Britain's James Toseland wil start his home GP from the 16th the grid after a massively-disappointing qualifying session. The reigning world superbike champion crashed twice towards the end of the hour-long session and has admitted he made a mess of things.
The Yorkshireman said he made a mistake by coming in for fresh tyres when he should have stayed out on the ones he had. Toseland crashed once at Goddards but re-mounted only to fall again at Schwantz Curve. It is Toseland's worst qualifying performance of the year and an indicator that maybe he has put himself under enormous pressure this weekend.
Casey Stoner will start from pole after he put in a 1'38.232 lap. He is joined by Valentino Rossi and wet-weather specialist Chris Vermeulen on the front row. He dominated through all of the dry practices and was in control for most of the qualifying session.
Vermeulen made a charge with 40 minutes of the session gone and briefly took the pole from Stoner. Rossi put himself in second at the session's death but was still six-tenths of a second shy of the Ducati man.
Nicky Hayden leads an all Michelin second row, with Toseland's team-mate Colin Edwards, who is a good bet here in the rain, and Andrea Dovizioso.
Ben Spies, who is standing in for the injured Loris Capirossi, was a shock eighth in front of Dani Pedrosa, who is still injured after his Barcelona testing crash. The AMA Superbike champion hasn't ridden the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R in anger and is certainly not used to wet conditions.
MotoGP qualifying practice - conditions dry
1 1 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'38.232 25 25 262.2
2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.881 30 30 0.649 0.649 261.8
3 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.018 28 29 0.786 0.137 261.0
4 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'39.270 23 26 1.038 0.252 258.4
5 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'39.601 18 23 1.369 0.331 256.1
6 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA 1'39.783 24 27 1.551 0.182 253.5
7 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'39.995 25 25 1.763 0.212 260.7
8 11 Ben SPIES USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'40.244 24 25 2.012 0.249 261.2
9 2 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'40.350 22 26 2.118 0.106 262.0
10 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'40.417 29 29 2.185 0.067 257.2
11 21 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'40.539 27 27 2.307 0.122 257.4
12 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team DUCATI 1'40.595 28 28 2.363 0.056 254.9
13 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'40.667 25 26 2.435 0.072 253.8
14 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'41.110 24 24 2.878 0.443 252.5
15 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'41.379 25 25 3.147 0.269 256.7
16 52 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'41.751 12 22 3.519 0.372 253.2
17 48 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'41.873 21 23 3.641 0.122 254.1
18 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team DUCATI 1'42.933 25 25 4.701 1.060 253.6