Casey Stoner blazed to his eighth pole of the season with a new qualifying record at Misano.

As has been the case all weekend, Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo looked the only driver capable of truly challenging Stoner. The pair had traded fastest laps as the session developed, before Stoner made his move with 15 minutes to go, setting a 1m33.495s and then immediately bettering that with a 33.138.

It was a new record qualifying lap at Misano, breaking Stoner's own mark he set with qualifying rubber for Ducati in 2008.

Lorenzo still had time to respond and his two tilts in the final minutes. He was often able to dip below Stoner's time in the first two sectors, but lost out particularly in the final quarter and ultimately had to settle for second, 0.120s down.

"The team has done a great job, the bike feels pretty good and we managed to get some good times," Stoner said. "It's been a good weekend for us but it will be a tough race, the weather takes its toll and Dani and Jorge are very close to us."

Dani Pedrosa was also in the mix but never quite as threatening as Lorenzo, the Spaniard rounding out the front row as he finished within 0.2sec of his Honda teammate's benchmark.

Ben Spies was a late improver as the field switched to soft rubber in the final five minutes, the American putting his Yamaha amongst the Hondas as he jumped from eighth to fourth.

Behind him, Gresini's Marco Simoncelli beat Honda works rider Andrea Dovizioso to fifth. Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards – who will leave the squad at the end of the season – was three hundredths of a second down the road in seventh.

Alvaro Bautista continued his and Suzuki's strong recent form by sealing eighth, having run as high as fourth during the session. Hector Barbera, meanwhile, finished as the top Ducati rider in ninth, with Valentino Rossi finishing 11th behind Hiroshi Aoyama.

Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow had threatened the top six but fell in the final minutes, while Randy de Puniet dropped his bike at Rio after just 11 minutes. He was fifth fastest at the time but slipped to 14th as the flag fell, ahead of fellow Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Loris Capirossi.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda           1m33.138s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m33.258s  + 0.120s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m33.318s  + 0.180s
 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha          1m33.947s  + 0.809s
 5.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda   1m33.990s  + 0.852s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda           1m34.026s  + 0.888s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m34.054s  + 0.916s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki          1m34.360s  + 1.222s
 9.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati    1m34.592s  + 1.454s
10.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Gresini Honda   1m34.637s  + 1.499s
11.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati          1m34.676s  + 1.538s
12.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati  1m34.727s  + 1.589s
13.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m34.791s  + 1.653s
14.  Randy de Puniet   Pramac Ducati   1m34.870s  + 1.732s
15.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m34.955s  + 1.817s
16.  Loris Capirossi   Pramac Ducati   1m35.502s  + 2.364s
17.  Toni Elias        LCR Honda       1m36.167s  + 3.029s