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MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa of Spain - Source: Reuters
Honda's Dani Pedrosa grabbed his first pole position of the MotoGP season when he set the fastest time in the French Grand Prix qualifying session on Sunday.
As the track dried out after morning rain, Pedrosa clocked up a lap of one minute 33.974 seconds on his last attempt, only five thousandths of a second faster than fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha, to repeat his pole of 2008.
Ducati's Australian Casey Stoner was third fastest in 1:34.049 while Italy's world champion and championship leader Valentino Rossi, who won at Le Mans last year, qualified fourth and off the front row on the other Yamaha.
"It is so great to be on pole. It has been a long time," Pedrosa told reporters after taking his first pole since the Malaysian Grand Prix in October.
"My aim was to be on the front row because it is very important on this track," the 23-year-old Spaniard added.
"We will see tomorrow (what the weather is) as it could be the deciding factor."
Spain's Sete Gibernau did not take part in the qualifying session after fracturing his collarbone in a heavy crash during the morning's practice session in the rain. He was ruled out of the race.
In the 250cc category, Alvaro Bautista clocked the fastest time with 1.38.270 while Marc Marquez completed Spain's sweep of pole positions with a time of 1.47.080 in the 125cc category.
