Kenny Roberts returned to the top of the MotoGP pile some four years after winning the World Championship at the Nelson Piquet circuit, setting pole position for the Cinzano Rio Grand Prix with a stunning new record. Roberts' lap of 1'48.418 represents a first pole position for tyre manufacturer Bridgestone since they joined MotoGP two seasons ago and means both he and Suzuki will start Sunday's race, which starts at 11:30 local time (16:30 CET), from the front of the grid for the first time since Valencia 2000.

"Bridgestone came up with a great tyre that allowed me to make time up in the corners which we lose down the straightaways," commented Roberts. "We've had a new motor for the last couple of races and we're making progress, just trying to make it back to where we know we can ride. It's a long road but at least today there was a little sunshine."

With Max Biaggi second fastest and Nicky Hayden third, there was no room on the front row for championship leaders Valentino Rossi or Sete Gibernau. Whilst Rossi struggled to adapt his Yamaha to the Jacarepagua track and qualified eighth fastest, Gibernau starts from the front of the second row in fourth place after running out of time when returning for a soft tyre at the end of the session.

Gibernau is joined on the second row by Honda colleague Alex Barros and Ducati rider Loris Capirossi, who recorded his best grid position of the season so far in sixth. Makoto Tamada, who scored his only podium here last year, heads up the third row from Rossi, who was comfortably the highest Yamaha of the day in eighth place, and Shinya Nakano on the Kawasaki.

Sebastian Porto delighted the local crowd with pole position for the 250cc race, the Argentinean clocking a new record of 1'52.503 to resist the attentions of resurgent Honda rider Toni Elias. With Elias finally settling for his highest grid position of the season in second place, Porto will also be joined on the front row of the grid by Aprilia colleagues Randy De Puniet and Manuel Poggiali, the current series leader and World Champion respectively.

Alex De Angelis and Dani Pedrosa were both impressive on their first visit to Rio with the quarter-litre machine, setting the fifth and sixth fastest times to lead the second row from privateer team-mates Sylvain Guintoli and Franco Battaini.

Hector Barberá improved his provisional pole time by 0.417 seconds to comfortably seal front spot on the grid for the 125cc race. The Spanish youngster was watched from the Seedorf Racing garage by one of the team's major collaborators, Brazilian football star Roberto Carlos, as he set a new pole record of 1'57.323 to hold off the challenge of Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo at the end of the session.

With series leader Dovizioso taking second place and Lorenzo third, Mattia Pasini clinched the final front row spot with a late effort which ousted Casey Stoner from fourth. Like Stoner, Roberto Locatelli also lost his provisional front row slot after failing to improve on his time from yesterday, dropping to sixth place ahead of Mirko Giansanti, who crashed, and Pablo Nieto.