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Casey Stoner claimed his seventh consecutive pole position

Australian Casey Stoner secured his seventh pole position of the season for Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.

The Ducati rider stormed to the top of qualifying, despite suffering a hand fracture in practice on Friday, with a lap of one minute 33.378 seconds.

In searing heat, the world champion finished ahead of current championship leader and home favourite Valentino Rossi and Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo.

Britain's James Toseland will start Sunday's race in Misano in ninth place.

Stoner, who is 50 points behind Rossi after crashing out of the last race in Brno, knows he has some catching up to do if he wants to defend his title.

And he is not letting his injured hand get in the way of his pursuit of Rossi.

"Hopefully it'll be OK on Sunday," Stoner said. "We've been strapping it up. It's not too bad."

Rossi, who was born jusy 10km away from the circuit, said the heat was a problem.

"This weather is a lot better for going to the beach than to the race track," joked the Italian. "I think we're in the wrong place!

"But it's better like this than at other races where we always have a lot of rain."

Honda rider Randy de Puniet of France is fourth on the grid, while Toni Elias qualified fifth on his Ducati.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who is third in the standings with 172 points, completes the second row.

San Marino qualifying result:
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati 1min 33.378secs
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha at 0.510
3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP) Fiat Yamaha 0.586
4. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Honda 0.858
5. Toni Elias (ESP) Ducati 0.944
6. Dani Pedrosa (ESP) Honda 1.020
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki 1.083
8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda 1.116
9. James Toseland (GBR) Yamaha 1.274
10. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 1.417