Stoner surprised to be on pole

The championship leader had produced his eventual pole time just before a heavy rain shower that struck with half an hour remaining.

It seemed that the grid would be decided by the times already set, but the track dried sufficiently for riders to improve in the last ten minutes.

Stoner reckoned he could also have gone faster if he hadn't worn out his wet weather Bridgestones on the drying surface before his last lap - and was therefore amazed that no-one else had managed to beat him.

"If I'd had a better rear tyre on, because the one I had was a little bit destroyed, I could have gone faster than my pole position time," he told BBC television.

"With that in mind, I thought for sure somebody else would go quicker than me, but I looked up at the screen and I was still on top, so I'm pretty surprised."

It appeared that Ducati were running to a strategy as Stoner set a series of fast 'banker' laps as rain threatened early on. But in the official press conference, Stoner revealed that the rain actually interfered with Ducati's plans.

"We didn't really know what the session was going to hold - whether it was going to continue raining or dry up - and after I did my best lap I came in expecting the track to dry up so I was going to wait until the last ten minutes before going back out again," he said.

"So I took my helmet off, got ready, and two minutes later it started to pour down. So I crossed my fingers that it would continue.

"Conditions were almost there to beat that lap time, but luckily the time ran out and we were able to keep pole position."