The 24-year-old Australian will start the 27-lap race from the 17th pole position of his MotoGP career and his second in a row at the Island after another titanic battle with World Champion Valentino Rossi in Saturday’s 60-minute qualifying session.

Looking for his third successive victory in his home race, the Ducati star – clearly getting back to his old self after his mystery mid-season illness – went top of the time sheets after just three laps, went faster still with a lap in 1:30.466 with 18 minutes remaining and challenged the other 15 riders to come after him.

One did – and that was Rossi, whose Yamaha went top of the timings with just six minutes remaining with a lap of 1:30.391.

All that did was light the fuse under the red Ducati, and Stoner duly scorched round in 1:30.386 to leap-frog into pole position by just five-thousandths of a second. The Australian then got the time down to 1:30.341 with his final lap to claim only his second pole of the 2009 season, edging Rossi out by 0.050.

“It’s been nice these last two races,” said a jubilant Stoner. “To come back and feel strong at the end of the session and feel close to 100 percent is a real nice feeling. We still need to work on the grip a lot, we’re struggling with that, we have to work on it overnight and hopefully in warm-up tomorrow we’ll get a reasonably warm session.”

Completing the front row is Dani Pedrosa, who came off his Honda spectacularly at Turn 2 but was unhurt – just dismayed at being seven-tenths off Stoner’s pole-winning pace.

In Championship terms, Rossi still has the edge on sole challenger Jorge Lorenzo, who starts from fourth – one place ahead of the man who always seems to be fifth, the No.5 satellite Yamaha of Colin Edwards.

Chris Vermeulen again struggled on his Suzuki and will start 15th on the 16-bike grid, which lost one rider overnight when Niccolo Canepa was declared unfit to race after damaging his arm in Friday free practice.

The only other faller in the session was Alex de Angelis, who came off his Honda at Turn 14 minutes into the session but was able to race back to pit lane for his second bike.

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MotoGP Qualifying Results

1. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) 1:30.341

2. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team) 1:30.391

3. Daniel Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 1:31.070

4. Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team) 1:31.071

5. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) 1:31.096

6. Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) 1:31.260

7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) 1:31.325

8. Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) 1:31.380

9. Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) 1:31.384

10. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) 1:31.472

11. Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) 1:31.640

12. James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) 1:31.640

13. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) 1:31.873

14. Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing Team) 1:32.190

15. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) 1:32.338

16. Gabor Talmacsi (Scot Racing Team) 1:32.752