Stoner takes pole at wet Donington

The one-hour session, held on a wet track with rain falling during the first half, saw the Ducati Marlboro rider topping the times for most of the session, with only Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen managing to briefly go fastest.

In the end, no one could get close enough to Stoner, whose best lap of 1:38.232 - set after the chequered flag - was over six tenths faster than second quickest Valentino Rossi with his Fiat Yamaha, who won the battle for second-best by 0.137 seconds over Vermeulen.

Fourth quickest was Nicky Hayden, whose Repsol Honda fitted with the pneumatic-valve engine was one second behind pole position. The American will share the second row of the grid with Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda).

Kawasaki's Anthony West will head the third row, with Rizla Suzuki MotoGP debutant Ben Spies next to him along with the factory Honda of championship contender Dani Pedrosa starting only ninth.

Honda Gresini's Shinya Nakano completes the top ten, pushing Kawasaki's John Hopkins down to eleventh, over half a second behind his teammate.

It wasn't an easy session for Ducati's Marco Melandri, who finished in 15th spot, Tech 3's James Toseland, who had two separate crashes at the end of the session to qualify 16th, and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo whose return from injury saw him qualify only 17th.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:38.232
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:38.881  + 0.649
 3.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:39.018  + 0.786
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:39.270  + 1.038
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:39.601  + 1.369
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:39.783  + 1.551
 7.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:39.995  + 1.763
 8.  Ben Spies         Suzuki    (B)  1:40.244  + 2.012
 9.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:40.350  + 2.118
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:40.417  + 2.185
11.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:40.539  + 2.307
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:40.595  + 2.363
13.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:40.667  + 2.435
14.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:41.110  + 2.678
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:41.379  + 3.147
16.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:41.751  + 3.519
17.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:41.873  + 3.641
18.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:42.933  + 4.701