Stoner: I'm chasing down the title

The Australian was delighted to produce another dominant qualifying performance and is hoping to add a third straight win tomorrow, following his successes at Assen and Donington Park which have left him just 29 points adrift of championship leader Dani Pedrosa.

"Four in a row, we're really trying to chase down this championship," Stoner told Italia1 television. "I struggled on the last two corners of the track where I was spinning up a lot and there was no way I expected to get pole with that last lap. So to come round and pull enough of an advantage through T3 and hold it for T4 made me very happy."

Stoner added that he was working hard to make sure he has the right tyres for whatever conditions tomorrow's race is run under, with the temperature having fluctuated significantly so far this weekend and rain having fallen this morning.

"The temperature was 15 degrees lower today so the hard compounds we were using yesterday are struggling a little bit in these conditions," he said. "The race could be a little bit difficult so we've been making sure we can use the same tyres for the race tomorrow.

"We don't know what the weather is going to do. I'd prefer the race to be a little bit warmer, but we have a good situation at the moment in both conditions, so we'll wait and see."