Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa had their first duel of the season as Repsol Honda team-mates, fighting for pole position for the Commericalbank Grand Prix of Qatar

The duo claimed first and second on the grid, with the Australian more than eight tenths ahead of the third placed, Jorge Lorenzo. The third Repsol Honda Team rider, Andrea Dovizioso, was seventh.

As it happened in the previous days, the impulsive Stoner soon set a time below the 1’55s, with Pedrosa close behind. Stoner’s fastest lap was 1’54:137 which was 0.205 seconds quicker than the best time from the Spaniard.

Dovizioso will lead the third row of the grid tomorrow. After 25 laps, he recorded his best time of 1’55:229 which was 1.092 behind the leading Repsol Honda. The Italian rider kept suffering the same vibration problems that had plagued him in the previous days. He tried to recover the earlier set-up of his bike, but that delayed him more than expected.

Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda

"We can't ask for a much better weekend, everything has gone well. The team have made all the right steps and gradually improved the bike, as the weekend progressed. Tonight I was able to achieve good, consistent lap times again on the hard tyre and this is important for the race tomorrow. As ever, we will keep our feet on the ground, as we've had good starts to seasons in the past and then they haven't played out as expected. We just need to keep working and ensure that we continue to progress. We've done all our homework and the best job possible, now I just want to get the season started".

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda

”The weekend has been very good for us so far. I've been running at the top in every session and I'm very happy to be on the front row in Losail for the first time. Nevertheless, we have to focus on the race, Casey is running very fast, also Lorenzo is improving very quickly, so we have to focus, making no mistakes tomorrow. I don't know yet if the race will be a fight between Casey and myself. We've never run at 10:00 pm, so I hope the bike works well after 125 cc and Moto2 races. I want to prepare as best as possible for tomorrow and be ready to be consistent for 22 laps. The race will be fast I guess, so we will need to maintain a high pace. I hope I will be able to do it and fight for the victory".

Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda

”I’m disappointed with the third row, I need to improve the use of the soft tyre for a better qualifying. The positive point is that we have a good pace to fight for a podium spot, this is our target tomorrow. We will work during the warm up to improve the set up, to get more stability at the beginning of the braking. I hope to gain more confidence and find a good stability in the front. For the race it will be very important to have a good start and arrive at turn 1 close to the first riders. It is impossible to catch Casey, I will try to maintain contact with Dani, Lorenzo and Spies. It’s important to start the season with a good result and I will give everything in the race”.