Hayden on pole

Nicky Hayden has taken his third pole position of the season after setting the fastest ever lap round Philip Island.

The American beat newly recrowned world champion Valentino Rossi to the top spot by just one tenth of a second with Honda rider Sete Gibernau finishing the front row of the grid a further three tenths down.

Carlos Checa, Colin Edwards and Max Biaggi make up the third row while GP newcomer Chris Vermeulen will start the race from 14th after fighting hard to keep up with the storming pace set by Hayden.

The pace was so fast that WCM rider Franko Bataini failed to qualify for the race after his time was more than 107% slower than Hayden’s.

Kenny Roberts and Loris Capirossi both failed to make the session after both suffered big crashes on Friday.

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