Pedrosa on French pole

Dani Pedrosa notched up his second consecutive pole position today when he set the fastest qualifying time for tomorrow’s French MotoGP race at Le Mans.

The Spanish Repsol Honda star, who won the last GP in China, knocked Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano off the top spot with his final lap, just denying a Bridgestone pole as the Japanese tyre firm found superb qualifying grip taking the rest of the top four spots, which they hope translates to race performances tomorrow.

Nakano was second, while Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins completes the front row in third. Heading row two is Nakano’s team-mate Randy de Puniet.

Yamaha’s strong showing on Friday faded today, with Valentino Rossi seventh, and Colin Edwards ninth, with the top 10 separated by only 1s.

QUALIFYING TIMES:

Dani Pedrosa, Spain (Honda)

Shinya Nakano, Japan (Kawasaki)

John Hopkins, USA (Suzuki)

Randy de Puniet, France (Kawasaki)

Marco Melandri, Italy (Honda)

Loris Capirossi, Italy (Ducati)

Valentino Rossi, Italy (Yamaha)

Sete Gibernau, Spain (Ducati)

Colin Edwards, USA (Yamaha)

Nicky Hayden, USA (Honda)

Casey Stoner, Australia (Honda)

Chris Vermeulen, Australia (Suzuki)

Makoto Tamada, Japan (Honda)

Carlos Checa, Spain (Yamaha)

Kenny Roberts Jr, USA (KRV)

Toni Elias, Spain (Honda)

James Ellison, UK (Yamaha)

Alex Hofmann, Germany (Ducati)

Jose Luis Cardoso, Spain (Ducati)