Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa snaffled away MotoGP pole position from under the nose of team-mate and reigning champion Casey Stoner with his final run at the end of qualifying at Le Mans this afternoon in a session that started wet but then dried fully.
The Spaniard set this time with only a couple of minutes left on the clock, lapping three-tenths quicker than the Aussie on a 1'33.638 as the pair demoted Andrea Dovizioso to the outside of the front row after the Italian went top with less than ten minutes of the session left.
As the skies darkened, Jorge Lorenzo scrapped a lap and had to settle for fourth on the factory Yamaha while Cal Crutchlow, who led at half-distance, is in the middle of the second row and is only half-a-second slower than the poleman. Ben Spies hauled himself from the bottom half of the grid to fourth late on but then slid back down to sixth.
Valentino Rossi is 1.2s slower than Pedrosa but it looking more and more likely to be a wet race tomorrow which will suit the GP12. If so, Rossi will be looking to mirror his result at the French track last year.
Alvaro Bautista crashed at the end of the session but his 1'34.992 was still good enough for eighth while Caravan Barbera followed Lorenzo round to set his best of 1'34.950 which left him in ninth with fellow satellite Ducati man Karel Abraham in tenth.
Nicky Hayden will be disappointed with his 11th place after flying high in the damp conditions early on. Randy De Puniet on his Aprilia CRT, is half a second slower than the American with Stefan Bradl, who crashed unhurt, one place behind. James Ellison climbed up to 16th place and is a little over four seconds off the pace.
