Casey Stoner picked up his first pole position of the season at Barcelona with a perfect lap on his third and final qualifying tyre. The Australian had shown good form on his first two Bridgestone qualifiers before an outstanding demonstration of skill and determination saw him smash the previous pole record by over six tenths of a second. Stoner is expecting a close and combative race tomorrow, which could be affected by the weather. After a mixed bag so far this weekend uncertain forecasts make for an unpredictable race day, but the current World Champion is confident of his chances after finding a different set-up on each of his Desmosedici GP8 machines, both of which proved competitive today.

Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden scorched to a double front-row start at Catalunya today, setting the second and third fastest times in this afternoon's thrilling qualifying session. Pedrosa was less than a tenth of a second off pole position, with Hayden just 0.251 seconds off pole.

Both riders also set impressive times in race trim, local hero Pedrosa ending free practice just two thousandths off the best time and Hayden fifth, just over a tenth of a second slower. Pedrosa, who started last month's French GP from pole position, had an electrical problem with his number one bike in qualifying but was able to switch to his second bike and challenge for pole, proving the consistent performance of his two machines. This is Hayden's best qualifying performance of the year so far, following two fourth places at Jerez and Estoril. The Repsol Honda pair will now sit down with their Michelin technicians to make their final tyre choice for tomorrow's race.

Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro - Pole Position
If I'm honest I really didn't expect to be on pole today, it's a big surprise! Practice has been going well and we've been getting gradually better on race tyres. The guys have worked really hard and come up with two different set-ups that I'm happy with on two different machines. At the moment we're torn between which one we're going to use in the race but that's a nice problem to have! When we put the final qualifying tyre in I thought we were going to be lucky to be on the front row but I was able to keep it smooth - the lap itself didn't actually feel all that fast but the time was great and in general we couldn't have asked for more from the session. Over the past four races we've been able to iron some things out, work out why we weren't as fast as we perhaps could have been at the start of the season and things are getting continually better. This pole position shows that we're going in the right direction so hopefully that trend can continue through to the race tomorrow.

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 2nd
That was quite a difficult session for me because I had an electrical problem with one of my bikes, so I had to leave it at the side of the track and I took a while to get back to the pits. That cost me crucial time, so I was a bit nervous when I got back on track, it took me a while to find my rhythm again and ride some fast laps. Luckily I was fast again and we were able to get very close to scoring pole position. Starting from the front row is an excellent result from a complicated session and I'm very happy because it's important to start from the front row at my home race. We are happy enough with our race set-up, but we have to wait and see what the weather will do. I am really looking forward to racing in front of the Spanish fans.

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 3rd
It's nice to be up there and so close to pole position, I'm pretty happy. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It's fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice. Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. We'll see about tyre choice, that's going to be the biggest mission tonight - trying to make the perfect choice. Then we've got to get a good start, stick our nose in there and see what happens. It's nice to be on the front row, hopefully this can be something to get things headed back in the right direction. Thanks to my team and everyone in my corner for their support, I know I got a lot of people riding with me.

Randy de Puniet - LCR Honda - 4th
I'm very happy because it's my best result so far this year in qualifying and I also had a very good feeling on race tyres as I lapped consistently fast. My crew made a perfect set-up job on the bike after yesterday's problems and now I feel more comfortable. They adjusted the chassis set-up and we found good rear grip. We still have to fix some points but now the overall package works pretty well.

Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech 3 - 7th
I had three qualifying tyres and obviously I was trying my hardest for a front row but I'll take fifth because I'm really happy with my race set-up. With all the extra grip from the qualifiers I feel like we can go much faster but it never really happened. I did a 41.7 on my first tyre and my last tyre was a 1.41.7, so I hit a bit of a wall. I'm fifth and I'm not disappointed with that at all. Once you get off the second row you dread the alarm clock going off in the morning, so I'm happy to be on the second row.

Today is all for glitz and glamour but tomorrow is the real show and my times on race tyres look pretty good, so if we can repeat that tomorrow we'll be in the hunt. This weekend I've been tinkering with the bike quite a lot, more than we have all season so far. Yesterday we had a good setting but we needed more rear grip. We have found that today so thanks to my guys at Tech 3 because as usual they did a great job. We are working in the right direction although we had to tweak the front a bit. When you get more rear grip you create some other issues and we had to play with the front a bit. We've got it better but we'll try something in the warm-up. We know the direction to go with Michelin but the key will be getting a good start. I really need to focus on that and be as hard and aggressive as I can in the first four laps. That's when the guy's tyres will start to go off and hopefully I'll be able to go with the leading bunch.

James Toseland - Yamaha Tech 3 - 6th
I'm chuffed to bits to be on the second row and I'll be honest but I did put it on the line a bit. But you have to do that because to give yourself a chance you don't want to be any further back than the second row and thankfully that's where I am. When there is a tight first corner like here it can spread people out early on so a good start will be crucial. That first corner looks a bit tricky but hopefully I'll get through it cleanly. I tried a lot of changes on the bike today and they all moved me in the right direction, so thanks to Tech 3 for that. Now we've got a decent base setting I don't have to make big changes and it is just a case of tweaking things. With the extra grip we've found from the rear I sacrificed a bit on the front, but we made a change today that helped with stability for the faster corners. The difference between the second and third row is massive and I'm happy to be back in the top six. You really need experience on the qualifiers and I'm gradually building up my speed and confidence with them and Michelin is doing a great job. Qualifying is amazingly competitive so I'm happy with sixth. These guys will not allow you to blink and I must have blinked on that lap otherwise I would have been higher up the grid. Everybody is so close it will be crucial to get that good start. I think I can definitely run the pace at the front and I am looking forward to it.

Andrea Dovizioso - JiR Scot Honda - 7th
We did much better today and I was able to lap in the low 1m 43 second bracket which allows me to stay with the leaders. I think tomorrow we'll have a good race as the small troubles I had with the front-end of the bike have been reduced. I think the people who will be competitive in the race will be Pedrosa, Rossi and Stoner up front. On the other hand some other riders who did well in qualifying today may not be so competitive in the race.

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 8th
Apart from the qualifying position, it's been another good day at the circuit for us today! We learned a lot about the bike and the tyres and I feel like I've got a great package underneath me for the race - the team and Bridgestone have all done a good job to give me that! When it came to qualifiers it was quite a different story to the race tyres, but a similar story to recent weeks. I felt like I got the best out of the qualifying tyres that I could but it still left me back on the third row, which is especially frustrating with the speed we had shown on race tyres. Like always we will need to get a good start, but I believe we've got the pace to run with the front guys, so hopefully I can get up to them early enough and race with them.

Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 9th
This was quite a bad qualifying session for us! We had a lot of problems and now, unfortunately, we will have to start from the third row, our worst qualifying result so far this season. Tomorrow for sure will be a very hard race for us. We've tried to improve the setting but we haven't been able to fix our problems, the main one of which is that we are not fast enough on the entry to the corners. Now we need to work all afternoon to try to find a solution and then see what we can do tomorrow.

25 laps is going to be quite difficult but we will try to come up with a plan and then I will try to recover as many positions as possible at the start and through the first few corners. If we can make a few small improvements and improve the feeling then we can try to do something tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see.

Alex De Angelis - Gresini Honda - 10th
Qualifying was a little unlucky for me today because I crashed on my out lap when I had just fitted a qualifying tyre, so I missed the chance to improve my time. The tyre was still not up to temperature so I probably should have stayed calmer and not pushed so hard. Luckily the crash wasn't at high speed and I've avoided injury. Anyway my race pace is good and I'm sure I can have a good race tomorrow.

Shinya Nakano - Gresini Honda - 12th
Considering the progress we made at Mugello, I was expecting a better result today. Here at Montmelo, I haven't showed the same kind of progression as a week ago in Italy. In any case the general feeling with the bike is good, although I am losing some important tenths in the final two corners. The positive thing looking to tomorrow is that there isn't a big difference between my time on qualifiers and race tyres, which are really working well. I know it will be a tough race tomorrow because there are so many riders in just a couple of tenths but that means if we can stay in the fast group then a good result is within our grasp.

Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - 13th
I think we have made big step with the race tyres this afternoon, because we are much quicker than we have been at any other time this weekend, and we are sure that we can keep up a good rhythm in the race. We still need to improve a little bit more and we will be trying another few things in warm-up tomorrow. On the qualifiers we had quite a few problems with grip. The front tyre was a bit too hard and the rear qualifiers made it push a lot and we lost a lot of time because of that. We will need to use the hard tyre for the race so maybe today for qualifying it was too hard. All the team has done a great job to improve the bike and we will have to be on the attack from the start tomorrow - but we are ready to do that!

John Hopkins - Kawaski Racing - 14th
It's been difficult to ride today because I've never had a back injury before and I'm in quite a lot of pain. I'm finding it hard to breathe properly in places, particularly on left-hand turns, and when riding at this level with the strains put on the body at the speeds we're traveling, it's tough going. However, we have a good race pace despite the lost track time and we have to stay focused. Overnight we're going to look at some areas to improve the set-up as we're suffering with some lack of grip, particularly at the apex of the turns, and I think with a few adjustments we can improve our lap time. I'd have liked to have qualified a bit higher up the grid, but tomorrow I'm going to go out and give it my all.

Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro - 16th
It's been another really difficult day. We haven't managed to find a solution to our problems here and so tomorrow we'll be starting from the back again. On my last run on a qualifying tyre I tried to give my maximum to improve my position but I was braking so hard that the front locked and I crashed, fortunately without injuring myself. We have to stay strong and keep working.

Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing - 17th
We made some improvements to the front-end of the machine yesterday, so practice today was all about finding a better set-up in the rear. We made a few changes but unfortunately it didn't really bring the results we were hoping for, and I'm still suffering with grip troubles. During my second qualifying run we encountered a problem with the machine, and we ran out of time to go back out on track, which was also very frustrating. Tomorrow we have to make the best of what we have and try to get a good result in the race.

2008 Barcelona MotoGP Qualifying Times
 1. Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:41.186
 2. Pedrosa     Honda     (M)  1:41.269
 3. Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:41.437
 4. de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:41.571
 5. Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:41.609
 6. Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:41.820
 7. Dovizioso   Honda     (M)  1:42.053
 8. Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:42.365
 9. Rossi       Yamaha    (B)  1:42.427
10. de Angelis  Honda     (B)  1:42.580
11. Elias       Ducati    (B)  1:42.622
12. Nakano      Honda     (B)  1:42.643
13. Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:42.648
14. Hopkins     Kawasaki  (B)  1:42.819
15. Guintoli    Ducati    (B)  1:43.204
16. Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:43.719
17. West        Kawasaki  (B)  1:44.558