In-form Australian Casey Stoner will start from pole for the fourth time this season after he recorded the fastest time in qualifying for Sunday's British MotoGp on his Honda on Saturday.
The 2007 world champion - winner of three of the five races this season - broke the lap record and was just 0.188sec faster than Italian Marco Simoncelli, also on a Honda, and Spain's world champion Jorge Lorenzo, on a Yamaha, by 0.217sec.
Lorenzo leads Stoner - who will be riding in his 150th race - by just seven points in this season's standings.
Wet weather is forecast for Sunday's race but it didn't faze Stoner.
"Looking at the way we went this weekend, it doesn't really matter what conditions tomorrow brings," said the 25-year-old, whose form and health dipped in the past two years when he finished fourth both times in the championship.
"I am definitely going to prefer dry...but we feel ready for any conditions.
"I felt we got quite lucky with pole position today, we tried a couple of things with the bike. We changed the front a little bit and on my best lap I lost the front two or three times," he added.
Simoncelli could only finish sixth last weekend in the Catalunya GP after taking pole.
But the Italian, who had to be given a guard after Spanish fans blamed him for an incident in the French MotoGP which saw Spaniard Dani Pedrosa miss the Catalonian race with a broken collarbone, is confident of posing a stronger challenge.
"Here I have a better feeling with the bike than in Barcelona," said the Italian.
"I am feeling ready to fight for the podium and victory."
Lorenzo's team-mate, promising American rider Ben Spies was fourth fastest while Czech rider Karel Abraham produced a stunning qualifying session on a Ducati to fill sixth spot on the grid.
However, Italian legend and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi suffered a disappointing session on his Ducati, qualifying in 13th but American Colin Edwards defied a broken collarbone suffered in the Catalunya GP and was eighth.
Home fans were left disappointed as Edwards's British team-mate Cal Crutchlow was ruled out of Sunday's race when he broke his collarbone after coming off his Yamaha early in the qualifying session.
"Cal's injury is a very big disappointment and I feel really sorry for him because he was desperate to do well in his home race here at Silverstone," said team manager Herve Poncharal.
"He's been fast all weekend, so we had high hopes that he could get a good place on the grid and be challenging for the top six in the race.
"But track conditions were quite cold and it was obvious from looking at the TV pictures that the tyre wasn't up to temperature.
"He is in pain right now but I think he is more upset than anything else because he wanted to put on a good show for the British fans."
Spanish ace Dani Pedrosa is sitting out his second successive race because of a similar injury.
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/VGhRi9bVgwd/Red+hot+Stoner+takes+Silverstone+pole
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