Sete Gibernau maintained his irresistible form on the second and final day of qualifying for the Gran Premi Gauloises de Catalunya, improving on his provisional qualifying time to maintain pole position by a comfortable margin of 0.363 seconds over closest challenger Valentino Rossi.

Gibernau, who leads Rossi by 10 points in the championship, delighted the rapturous home support with his pole record and promised to put on a show as further landmarks are broken in the grandstands tomorrow, with an unprecedented capacity crowd of over 100,000 expected to fill the circuit.

"It's going to be a long race and I still need to improve on a few things but hopefully I can get away from Valentino," commented the Spaniard, who clocked a best time of 1'42.596.  "This morning things weren't working too badly but we tried a few things this afternoon which I don't think worked. The bike felt good for one or two laps but I think we'll have to go back to this morning's setting for tomorrow's race."

Nicky Hayden posted the third fastest time of the session on his very last lap to seal a front row start for the second race in succession, having qualified second fastest at Mugello last week. Max Biaggi was unable to improve his time from yesterday and slipped to the second row in fourth, whilst Marco Melandri continued his encouraging start to the season in fifth. Alex Barros will complete the second row after qualifying sixth fastest.

Ruben Xaus gave the home fans extra reason to cheer, popping up in fifth place during an exciting climax to the session before dropping two places to seventh. Xaus is joined on the third row by John Hopkins, who returns to action after missing out in Italy through a broken thumb injury, and Makoto Tamada.

Troy Bayliss qualified tenth fastest to head up row four ahead of Colin Edwards and Carlos Checa, whilst his Ducati team-mate and last year's winner Loris Capirossi had a torrid session, crashing once and running off track before qualifying fifteenth behind the two Kawasakis of Shinya Nakano and Alex Hofmann.

The paddock was brought to a standstill at lunchtime during a unique and emotional press conference which brought a decade of World Champions together to reminisce on a golden era for MotoGP racing. Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan and Alex Criville dominated the premier-class during the 1990s and maintained a fierce rivalry which provided unforgettable racing for fans all over the world.

"If we ever conceded as much as one tenth to one another it was a disaster," commented Rainey, the last man ever to win the World Championship for Yamaha. "It was so competitive. It is special to look back on it now, but at the time we were just making history."

Randy De Puniet continued his quest to make history in the 250cc class this afternoon, knocking almost a second off his previous pole record here as he looks to extend his series lead with a repeat of his maiden victory one year ago. Dani Pedrosa wouldn't mind a piece of the record books himself as he looks to emulate his 125cc win from last season in the quarter-litre class, qualifying second fastest today to line-up just behind De Puniet. Sebastian Porto was third fastest whilst Alex De Angelis, runner-up to Pedrosa in the 125cc class last year, makes his first 250cc front row start in fourth.

Toni Elias will fight for the affections of the home crowd with fellow local boy Pedrosa and starts from the head of the second row in fifth place ahead of compatriot Fonsi Nieto, Sylvain Guintoli and Roby Rolfo.