Honda's Casey Stoner on pole for Dutch MotoGP

HONDA'S Casey Stoner will start from pole position in Saturday's Dutch MotoGP after posting the fastest time in qualifying.

Casey Stoner

HONDA'S Casey Stoner will start from pole position in Saturday's Dutch MotoGP after posting the fastest time in qualifying at Assen on Friday.

The Australian world champion earned his 37th pole in MotoGP by a margin of 115-thousandths of a second from Spanish teammate Dani Pedrosa.

Yamaha's championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was third fastest in a session that was twice stopped because of rain.

Pedrosa had posted the quickest lap ahead of Lorenzo and Italy's Andrea Dovizioso before the riders were forced off the track for the first rain period.

Stoner languished ninth when the second rain break intervened but, in the final five minutes of the session, the Australian, using soft tyres, surged up to third place and then moved to the top of the standings with a time of 1min 33.713sec.

Stoner currently sits second in the overall standings, 25 points behind Lorenzo.

In what will be his final race at Assen before retiring at the end of the season, Stoner is looking to add to his Dutch victory in 2008.

Last year's winner, Ben Spies of Yamaha, will start from sixth on the grid, with Germany's Stefan Bradl of LCR Honda fourth, and Britain's Cal Crutchlow fifth on a Yamaha.