"San Marino GP - Stoner takes pole Misano"

Champion of the world Australian Casey Stoner took pole position under searing heat in the San Marino Grand Prix.

Ducati rider Stoner secured his seventh pole in a row ahead of world championship leader Valentino Rossi and Spanish Jorge Lorenzo in third.

Stoner took place over almost the entire qualifying session until Lorenzo twice improved his superior effort.

But the Australian pulled a stunning lap of 1min 33.378sec off-exchange in the final minutes to take pole for more than half a second.

And that despite having a fracture in his hand, Stoner said that he had been held back a bit.

"I'm not capable of making the number of laps that I like to do," complained their practice sessions.

"Everything went very well in the morning but I struggled a bit in the afternoon session.

"The bike I had the fastest time in this morning does not work in the afternoon."

Stoner had to win to keep their championship hopes alive feel like 50 points behind Rossi in the ranking due to crash out of the last GP in Brno, Czech Republic.

Victory for Rossi on Sunday he wants to call, with Italian great Giacomo Agostini's 68 victories in the first class in Moto GP.

However, the popular Italian Fiat Yamaha rider, who was born just 10 kilometers away in Tavullia, said the heat was a problem.

"This atmosphere is much better to go to the beach to the track," joked. "I think we're in the wrong place!

"But it's better that way than in other races, where we always have a lot of rain.

"I did a good job in qualifying. Second is a good position for tomorrow. I had a problem in the second sector, in some corners I was not fast enough.

"But I've done a good job in launching and I hope tomorrow I hope I will be faster."

Lorenzo claimed a front row place for the first time since Portugal in the third GP of the season.

But he said that a top five finish was still his goal for the race on Sunday.

"Stoner and Valentino is going very fast, especially Stoner," he said. "To beat Stoner will be difficult tomorrow, my goal is to finish in the top five."