- So, Stoner will start on pole, followed by Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Pedrosa, Spies, Simoncelli, Rossi, Bautista, Barbera, Hayden, Aoyama, Crutchlow and De Puniet.
0' Rossi goes up to the second row in sixth with a super lap at the death! But Simoncelli sneaks ahead of him after the chequered flag! Lorenzo can't pull anything out of the bag and Stoner claims his 10th pole of the season!
1' Spies storms into fourth! But he's pushed back to fifth as Dovizioso claims third ahead of Pedrosa!
2' Stoner does it! He goes top with a 1:45.267! He's got time for one more lap, but he may not take it...
2' So, here goes Stoner once again... and he looks quick early on.
3' Stoner crosses the finish line, but he hasn't done enough this time!
4' Stoner's back out on track - and he has just over four minutes to reclaim top spot.
4' Lorenzo does it! He posts a new Motegi record with a 1:45.523!
5' Lorenzo looks fast as he looks to topple Stoner... has he got what it
8' Rossi moves up to seventh before he runs off track in his excitement.
9' Stoner gets back into the pits for a tyre change.
10' And then Stoner improves with a 1:45.683 - nearly a pole record!
12' Here we go... Stoner goes top with a 1:45.905!
12' Spies continues his good form... and he's up into fifth and a provisional second row start tomorrow!
13' Hayden moves ahead of De Puniet and into eighth spot.
14' Spies, who had dropped to 13th, is back up to 10th now.
17' Bautista is roaring now and he moves ahead of Rossi in sixth!
20' We're getting down to the business end of things now, with just 20 minutes remaining for the riders to produce something special.
23' Hayden moves up into eighth with a quick lap as Simoncelli runs through his team's garage with his hair flying all over the show!
25' Pedrosa heads back to the garage to prepare himself for a final push at pole position later on in the session.
28' So, Pedrosa still leads the qualifying session from Stoner, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Simoncelli and Rossi.
29' Simoncelli is OK, and he's biked back to the garages.
30' Simoncelli is down! He runs off track at turn 5 in pretty spectacular fashion!
35' Here's Rossi looking to improve on his sixth place so far... he can't and he stays put.
37' Rossi, Aoyama, Barbera, Hayden, Bautista, Spies, Edwards and Crutchlow complete the top 13.
40' Dovizioso and then Simoncelli follow the top three with 20 minutes gone.
43' Pedrosa puts in the fastest time of the weekend to go top. What can Stoner do to respond to that effort from the Spaniard? 1:45.966 is the time to beat.
47' Stoner leads qualifying from Pedrosa and Lorenzo with 13 minutes gone.
49' Japanese fans in the crowd are holding banners thanking the MotoGP roadshow for coming to their country.
50' Stoner puts in the fastest lap of the weekend on the harder tyres. The Aussie has looked good so far in Japan.
52' Lorenzo hits back as he puts on some early pressure with a 1:46.756.
53' Here goes Stoner, and the championship leader goes top of the timesheets on his third flying lap.
55' Lorenzo is the first man to post a time, five minutes into the session. It's a 1:47.025.
60' Here we go then, the bikes are out and this hour-long qualifying session has begun.
- Nearly time for the bikes to get things under way for this qualification session.
- And then Stoner led the way as Honda's domination continued in third practice. FP3 report
- Dani Pedrosa led a works Honda 1-2-3 in second practice. FP2 report
- Championship leader Casey Stoner made another extremely strong start to a MotoGP weekend as he led a works Honda one-two in opening Motegi practice. FP1 report
- Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the qualifying session for Sunday's Japanese MotoGP at Motegi.
