Stoner surprised to take pole

The world champion grabbed pole at Catalunya with his last lap of the qualifying session, usurping local favourite Dani Pedrosa.

"Going on to my last qualifying tyre I thought we'd be lucky to be on the front row, but we'd definitely try to get on the front two," said Stoner.

"I kept the lap reasonably smooth, but it didn't feel particularly fast. We came round and the lap time was really good.

"We couldn't have expected or wanted any more from this qualifying session."

Stoner had not taken a pole position since Misano last season, and has not won a race since this year's opening round in Qatar. The Ducati team endured a slump in form after that race, but Stoner has regained pace in recent weeks.

He believes a tyre breakthrough has made the most significant difference to his performances.

"Each weekend of the last three or four, it's been progressively going better for us with the bike," Stoner told Italia1 television.

"We've started to understand the new tyres that we've been getting from Bridgestone, which have maybe been suiting the other motorcycles, but not suiting ours so much.

"We've had to go in a different direction and the bike is handling a lot better. On race tyres we were the fastest, and now with qualifying we did a great job, so I'm very happy."

Stoner beat Valentino Rossi to victory in Barcelona last season after one of the closest battles of the year, and reckons tomorrow's race will be just as tough.

"For sure it's going to be very, very difficult, especially depending on the weather - whether it's going to be hot or raining, it's been off and on all weekend," he said.

"It will be very interesting circumstances but this race is always very difficult and very close."