Valencia MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa secures pole with record lap time

Local favourite Dani Pedrosa broke the Valencia circuit record in Saturday's qualifying on his way to pole position for the season-ending MotoGP race.

The Honda rider powered round in one minute 30.844 secs in a dry qualifying session at the Cheste circuit.

Pedrosa's time beat the previous pole record of 1:31.002, set by Valentino Rossi back in 2006.

Newly-crowned world champion Jorge Lorenzo was second and Casey Stoner was third, ahead of his last ever MotoGP.

Britain's Cal Crutchlow, Germany's Stefan Bradl and Italian Andrea Dovizioso will start from the second row on the grid.

Pedrosa said: "We are happy with the pole and the record. Maybe it will rain tomorrow, so I will try to do my best and have a good race."

Spain's Lorenzo was was 0.361 sec behind Pedrosa and Stoner was a third of a second behind on his Honda in his last outing before retirement.

The 27-year-old Stoner looked set to secure a dream pole in his last race as he topped the timesheets heading into the final moments of the qualifying session.

But Pedrosa's record time and a decent final effort from Lorenzo secured a Spanish one-two, relegating the Australian to third.

Stoner said: "We had hoped to do a little better than we did. The bike has more potential than it showed today."

Qualifying Results:

1. Dani Pedrosa (Spa) Honda 1:30.844

2. Jorge Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha 1:31.195

3. Casey Stoner (Aus) Honda 1:31.428

4. Cal Crutchlow (GB) Yamaha 1:31.512

5. Stefan Bradl (Ger) Honda 1:31.757

6. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Yamaha 1:31.795

7. Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati 1:32.503

8. Alvaro Bautista (Spa) Honda 1:32.585

9. Hector Barbera (Spa) Ducati 1:32.605

10. Aleix Espargaro (Spa) Aprilia 1:32.834