Australia's Casey Stoner battled to pole position in a thrilling session on Saturday in Japan.

The top spot on the MotoGP grid will be occupied for the 10th time this season by Casey Stoner for Sunday’s race at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

The Repsol Honda rider set a time of 1’45.267, two-tenths quicker than pole position challenger Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) as the Australian took his Spanish rival’s circuit best lap record which had stood since 2008.

In taking pole Stoner also secured the 2011 BMW M Award as Best Qualifier in the premier class.

“Everything has gone very well so far this weekend. We’ve been fastest in all but one session, so it’s been fantastic,” Stoner said. “We tried a few different settings this afternoon and didn’t really improve, so we’ll probably go back to this morning’s setting for tomorrow.

“We’ll have to watch the weather as this will affect the setup; there’s also a chance of rain so it could get complicated. Jorge (Lorenzo) has been riding fantastic, as has Dovi and Dani (Pedrosa), but there is no doubt that the Honda suits this track.

“I’ve been looking forward to riding it here for a while now and I’m not disappointed! Tomorrow will be a tough race, but the team is working hard and we’ll do our best.”

Last year’s pole starter Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) qualified in third after setting a lap of 1’45.791, edging out team-mate Dani Pedrosa who himself had occupied the top spot before losing it to Lorenzo and finally Stoner.

A tenth of a second separated Pedrosa and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies, who had bounced back after suffered a bout of illness that saw him finish the second practice session after just five laps on Friday.

The Texan was followed by Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team), who despite going down in turn five at the halfway point of the outing, starts from the second row after posting his best lap upon his return to the track on his second bike.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) posted a time just over a second off Stoner to start from the head of the third row. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) followed the Italian with a 1’46.586 with Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) ninth behind his compatriot to take the final spot on row three.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) was the final rider in the top ten, with Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) qualifying 11th at his home race.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who finished fifth here last year, ran off into the gravel and had a tumble within the first 15 minutes, but was able to rejoin the session to qualify 14th.

Damian Cudlin was 18th for Pramac Ducati with an improved time of 1’48.962, which was 3.695 seconds off the pace of fellow Australian Stoner.

Click here for detailed results