Aug 30, 2008 - Defending Champion Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) clinched his seventh consecutive pole position in dominant fashion at Misano. Despite Stoner's eventual gap of over half a sceond, it was an exciting battle between Stoner and the two factory Fiat Yamaha machines of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Loreno. The trio exchanging the top spot throughout the qualifying period.

Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro - Pole position
The hand wasn't too much of a problem today although I didn't want to risk working it too hard. There is a bit of bone floating around in there and when my wrist gets into a certain position in some of the corners the nerves get trapped and I get a shooting pain up my arm. I can deal with that though and we have an important job to do this weekend. We found a good setting for the bike this morning but it didn't work as well in the higher temperatures this afternoon, so we had to switch back to something else and it worked much better. We worked so hard on the race setting that we only had time to use two qualifiers at the end instead of the usual three. With the first one I used a new front, which needed a couple of laps to get scrubbed in, so I came in to change the rear and whilst it was good, it wasn't as good as the first one. So, the lap time could have been better but all in all I'm delighted to be on pole again. It's going to be a long, tough race tomorrow but I'm looking forward to it.

Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 2nd
This weather is amazing, but I think maybe it's better if you're at the beach than at the track; we're in the wrong place! I definitely prefer this to rain though so after the recent races, when we have never been sure about the weather, this is great. I'm happy about our work because we did a good job with the qualifying tyres this afternoon and we were able to improve with each one, which is important. In the end we couldn't match Casey's time but anyway second on the grid is good for the race. Our race set-up is still not perfect and there are some corners where we need to be faster still, so we have to work to try to improve that tonight. We have a lot of data now from the two days and so we will use this to try to come up with something to try in warm-up tomorrow. I think we can definitely still improve our race setting a little bit more.

Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 3rd
Straight from yesterday morning it's clear that this track is a different situation for us. We're struggling much less and my Michelin tyres are much more competitive again here, so thanks to them. I can ride in a good, flowing rhythm once more and my tyres are giving me the confidence that I need in order to go fast. It feels really good to be back on the front row again and I am very happy today. It is clear that to stay with Stoner and Valentino is going to be very hard, but the important thing is that we have been able to compete with them today and we're in a good position to try again tomorrow. I'm still not thinking about results but I will just do my best, try to take a good rhythm and try to put on a good race for all the fans!

Randy De Puniet - LCR Honda - 4th
Today was a very good day for us. This morning we worked on chassis set-up and suspension set-up to find the right base on these conditions. Then, in the afternoon session, we compared a few rear tyres options he have got finding a good rear tyre for tomorrow's race. When I came out on qualifiers my pace was pretty fast but this qualifying session was very tough. I had a very good flying lap in the last lap which moved us to the 4th position on the grid. This race will be very close and it's important to start from the first places in order to close the gap to the fastest riders. I feel happy because my machine is the first Honda on the grid behind three factory bikes and this means that my crew made an excellent work together with Michelin. I really want to thank everybody for their efforts.

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 6th
I'm quite happy because we've improved my lap times and tomorrow I'll start from the second row, in the same grid position as last year here. It will be important to make a good start because the first corner is very close to the grid and also quite tricky. I've improved my rhythm and this is really important to me because I am starting to go fast again. We worked a lot on the suspension today, the new fork gives me a positive feeling and it gives smoother performance during braking. I'm feeling very motivated but I still need some time to get back up to full speed.

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 7th
We've had quite a good second day here. We've changed some set-up things on the bike and tested quite a few of the tyres from our allocation. We tried some very hard compounds for these hot conditions and they seem to be working very well. This afternoon on qualifiers the tyre worked pretty well in the new chassis, but I never quite managed to do that perfect lap and unfortunately we didn't quite make it to the second row of the grid. Having said that, seventh is one of my better dry qualifying positions of the season so we are definitely making improvements. My race pace is strong for tomorrow and I think with a good start we can fight for the podium!

Shinya Nakano - Gresini Honda - 8th
Even though qualifying wasn't perfect, today was definitely a better day than yesterday. After the changes the team made to the rear of the bike it felt much easier to ride through the corners, more stable, and this prevented me from running wide like yesterday. I had fun and it was positive that I managed to improve my performance on a qualifying tyre. Tomorrow we start from eighth and I would have preferred to be on the second row.

James Toseland - Yamaha Tech 3 - 9th
I'm a bit frustrated because I think I should have been on the second row and maybe as high as fourth. We made a step with the bike set-up but on my last qualifier I got the penultimate corner pretty good, so I whacked on the throttle and the rear came round on me. It stopped before I was on a trip to the moon, but the bike had gone into a bit of a headshake and I just missed my braking point for the last corner and ran slightly wide. I lost at least a couple of tenths and that cost me the second row. But so far it has been a good weekend and the tyres have been much better from Michelin. And I've had time to work on the setting with the weather staying consistent, which has been a massive help. So often this season when I've really needed dry time to help me get upto speed, the weather has gone against me. But this weekend it's helped me work from a base setting and we have been able to improve the bike. It is going to be a long and hard race and we've got to wait and see what tyre endurance is going to be like with the conditions being so hot. Nobody has done more than 15 or 16 laps so it will be tough, but I've got a good race set-up to give me a good chance. From the problems that we have had in the last few races, Michelin has responded well, but I'm not sure what the grip will be like after 15 laps. I definitely think we can be fighting for the top six, which is what we have not been able to do for a couple of months now.

Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech 3 - 10th
I've never gone well at this track but when I was second yesterday morning I thought there was a slight glimmer of hope. I thought it might have been a good weekend because I felt good and confident but since then I've hit a brick wall. All I can do is a 35.4 regardless of what tyre I'm using or what changes we make to the bike. My first three qualifiers were barely better than a 35.4 and my last one I managed to put in a decent time, but nothing special. I'm a bit confused to be honest because it doesn't matter what we do, the lap time is around the same. Could I have gone much faster than I did? I don't think so. Nothing I tried made the feeling significantly better from yesterday morning and honestly I'm searching for answers myself. It is not through a lack of effort and my guys at Tech 3 as always have been working harder than ever, but the lap time just isn't improving. Tomorrow is going to be a long race but I'll be looking to get in the fight for the top six. I've got to try and get a good start and go, but I know the rear tyre I've got to run takes a couple of laps to get up to temperature on the left side. So I've got to be aggressive while at the same time a bit cautious about that. But the first couple of laps are the most important, so after that I'll have to put my head down and see what I can do.

Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - 11th
I am a bit upset with my qualifying position because we found a really good set-up yesterday and we were not too bad this morning and we wanted to continue like that. But this afternoon was a bit hotter and we made some changes and on the qualifiers we struggled a bit. I am quite confident for tomorrow, it won't be easy starting from 11th, but I'll be aggressive early on and my rhythm with race tyres is really good so we'll have to see what happens!

Alex De Angelis - Gresini Honda - 13th
I'm not satisfied with this at all but there are positives as well as negatives. I managed to lap consistently fast on race tyres even though we're struggling with the qualifiers. Unfortunately we're still not getting the best out of them and as a consequence we can't improve at the same rate as the other riders. I'm still confident though because in free practice I did some practice starts and I think I can get away well.

Andrea Dovizioso - JiR Scot Honda - 14th
We need to think about the race tomorrow and focus on the best way in which to approach it. The Michelin rubber is proving satisfactory, but to recover so many positions from the start in the first few turns will be very difficult. If we were on the second and not the fifth row then we would have a better chance of a good result. Being positive, we still have warm-up tomorrow to exploit any changes in the bike to make some progress and then in the race we will give the maximum as always.

Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro - 15th
We've managed to improve the front end of the bike a bit, which is what we wanted, and I'm actually quite satisfied with the balance we've found. The problem is that it is taking us too long to find a good rhythm because over the first six or seven laps I don't have enough grip, especially on the left side of the tyre. A softer compound helps to solve it but we're not sure it can go race distance. We'll check it out in the warm-up tomorrow. It won't be easy tomorrow because at this circuit in particular you have to be fast from the start.

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 16th
Things haven't gone perfectly smooth here, I'm having a few issues with the front. I was pushing the front quite a lot yesterday, then I crashed and today it's still pushing. When we put in qualifying tyres it just exaggerated the problem, so I've been struggling to find a front tyre I like, though the rear seems to be working pretty good here. Obviously I don't have a very good starting spot and at 28 laps it's going to be a long race. The heel is OK, not perfect, but I knew it wasn't going to be easy.

John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing - 17th
It's been a real task today as we've been on the back foot because I had to sit out practice yesterday. My rib injury is definitely improving and I feel much more comfortable on the bike, but a lack of time on track has caused us quite a headache. We've struggled mainly with the front-end of the machine and this track is completely different from Brno, so we had a lot of setting changes to make. I had to squeeze a lot into the two hours on track and we had to wait until the afternoon heat, which will be similar to that of the race, before we could try to find a useable race tyre. Then we had to fit in qualifying too, and our final position today reflects this. My crew chief has a lot of ideas about the areas we need to change and we will review the data overnight to see where we can make significant improvements during tomorrow's warm-up.

Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing - 18th
It's frustrating to come here after such a great weekend in Brno only to end up at the back of the field. We tried many different set-up changes to provide me with more confidence in the front of the bike, but nothing really brought much of an improvement. I can't brake hard into the turns, and this makes it difficult to put a fast lap together. We have to find an improvement overnight and I am sure that tomorrow's race will be tough, but we have to keep pushing forwards to achieve the results we have shown we are capable of.

2008 Misano MotoGP Qualifying Times
 1.  Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:33.378
 2.  Rossi       Yamaha    (B)  1:33.888
 3.  Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:33.964
 4.  de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:34.236
 5.  Elias       Ducati    (B)  1:34.322
 6.  Pedrosa     Honda     (M)  1:34.398
 7.  Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:34.461
 8.  Nakano      Honda     (B)  1:34.494
 9.  Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:34.652
10.  Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:34.795
11.  Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:34.926
12.  Guintoli    Ducati    (B)  1:34.961
13.  de Angelis  Honda     (B)  1:35.153
14.  Dovizioso   Honda     (M)  1:35.381
15.  Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:35.418
16.  Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:35.584
17.  Hopkins     Kawasaki  (B)  1:35.980
18.  West        Kawasaki  (B)  1:37.047

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