Stoner and Rossi battled for the first spot throughout the qualifying session, being practically the only ones to really have a shot at pole position. While exchanging lead on top of the timing reports, Stoner started riding in a league of his own – especially in the final sector of the Losail track – after half an hour, improving his times consistently up until 1:55.007.
His Italian rival from Yamaha pulled one final attempt to depose Stoner of his 1st spot on the Sunday grid in the final minutes of the qualifying, but failed to match the Aussie’s pace in the last sector and had to settle for 1:55.362.
Despite his poor testing campaign in the off-season – due to his hand injury – Lorenzo managed to score the 3rd best time of the day, some half of second slower than Stoner but only 0.158 seconds off Rossi’s pace.
The second row will be headed by LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet, as the Frenchman managed to surprise everyone with his impressive lap times on Saturday. He will be the top Honda rider on the Qatar grid on Sunday – although he’s a non-factory rider – ahead of Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi and Honda duo Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa. Here are the complete time reports from Saturday's qualy:
01. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1:55.007
02. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:55.362
03. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:55.520
04. Randy de Puniet ( LCR Honda) 1:55.831
05. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1:55.899
06. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1:55.963
07. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:55.990
08. Colin Edwards ( Tech 3 Yamaha) 1:56.005
09. Nicky Hayden ( Ducati) 1:56.163
10. Hiroshi Aoyama ( Interwetten Honda) 1:56.227
11. Ben Spies (Tech 3 Yamaha) 1:56.271
12. Mika Kallio (Pramac Ducati) 1:56.283
13. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 1:56.450
14. Aleix Espargaro (Pramac Ducati) 1:56.652
15. Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda) 1:56.957
16. Hector Barbera (Aspar Ducati) 1:57.130
17. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda) 1:57.325
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