Australia’s 2007 world champion Casey Stoner, riding a Ducati, took pole position for today’s Valencia Grand Prix yesterday, the final race of the 18-leg world championship series.

Stoner has been in sparkling form, winning three of the last four GPs including his home race a fortnight ago for Ducati whom he is leaving at the end of the race today for Honda.

Stoner, who won in Valencia in 2008, was the dominant rider in free practice on Friday and yesterday morning and in qualifying was the only pilot to go under 1 minute 32 seconds.

The Australian – who earlier in the season battled against illness and poor form – was 0.331sec quicker than champion Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha while Italy’s 2008 250cc world champion Marco Simoncelli was third fastest on a Honda-Gresini.

It was the first time that Simoncelli was fast enough to get onto the front row of the grid in a MotoGP and he did so by edging out Italian compatriot Valentino Rossi.

Last year’s race winner Dani Pedrosa – who is still feeling the after effects of his broken left collarbone – was unable to repeat his second fastest time in the third free practice session and will start eighth on the grid on his Honda.