Reigning MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner has taken his second pole position of the season at Catalunya this afternoon but he was pushed hard by the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow who form the rest of the front row.
Monster Yamaha's Crutchlow was sitting pretty at the top of the sheet with 11 minutes to go but was knocked off the top by the second Repsol bike of Dani Pedrosa, who went three-tenths faster than the Briton but he was usurped by Stoner's 1'41.295 while Andrea Dovizioso stormed into third.
Crutchlow wasn't finished, however, as he was back into second place with only a handful of minutes left but Lorenzo wasn't to be denied, demoting the Coventry man back to third, where he stayed until session end.
Ben Spies, on the second works Yamaha, managed to haul himself into fourth and head row two with a 1'41.552 while Pedrosa ended in fifth place and 0.361s off the pace. Dovizioso slipped down to sixth and the last man on row two but is still only four-tenths slower than Stoner.
Nicky Hayden is the leading Ducati in sixth place with rookie Stefan Bradl next to him. Valentino Rossi had a late run on the soft tyre but couldn't seem to make any headway with it. He sits in ninth and nine-tenths off the pace. Alvaro Bautista rounds out the top ten.
Randy De Puniet stole the CRT top spot from Colin Edwards with his last run, lapping in 1'43.500 compared to the Texan's 1'44.020 while James Ellison finished in 17th place and 3.5s off Stoner's pace - a big improvement over the weekend.
