MONTMELO - Casey Stoner pipped championship leader Jorge Lorenzo to grab his second pole position of the season and the 36th of his MotoGP career in qualifying for the Catalunya Grand Prix on Saturday. The Australian Honda rider and current champion, who said last month he would retire at the end of the season because he had fallen out of love with the sport, lapped the sun-drenched Montmelo circuit near Barcelona in a fastest time of one minute 41.295 seconds, 0.146 ahead of Spanish Yamaha pilot Lorenzo. Briton Cal Crutchlow was a further 0.107 seconds back in third on his Yamaha and will complete the front row for Sunday's race, the fifth of the season. Stoner, who won in Montmelo in 2011 and has triumphed in every Spanish race in the past 12 months, said he and his team had experimented with a softer tyre in the heat to check whether it would last the whole of Sunday's race. "We were in and out a lot during the session trying a few different things, hoping to reduce the chatter which is still proving to be a problem," the 26-year-old told www.motogp.com. "As soon as I touch the throttle the bike starts to chatter in the rear and it's making things very difficult," he added. "Towards the end we managed to improve it slightly but I think we need to make another step before the race. "Tomorrow, for sure tyre degradation is going to play a role so we're going to have to wait and see but I'm happy to start from pole." Lorenzo tops the championship standings on 90 points, with Stoner in second on 82 and his Spanish team mate Dani Pedrosa third on 65. Spaniard Marc Marquez clinched pole in the Moto2 category and compatriot Maverick Vinales was quickest in Moto3.
