Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner rode to his third pole position of the season today, the Australian leading the way in qualifying for tomorrow's final round of the MotoGP World Championship at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Stoner lapped at a best of 1:32.256 to win the duel between the "Fab Four" of MotoGP with the top quartet of Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi just .666 of a second apart as they were the only riders in the field to crack into the 1:32s.

It was Pedrosa and the Repsol Honda that came closest to Stoner with the Spaniard .263 of a second behind the Australian at the end of the session.

The Fiat Yamahas were next with Jorge Lorenzo besting his teammate Valentino Rossi by .385 of a second for the final spot on the front row. Lorenzo lapped at 1:32.537 with the World Champion just behind at 1:32.922. Rossi's fourth, however, was enough to earn him the BMW that goes with the best qualifier of the year award.

Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards was the best of the rest and he was only fractions behind Rossi as the Texan just missed out on getting into the 1:32s with his 1:33.085. The second of the three Americans in the race ended up sixth, with Nicky Hayden riding the second Marlboro Ducati to a 1:33.154 on his final lap - just .069 of a second adrift of Edwards.

LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet crashed early in the session but still ended up seventh, one spot better than San Carlo Honda's Toni Elias.

Then came newly crowned World Superbike Champion Ben Spies (pictured) in his debut qualifying session on the Sterilgarda Yamaha M1. Spies, who said that finishing in the top 10 would be akin to winning a World Superbike race, ended up ninth and 1.2 seconds behind Stoner. He was just a tad over half a second off Edwards pace and half a second quicker than the man he is replacing next season - Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland. The Brit will start tomorrow's race from 14th on the grid.

Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top 10 qualifiers.

MotoGP Qualifying
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1:32.256
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:32.519
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:32.537
4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:32.922
5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1:33.085
6. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1:33.154
7. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1:33.391
8. Toni Elias (Honda) 1:33.475
9. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1:33.539
10. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1:33.776