Stoner takes pole at Valencia

The Australian, who had also topped the free practice runs this weekend, set the pole time of 1m32.256s with six minutes left in the one-hour session, which he practically led throughout.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa will start the race from the second spot on the grid thanks to a lap in the final two minutes, that allowed him to get in front of the two works Yamaha riders. The Spaniard's time was 0.263s slower than Stoner's.

Jorge Lorenzo, who hopes to hold on to second in the championship ahead of Stoner, qualified third, almost four tenths quicker than team-mate Valentino Rossi, who appears to be struggling this weekend after winning this year's title at the last race in Malaysia.

Americans Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) will join Rossi on the second row of the grid.

The third row will see the Hondas of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Toni Elias (Gresini) leading World Superbike champion Ben Spies.

The American qualified ninth one second behind Lorenzo, after being entered as a wildcard by Yamaha ahead of his joining the customer Tech 3 team next year.

Pos  Rider             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           1m32.256s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            1m32.519s  + 0.263s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           1m32.537s  + 0.281s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           1m32.922s  + 0.666s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    1m33.085s  + 0.829s
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           1m33.154s  + 0.898s
 7.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        1m33.391s  + 1.135s
 8.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    1m33.475s  + 1.219s
 9.  Ben Spies         Yamaha           1m33.539s  + 1.283s
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            1m33.678s  + 1.422s
11.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    1m33.809s  + 1.553s
12.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    1m33.844s  + 1.588s
13.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           1m34.097s  + 1.841s
14.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    1m34.107s  + 1.851s
15.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  1m34.188s  + 1.932s
16.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati    1m34.308s  + 2.052s
17.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda       1m34.357s  + 2.101s
18.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           1m34.537s  + 2.281s