Stoner takes pole in Qatar

Australia’s Casey Stoner will start on pole in today’s season-opening Qatar MotoGP after posting the quickest time on his Honda in final qualifying yesterday.

Stoner, the champion for his former team Ducati in 2007, came in 0.205sec clear of his Spanish team-mate Dani Pedrosa, with Yamaha’s defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo in third.

This is the eighth MotoGP to be held under floodlights in Qatar and only one of the previous seven have been won from pole (Stoner in 2009).

Pedrosa was the only rider to mount a serious challenge to Stoner, briefly taking provisional pole before Stoner produced a lightning lap of 1min 54.137sec.

For Pedrosa this will be a first front row start here.

The surprise of the session was Marco Simoncelli, who took fourth, just four hundredths of a second behind Lorenzo.

Multiple former champion Valentino Rossi, still struggling with a shoulder injury on his debut for Ducati, was ninth quickest, with the Italian’s team-mate Nicky Hayden in 13th.

The field for today’s race was reduced to 16 after Rizla Suzuki’s only rider Alvaro Bautista crashed in practice on Friday.

The Spaniard broke his left thigh bone and underwent surgery yesterday.

Germany’s Stefan Bradl will start on pole for the Moto2 race, with Spain’s Nicolas Terol occupying the front position in 125cc.