Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa edged out Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner in a tough duel for top spot at Misano today.

Pedrosa’s improving late-season form continued, taking his fourth pole position of the season. A blistering final lap of the hour-long qualifying session saw the Spaniard duck under the 1m34s barrier – the only rider to do so.

Starting alongside Pedrosa will be championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, who with 10 minutes of the session remaining had taken the lead, but the Fiat Yamaha rider eventually ended up 0.308s off Pedrosa after his rival pushed back in front.

Lorenzo maintains his record of having started every race this season from the front row of the grid.

Completing the front row is Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner. The former world champ sat at the top of the times after 20 minutes but crashed immediately after at turn four. He remounting his Desmosedici GP10 following some rapid front-end work from his crew and improved his time to finish up just under half a second off Pedrosa.

Home-town hero Valentino Rossi will head up the second row after the reigning World Champion set the fourth fastest time on his Fiat Yamaha M1 machine.

Ben Spies will be the highest satellite rider on the grid, putting his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike in fifth spot.

Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) secured sixth place ahead of Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and San Carlo Honda Gresini pair Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri completed the top 10.