In the latest chapter of his surprise resurgence with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, Colin Edwards took pole position for the Pramac Grand Prix of China with a last-gasp lap of the Shanghai International Circuit.

Having previously been amongst the frontrunners in the practice sessions, Edwards smashed Valentino Rossi´s 2007 pole position record by nearly three tenths of a second with a lap of 1´58.139 in the final stages of the qualifying run. He was the only rider to do so, thus claiming pole position number three of his MotoGP career and his first since moving to the satellite Yamaha outfit.

Rossi himself will start from second place on the grid, with a 1´58.494 lap only slightly slower than his marker from last year. The Italian battled for victory with eventual race winner Casey Stoner in 2007, and a repeat of this could be on the cards if the pair can get past Edwards and break away.

The front row will be completed by 2007 World Champion Stoner, who lines up in the top three for the first time this season. The Australian was in contention for pole throughout the session, before eventually succumbing to the pace of the Yamaha riders.

The poleman at all three of the previous 2008 rounds, Jorge Lorenzo will head row two in Shanghai. Lorenzo´s performance was truly remarkable considering the doubts surrounding his participation in the session.

A left ankle fracture and serious bruising in his right leg meant that the Spaniard was not guaranteed to play any part in proceedings, and the extent of his injuries meant that he had to be helped from his bike by crew members. Meanwhile, he nearly repeated his huge highside from yesterday, but had his wits about him to save himself another impact with the asphalt.

Inseparable in the opening three races, Lorenzo and Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa will continue their title battle from the second row of attack, level on points in the current World Championship standings.

Like Edwards a member of the MotoGP veteran´s brigade, Loris Capirossi took the sixth spot on the grid with his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R, the final rider to go round in under 1´59.

The third row is comprised of Tech 3 Yamaha´s second rider James Toseland, Capirossi´s fellow Suzuki man Chris Vermeulen and LCR Honda´s Randy de Puniet. The latter suffered a late crash in an incident-filled session, which included falls for Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden, Shinya Nakano and John Hopkins.
 

Alvaro Bautista consolidated his provisional pole from Friday in the 250cc class, although once again he had to fight for the quarter litre top spot.

As in the opening qualifying session, Bautista was pushed in the final moments of the session by Team Toth Aprilia´s Hector Barbera and Red Bull KTM World Championship leader Mika Kallio as they battled for superiority, but a 2´04.882 hot lap and a fall from his Finnish rival left the Spaniard on pole, half a second quicker than any other rider.

Lining up alongside the Mapfre Aspar rider and the duo of Barbera and Kallio, Julian Simon moved up from the second row with some speedy laps onboard his Repsol KTM machinery.

Marco Simoncelli heads row two as he attempts to follow up his maiden 250cc podium, joined by Thomas Luthi, Mattia Pasini and Manuel Poggiali.

In addition to Kallio´s crash, there were run-offs for the likes of Hiroshi Aoyama and rookie Doni Tata Pradita. Yuki Takahashi was the protagonist of the biggest incident of the session, taking a Jorge Lorenzo-esque highside from which he managed to walk gingerly away.

 

After conceding his 100% 2008 pole position record in Estoril, Bradley Smith put himself back on the 125cc top spot and claimed another Tissot watch in Shanghai. The Polaris World rider confirmed the fast pace set in both yesterday´s opening qualifying session and this morning´s runout to take the third front spot of his World Championship career.

Smith´s fastest time was a 2´12.364 lap of the Chinese circuit, improving his Friday time by nearly a second and denying Jack&Jones WRB´s Nico Terol his first pole position by just 0.028.

Mike di Meglio and 2007 World Champion Gabor Talmacsi moved up to the front row for the Sunday race, whilst there was a big improvement made by I.C. Team´s Andrea Iannone to head the second row. The Italian will be joined by Joan Olive and Pol Espargaro from Belson Derbi and yesterday´s provisional poleman Stefan Bradl.

World Championship leader Simone Corsi dropped down from the front row to eleventh place, unable to improve upon his qualifying time. Also falling, in the most literal sense of the word, were Raffaele de Rosa and Jules Cluzel, involved in an incident at the end of the session. De Rosa´s Onde 2000 KTM teammate Pablo Nieto took a tumble soon after.