Dani Pedrosa takes pole for San Marino Grand Prix

The Honda rider boosts his outside chances of landing the MotoGP title by taking pole ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo.

MISANO, ITALY // Spain's Dani Pedrosa took pole position for tomorrow's San Marino MotoGP Grand Prix to boost his outside hopes of landing the title. The Honda rider, also quickest in yesterday's first practice session on Italy's east coast, topped the timesheets again with a lap of 1min 33.948sec in qualifying ahead of championship leader and compatriot Jorge Lorenzo. Ducati's Casey Stoner will start third on the grid on Sunday in front of the colourful world champion Valentino Rossi, who wore a helmet with an alarm clock design to show he felt it was time he stepped up after his recovery from a broken leg.

Rossi has won at his home track for the last two years. Yamaha's runaway leader Lorenzo heads second-placed Pedrosa by 68 points in the overall standings with five races left.

1. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 1min 33.948secs 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 1:34.256 3. Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati 1:34.397 4. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 1:34.470 5. Ben Spies (U.S.) Yamaha 1:34.472 6. Randy de Puniet (France) Honda 1:34.751 7. Colin Edwards (U.S.) Yamaha 1:34.782 8. Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 1:34.826 9. Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Honda 1:34.934 10. Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda 1:35.018 * Reuters