In a scintillating qualifying session at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM at Mugello in hot conditions it was Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa who put in a record-beating lap to take pole position for tomorrow’s race ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Héctor Barberá.

A new track record in the low 1.47s held off the charge of Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo, who had been setting the fastest lap until the final seconds, when a bike problem caused him to pit before completing the lap. He stated afterwards that he lost engine power coming out of the final turn, yet the team had not discovered the root of the problem. Completing the front row is Pramac Racing Team’s Héctor Barberá, who silenced some of his critics by recording his first-ever front row in the MotoGP class.

Row two is headed by another Desmosedici in the form of Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, who continues to have good outright pace on the softer option rear tyre. Lining up next to him is Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner in fifth, who entered the pits a couple of times in the final part of the session as he struggled with set-up on his bike. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow occupies sixth, despite having crashed at turn 12 with 13 minutes left in the session.

His teammate Andrea Dovizioso leads the third row in seventh, and did well to avoid a near crash towards the end, as he was pushing for a faster time. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl was able to improve on his weekend’s form by finishing in eighth. Lorenzo’s teammate Ben Spies will start from ninth, after suffering a crash in the same place as Crutchlow after switching to the softer rear tyre. Ducati’s Valentino Rossi completes the top ten, as he could not get his bike to work on a track he has won at nine times in his career.

CRT top spot went to Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró in 12th, after he had shown the most consistent pace of the new bikes all weekend. NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards, who had been evaluating a new Suter chassis today, qualified in 19th.

.