Stoner takes German GP pole

The world championship leader, who has topped all sessions of the weekend so far at Sachsenring, set a time of 1:22.384 with his Marlboro Ducati.

Four thousandths of a second behind Stoner was Dani Pedrosa in second spot. The Repsol Honda rider ended the session just nine thousandths ahead of Marco Melandri on his Honda Gresini.

Randy de Puniet, who held top spot for a long time in the session, qualified his Kawasaki in fourth place, before crashing against the barriers after a run through a gravel trap as the session ended.

John Hopkins' Rizla Suzuki qualified fifth, while Valentino Rossi could only set the sixth fastest time, 0.221 seconds behind Stoner.

The Fiat Yamaha rider often bettered the Australian's time in the first three sectors of the track, but lost all the advantage and more in the fourth and last one.

Loris Capirossi could not reaffirm the good form he showed this morning, when he had set the second fastest time with his Ducati, and could only qualify in seventh spot.

Pramac d'Antin Ducati's Alex Barros qualified eighth, followed by Sylvain Guintoli on Yamaha Tech 3 and Shinya Nakano rounding up the top ten with his Konica Minolta Honda.

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden had a difficult session which saw him qualifying his Repsol Honda in only 14th spot, over seven tenths behind pole.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:22.384
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     1:22.388  + 0.004
 3.  Marco Melandri    Honda     1:22.397  + 0.013
 4.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  1:22.539  + 0.155
 5.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    1:22.561  + 0.177
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:22.605  + 0.221
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    1:22.615  + 0.231
 8.  Alex Barros       Ducati    1:22.897  + 0.513
 9.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    1:22.958  + 0.574
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:22.969  + 0.585
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:23.049  + 0.655
12.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:23.056  + 0.672
13.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:23.090  + 0.706
14.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:23.151  + 0.767
15.  Carlos Checa      Honda     1:23.182  + 0.798
16.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    1:23.199  + 0.815
17.  Michel Fabrizio   Honda     1:23.491  + 1.107
18.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    1:23.744  + 1.360
19.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        1:24.209  + 1.825