucky rider, who won the last two editions of this race, will lead seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) in fifth.

Sixth spot will be occupied by Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi, who finished ahead of John Hopkins.

The Rizla Suzuki rider made vehement gestures towards Honda LCR's Carlos Checa near the end of the session. The American felt he was slowed down by the Spaniard and mimicked kicking him while the two were abreast on their bikes.

Rossi's teammate Colin Edwards qualified eighth, with Shinya Nakano on the Konica Minolta Honda in ninth and Melandri rounding up the top ten.

Hayden's brother Roger Lee, with a Kawasaki wild card, could not show the same form he displayed in free practice and set the 16th best time. The other two Kawasakis outqualified him with Anthony West in 12th and Randy de Puniet in 13th.

Toni Elias's stand-in Miguel Duhamel qualified 19th with his Honda Gresini, while Alex Hofmann's substitute Chaz Davies could do no better than 20th and last with the Pramac d'Antin Ducati.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:22.292
 2.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:22.501  + 0.209
 3.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:22.590  + 0.298
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:22.624  + 0.332
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:22.683  + 0.391
 6.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:22.914  + 0.622
 7.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:22.933  + 0.641
 8.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:22.943  + 0.651
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:23.006  + 0.714
10.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:23.018  + 0.726
11.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:23.036  + 0.744
12.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:23.091  + 0.799
13.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:23.113  + 0.821
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:23.207  + 0.915
15.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:23.263  + 0.971
16.  Roger Lee Hayden  Kawasaki  1:23.425  + 1.133
17.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:23.557  + 1.265
18.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:23.662  + 1.370
19.  Miguel Duhamel    Honda     1:23.923  + 1.631
20.  Chaz Davies       Ducati    1:24.098  + 1.806