Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner has once again proved he is the master of MotoGP qualifying by going half a second faster than title rival Valentino Rossi at Qatar this evening.
The Aussie set a lap of 1'55.286 which is just fractionally slower than the track lap record but a second and a half outside of Jorge Lorenzo's pole time last year, set on Michelin qualifiers.
The Fiat Yamaha team-mates were the only riders who got within five-tenths of the 2007 World Champion with Andrea Dovizioso and Loris Caprissi putting in late charges to bounce Monster Yamaha's Colin Ewards down to the back of the second row.
Early pace-setter Randy De Puniet will start from the head of row three alongside Aussie Chris Vermeulen and Alex De Angelis who are all more than a second slower than Stoner.
Britain's James Toseland managed to haul himself up to 13th position on the second satellite Yamaha, just nudging out the injured Dani Pedrosa and not-fit Sete Gibernau.
There will be much gnashing of teeth in the far side of the Marlboro Ducati garage as Nicky Hayden was three seconds slower than his team-mate while hte final place was taken by Nico Canepa, almost four seconds adrift.
