Casey Stoner on pole for Spanish MotoGP

The Qatar GP winner keeps up his blistering early season form by taking pole position in qualifying for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix.

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JEREZ // Casey Stoner, who won the opening MotoGP race in Losail, Qatar, kept up his blistering early season form by taking pole position in qualifying for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix.

The Australian Repsol Honda rider lapped the Jerez circuit with a best lap of 1min 38.757sec, 0.158 quicker than his Spanish teammate Dani Pedrosa in second place.

Jorge Lorenzo, the defending world champion, completed the front row for Sunday's race, in an exact repeat of the line-up in Qatar, with the third quickest time on his Yamaha and just 0.003 slower than compatriot Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi, the seven-time champion and the most successful rider ever at the Jerez circuit with six premier class victories, slid his Ducati off early in qualifying and could only manage 12th position on the grid.

The grid

1 Casey Stoner (Australia) Honda 1min 38.757secs
2 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 1:38.915
3 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 1:38.918
4 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1:39.390
5 Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Honda 1:39.486
6 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 1:39.709
7 Randy de Puniet (France) Ducati 1:39.892
8 Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 1:39.895
9 Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Yamaha 1:40.019
10 Hiroshi Aoyama (Japan) Honda 1:40.168