Coming up short in the battle for victory last weekend, Dani Pedrosa emerged victorious in a tumultuous battle with Valentino Rossi for pole position in this afternoon’s qualifying session for the A-Style Grand Prix of Japan.

The Spaniard, who had been the fastest rider in practice for the race at Motegi, heads an all-Michelin front row alongside five-time MotoGP World Champion Rossi and reigning title holder Nicky Hayden. It was with Rossi that he experienced a final five minute shootout, trading spots with his Italian rival before finally clocking an unanswered 1’45.864 lap.

Rossi, who had a disastrous day yesterday, came back from his mechanical problems and an early run-off in the afternoon session to take his third consecutive front row. The Yamaha factory rider looked far more at ease with his machine than in the Friday practices, and reverted to his usual qualifying strategy after trying something new at Estoril. He also cuts the gap between himself and Casey Stoner in the BMW M Award to under four tenths of a second with his latest qualifying performance.

Hayden is also on a positive run of qualifying form, having been on the first line of attack since for the previous three races and adding to his tally this afternoon. The American, who returned the World Championship to Honda after two barren years in 2006, accompanied team-mate Pedrosa in bringing the factory success this afternoon.

A final push not quite enough to improve his position, Randy de Puniet heads row two on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR800, joined by late addition Toni Elias and Anthony West in the latter’s best qualifying position since his addition to the Kawasaki setup in the middle of the year. They in turn will be trailed by the star-studded trio of Yamaha factory rider Colin Edwards, last year’s race winner in Japan Loris Capirossi and World Championship leader Casey Stoner.  
 
The current MotoGP frontrunner, who could win the title by finishing ahead of Rossi at Motegi, experienced his lowest qualifying position of the season, his previous worst being a fifth place start at Jerez.

There were small run-offs for Stoner, Edwards, Rossi, de Puniet and Shinya Nakano this afternoon. 

In other news from Motegi, in the Grand Prix Commission meeting Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta proposed the introduction of a single tyre rule for MotoGP in 2008, something which will be decided on at the forthcoming Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Mr. Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO
“We have made a proposal in the Grand Prix Commission meeting today to reach an agreement between all the different tyre manufacturers for the use of tyres in 2008,owing to the situation in which some factories believe that they can’t have tyres which they think are competitive. We thought that the best possibility is to go to a one-tyre rule.” said Mr.Ezpeleta.

from InfoMotoGP