Motor Sport:Casey Stoner claimed pole position for his final race with Ducati at the season-ending Valencia MotoGP today.
The Australian, who will join Honda next season, was far and away the quickest as he clocked a best of one minute 31.799 seconds to push world champion Jorge Lorenzo into second.
Lorenzo was 0.331secs further back ahead of Italian rookie Marco Simoncelli, who earned his first front-row start. But such was Stoner’s dominance he only needed seven flying laps to seal his best time and, despite leading with minutes to go, returned from the pitlane to improve his time by another tenth of a second.
Six-time champion Valentino Rossi, who will replace Stoner at Ducati, was fourth quickest after he made a late surge.
The Italian, who won four of his titles with current employer Yamaha, was still 0.531secs behind Stoner, however, with Americans Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies joining him on the second row.