World champion Casey Stoner took pole position ahead of MotoGP leader Jorge Lorenzo in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Catalunya Grand Prix.

Stoner, who won at the Catalunya Circuit for the second time last year, set a quickest lap time of 1 minute 41.295 seconds on his Honda, 0.146sec quicker than the Spaniard.

Lorenzo’s Yamaha teammate, Briton Cal Crutchlow, was third at 0.253.

Honda’s Dani Pedrosa ran off the track on his flying lap and will start fifth.

Lorenzo leads Stoner by eight points ahead of Sunday’s race.