Reigning world champion grabs seventh pole of the season in a sensational last-minute dash
Casey Stoner...seventh pole position of the season
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IN ONE of the most dramatic qualifying sessions of the season, Casey Stoner snatched pole position today ahead of tomorrow's MotoGP race at Misano.
The Australian grabbed pole in the final minutes of the hour-long qualifying session, despite a painful left hand, posting a best time of 1:33.378, pipping arch rival Valentino Rossi into second spot by half a second. Stoner said:
"The hand wasn't too much of a problem today although I didn't want to risk working it too hard. There is a bit of bone floating around in there and when my wrist gets into a certain position in some of the corners the nerves get trapped and I get a shooting pain up my arm. I can deal with that though and we have an important job to do this weekend. We found a good setting for the bike this morning but it didn't work as well in the higher temperatures this afternoon, so we had to switch back to something else and it worked much better. We worked so hard on the race setting that we only had time to use two qualifiers at the end instead of the usual three. With the first one I used a new front, which needed a couple of laps to get scrubbed in, so I came in to change the rear and whilst it was good, it wasn't as good as the first one. So, the lap time could have been better but all in all I'm delighted to be on pole again. It's going to be a long, tough race tomorrow but I'm looking forward to it."
Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo made a surprise return to form, holding pole for much of the hour-long session. His time of 1:33.964 was enough to give the Fiat Yamaha rider the final spot on the front row for Sunday's race.
Britain's James Toseland improved on his recent poor form, posting the ninth fastest time of the session on his Tech 3 Yamaha. Toseland
went 0.3 secs faster than his team-mate Colin Edwards.
MotoGP Qualifying results - Misano
1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 1'33.378
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.510
3 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.586
4 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 0.858
5 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 0.944
6 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 1.020
7 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.083
8 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.116
9 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 1.274
10 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 1.417
11 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.548
12 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 1.583
13 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.775
14 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 2.003
15 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 2.040
16 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 2.206
17 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 2.602
18 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 3.669
