Stoner takes seventh pole in a row

Despite Stoner's gap of over half a second over Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, it was an exciting one-hour session, with the Australian - who is battling a recurring wrist injury - exchanging top spot several times with the two Fiat Yamahas.

In the end, the reigning champion set an outstanding 1:33.378 with just two minutes of the session to go, which pushed Lorenzo down to second after the Spaniard had just managed to beat Rossi's provisional pole position time.

With the time expiring, Rossi was looking able to snatch pole back after setting the fastest time in the first sectors of his home track, but he ultimately dropped back and had to settle for second, 0.510 seconds behind his title rival.

With an impressive return to form, Lorenzo completes the front row, less than a tenth behind his championship-leading teammate.

Honda LCR's Randy de Puniet leads the second row of the grid, ahead of Toni Elias's Alice Ducati and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

Chris Vermeulen put his Rizla Suzuki on the seventh spot, followed by Shinya Nakano's Honda Gresini and the two Tech 3 Yamahas of James Toseland and Colin Edwards.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:33.378
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:33.888  + 0.510
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:33.964  + 0.586
 4.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:34.236  + 0.858
 5.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:34.322  + 0.944
 6.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:34.398  + 1.020
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:34.461  + 1.083
 8.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:34.494  + 1.116
 9.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:34.652  + 1.274
10.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:34.795  + 1.417
11.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:34.926  + 1.548
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:34.961  + 1.583
13.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:35.153  + 1.775
14.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:35.381  + 2.003
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:35.418  + 2.040
16.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:35.584  + 2.206
17.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:35.980  + 2.602
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:37.047  + 3.669