Stoner takes dominant Czech pole

The Ducati rider ended the session 0.280 seconds clear of reigning champion Nicky Hayden, whose teammate Dani Pedrosa took third.

Stoner took provisional pole with a very early run on qualifying tyres, and then waited to see if anyone could beat his benchmark.

None of his rivals could, but Stoner nevertheless went back out and improved to 1:56.884 to cement his pole position.

John Hopkins had been one of the few men to get close to Stoner in practice, and a very fast first sector on his final run suggested that he might challenge the Ducati for pole.

But then Hopkins lost the front end of his Suzuki at Turn 7 and slid into the gravel. Despite the crash, his previous run had been sufficient for fourth on the grid.

Valentino Rossi struggled throughout the session, and languished as low as 12th before digging deep and moving up to fifth with his last lap. But he was then pushed back to sixth as Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet broke into the top five in the closing moments.

Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi took seventh, ahead of Chris Vermeulen and Colin Edwards.

Friday pacesetter Sylvain Guintoli looked set for a career-best start on the Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha, having got as high as seventh on qualifying tyres.

However, as others made last minute improvements, the French rookie was edged back to 10th - albeit just 0.165 seconds slower than fourth-placed Hopkins in the tightly-packed top ten.

Pos  Rider             Make           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:56.884
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:57.164 + 0.280
 3.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  1:57.179 + 0.295
 4.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  1:57.567 + 0.683
 5.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  1:57.599 + 0.715
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  1:57.640 + 0.756
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  1:57.665 + 0.781
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:57.699 + 0.815
 9.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:57.702 + 0.818
10.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  1:57.732 + 0.848
11.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  1:57.969 + 1.085
12.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  1:58.143 + 1.259
13.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  1:58.204 + 1.320
14.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  1:58.264 + 1.380
15.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  1:58.399 + 1.515
16.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:59.386 + 2.502
17.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  1:59.446 + 2.562
18.  Ivan Silva        Ducati    (B)  1:59.721 + 2.837