San Carlo Honda‘s Marco Simoncelli claimed the first pole position of his MotoGP career, with a stunning last gasp lap of 1:42.413s to snatch the top spot from Repsol Honda‘s Casey Stoner by just 0.016s after the Australian had led throughout the session. Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo will line up in 3rd in front of his home crowd.
Lorenzo’s team-mate Ben Spies narrowly missed out on a front row start by just 0.014s, having been in 2nd up until 3 minutes remaining, and will lead Row 2. Andrea Dovizioso lines up in 5th on the second Repsol Honda, just ahead of Cal Crutchlow on the sole Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine. The Brit is riding on yet another new track but yet again managed to match his seasons best qualifying performance.
Both Ducati’s sit side by side on Row 3, with Nicky Hayden again having the honour of being the fastest of the two, lining up in 7th ahead of Valentino Rossi, who had an excursion to the gravel in the final practice session. Rizla Suzuki‘s Ãlvaro Bautista will line up in 9th, hoping to emulate last years 5th place finish.
Hector Barbera heads Row 4 on the Mapfre Aspar Ducati, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama in a disappointing 11th on the second San Carlo Honda machine. Randy De Puniet continued to be the lead Pramac Ducati in 12th, another rider to visit the gravel in the final practice session.
Loris Capirossi lines up in 13th on the second Pramac machine, ahead of Toni Elias on the LCR Honda in 14th and Karel Abraham, who had a crash at the start of the session. After a check at the medical center, the Cardion AB Motoracing rider was able to complete the session.
