Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa marmalised the opposition in this afternoon's MotoGP qualifying session at Catalunya by blitzing Casey Stoner's four-year-old to take pole six-tenths ahead of Britain's Cal Crutchlow.
The Spaniard was the only rider to dip under the 1'41s mark with a 1'40.893 compared to Crutchlow's 1'41.501 and it was also two-tenths quicker than Stoner's 1'41.186 set on qualifying tyres in 2008.
Jorge Lorenzo was third after only putting in two flying laps. The reigning champion aborted his first two after seeing that he was towing other riders and then came in, waving at his mechanics because of a clutch problsm, going back out with clear track to set a 1'41.566, 0.065 slower than Crutchlow's Monster Yamaha.
Alvaro Bautista is at the head of the second row after caravanning Marc Marquez to set his time of 1'41.714 and managing to go a tenth faster than his fellow Spaniard in the process. Nicky Hayden upset that particular applecart by slipping into fifth place with his last lap of 1'41.800.
It was another qualifying disaster for Valentino Rossi who was able to set quick times in the opening two sectors but then lost all his time in the final portion of the lap and he sank back to seventh place, just ahead of Andrea Iannone, who managed to hang on to Pedrosa for his eighth-place finish.
Andrea Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl, Bradley Smith and Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top ten.
