Stoner storms to Qatar pole

The result came as no surprise after the Australian had been quickest in all three practice sessions, though his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa made Stoner work for it.

Stoner had been quickest almost from the outset, but going into the closing stages Pedrosa managed to edge ahead with a 1m54.758s.

He did not stay in front long before Stoner put in a 1m54.375s - and then made his pole position even more emphatic by lapping in 1m54.137s a few minutes later.

That time stood for pole, as although Pedrosa improved, he remained 0.205 seconds adrift.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo could only get within 0.8s of Stoner as he completed the front row on the best of the Yamahas.

He was just ahead of Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli and Ben Spies on the second Yamaha.

Valentino Rossi's Ducati career got off to a low-key start with ninth on the grid. The seven-time MotoGP champion was not even the fastest Ducati, as Aspar's Hector Barbera repeated his shock practice form with sixth on the grid. Rossi's factory team-mate Nicky Hayden was way back in 13th.

While Stoner and Pedrosa gave Honda a one-two, the works team's third rider Andrea Dovizioso was thoroughly outpaced by his team-mates. Only 11th going into the final three minutes, he eventually salvaged seventh.

Cal Crutchlow was one of the stars of the session. Despite suffering an unpleasant finger injury in testing at the start of the week, the World Superbike convert took an excellent eighth on the grid for his MotoGP debut - two places ahead of his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards.

Only 16 bikes will take the start, with Suzuki absent after its sole rider Alvaro Bautista broke his left leg in a practice crash, and efforts to bring in John Hopkins, Nobuatsu Aoki or a Moto2 rider as a short-notice subtitute did not pay off.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m54.137s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m54.342s  + 0.205s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m54.947s  + 0.810s
 4.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m54.988s  + 0.851s
 5.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m55.095s  + 0.958s
 6.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m55.223s  + 1.086s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m55.229s  + 1.092s
 8.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m55.578s  + 1.441s
 9.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m55.637s  + 1.500s
10.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m55.647s  + 1.510s
11.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m55.656s  + 1.519s
12.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m55.724s  + 1.587s
13.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m55.881s  + 1.744s
14.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m56.323s  + 2.186s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m56.665s  + 2.528s
16.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m57.992s  + 3.855s