Daily Update MotoGP

Ducati Marlboro's Casey Stoner clinched his seventh pole position on the trot in dominant fashion ahead of tomorrow's San Marino MotoGP at Misano.

Despite Stoner's gap of over half a second over Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, it was an exciting one-hour session, with the Australian - who is battling a recurring wrist injury - exchanging top spot several times with the two Fiat Yamahas.

In the end, the reigning champion set an outstanding 1:33.378 with just two minutes of the session to go, which pushed Lorenzo down to second after the Spaniard had just managed to beat Rossi's provisional pole position time.

With the time expiring, Rossi was looking able to snatch pole back after setting the fastest time in the first sectors of his home track, but he ultimately dropped back and had to settle for second, 0.510 seconds behind his title rival.

With an impressive return to form, Lorenzo completes the front row, less than a tenth behind his championship-leading teammate.

Honda LCR's Randy de Puniet leads the second row of the grid, ahead of Toni Elias's Alice Ducati and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

Chris Vermeulen put his Rizla Suzuki on the seventh spot, followed by Shinya Nakano's Honda Gresini and the two Tech 3 Yamahas of James Toseland and Colin Edwards.

Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:33.378
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:33.888 + 0.510
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:33.964 + 0.586
4. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:34.236 + 0.858
5. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:34.322 + 0.944
6. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) 1:34.398 + 1.020
7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:34.461 + 1.083
8. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:34.494 + 1.116
9. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:34.652 + 1.274
10. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:34.795 + 1.417
11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:34.926 + 1.548
12. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:34.961 + 1.583
13. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:35.153 + 1.775
14. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:35.381 + 2.003
15. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:35.418 + 2.040
16. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:35.584 + 2.206
17. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:35.980 + 2.602
18. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:37.047 + 3.669
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MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner says it will be nearly impossible to retain his crown now that Valentino Rossi has such a big lead in the championship.

Stoner had fought back after a difficult start to the season, winning four consecutive races and finishing second to Rossi at the United States Grand Prix.

But the Ducati rider made a rare mistake in the last race in Brno and crashed, handing Rossi a 50-point lead with six races remaining.

Stoner reckons catching the Italian will be almost impossible.

"We have six races to go and these are the ones we have to look at now," Stoner told a news conference at Misano. "It has been a disappointing couple of races, mainly the last one.

"It's given Valentino a huge gap in the championship and it's just time for us to keep our heads down and try to do the best we can in these last races. We have nothing more to do other than this.

"I think chasing a championship down with this points gap is maybe possible with other riders, but with Valentino is nearly impossible."

He added: "We have to do the best job we can. We found some positive points in the Brno test. We have a little more confidence with the bike and hopefully we won't make a mistake like last week.

"But considering we've done 30 races with Ducati and this was my first crash in a race, so I think it's acceptable."

Despite the pessimism about his championship chances, Stoner is expecting to enjoy a strong race at Misano this weekend.

"Last year was a good race for us and we'll see what happens this year. But we seem to perform well here, so we'll just have to see."
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