Australian Casey Stoner has taken pole position for tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix at the Misano World Circuit.
Stoner, currently leading the MotoGP world championship over Jorge Lorenzo, set the pace and comfortably took his eighth pole position of 2011.
Stoner’s only rival in the session was Lorenzo, but with 15 minutes to go, Stoner set his mark, beating his Ducati lap record from 2008.
Lorenzo ended up second fastest, 0.12s behind the championship leader.
“The team has done a great job, the bike feels pretty good and we managed to get some good times,” Stoner said in the post-qualifying press conference.
“It’s been a good weekend for us but it will be a tough race, the weather takes its toll and Dani (Pedrosa) and Jorge are very close to us.”
Pedrosa will start third ahead of Ben Spies (Yamaha), Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda), Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) and Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha).
Alvaro Bautista took eighth place, continuing his and Suzuki’s recent run of strong form.
Hector Barbera was the best of the Ducati riders in ninth from Hiroshi Aoyama. Valentino Rossi will start from 11th place on the grid.
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time | Gap 1st/Prev. |
| 1 | 27 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 274.0 | 1’33.138 | |
| 2 | 1 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 271.7 | 1’33.258 | 0.120 / 0.120 |
| 3 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 276.6 | 1’33.318 | 0.180 / 0.060 |
| 4 | 11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 269.6 | 1’33.947 | 0.809 / 0.629 |
| 5 | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 267.9 | 1’33.990 | 0.852 / 0.043 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 273.8 | 1’34.026 | 0.888 / 0.036 |
| 7 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 266.4 | 1’34.054 | 0.916 / 0.028 |
| 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | Suzuki | 274.6 | 1’34.360 | 1.222 / 0.306 |
| 9 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 274.7 | 1’34.592 | 1.454 / 0.232 |
| 10 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 274.8 | 1’34.637 | 1.499 / 0.045 |
| 11 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 271.2 | 1’34.676 | 1.538 / 0.039 |
| 12 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 273.3 | 1’34.727 | 1.589 / 0.051 |
| 13 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 267.7 | 1’34.791 | 1.653 / 0.064 |
| 14 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 268.9 | 1’34.870 | 1.732 / 0.079 |
| 15 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 271.8 | 1’34.955 | 1.817 / 0.085 |
| 16 | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | ITA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 270.7 | 1’35.502 | 2.364 / 0.547 |
| 17 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | SPA | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 272.6 | 1’36.167 | 3.029 / 0.665 |
