• Pedrosa replicates speed in practice to start in first
• Lorenzo, Stoner, Rossi and Spies make up front five

Spain's Dani Pedrosa took pole position in qualifying for tomorrow's San Marino grand prix to boost his outside hopes of winning the title.

The Honda rider, also quickest in yesterday's first practice session on Italy's east coast, topped the timesheets again with a lap of 1min 33.948sec in qualifying ahead of the championship leader and his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo.

Ducati's Casey Stoner will start the race from third on the grid, ahead of the reigning world champion Valentino Rossi, who wore a helmet with an alarm clock design to show he felt it was time he stepped up after his recovery from a broken leg. Rossi has won at San Marino, his home track, for the last two years.

Yamaha's leader Lorenzo heads the second-placed Pedrosa by 68 points in the overall standings with five races left.

Results, San Marino grand prix qualifying:

1 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda, 1min 33.948sec

2 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha, 1:34.256

3 Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati, 1:34.397

4 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha, 1:34.470

5 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha, 1:34.472

6 Randy de Puniet (France) Honda, 1:34.751

7 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha, 1:34.782

8 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda, 1:34.826

9 Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Honda, 1:34.934

10 Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda, 1:35.018