Dani Pedrosa may be out of the Motegi race after breaking his collarbone, but team mate Andrea Dovizioso kept the Honda Repsol colours flying by taking the pole position in today’s exciting qualifying session on the sunny Japanese track.

The Italian took his first pole position of the season and his first ever in MotoGP with a burning lap of 1′47″001 that propelled him to the top of the charts with Valentino Rossi in second and just 0.054s from the Honda rider. Rossi using the new upgraded Yamaha engine. second spot marks his first front row start since the Le Mans round.

Completing the front row will be Casey Stoner, who struggled throughout the session, but finally found the right set-up and enough grip to take the third position.

Jorge Lorenzo who lead most of the qualifying session was demoted to fourth and just 0.205s from Dovizioso, but the soon to be World Champion who was re-confirmed in Yamaha today. has an impressive race pace that no other rider has shown so far this weekend so taking off from the second row shouldn’t be a drama.

The Texas duo, Colin Edwards and Ben Spies were fifth and sixth respectively, making it four Yamaha riders in the top six. Randy de Puniet took seventh despite running off track several times and he was ahead of Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista and Loris Capirossi in 10th after a crash during the opening minutes of the session.

Nicky Hayden, who took his first podium of the season at Aragon, this weekend hasn’t been able to find his pace and was the second best Ducati rider in a lowly eleventh.

MotoGP Motegi Qualifying Results:

01- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 1′47.001
02- Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.054
03- Casey Stoner – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 0.104
04- Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.205
05- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.463
06- Ben Spies – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.647
07- Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 0.751
08- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 0.913
09- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.001
10- Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.067
11- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.181
12- Marco Melandri – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.237
13- Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.370
14- Hiroshi Aoyama – Interwetten Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 1.395
15- Hector Barbera – Paginas Amarillas Aspar – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.534
16- Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 2.479

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