World champion Valentino Rossi had to settle for sixth place on the grid as Frenchman Olivier Jacque took pole position for the German Grand Prix.

Jacque, riding a Yamaha, will be on pole for the first time this season in Sunday's race at Sachsenring.

Japan's Shinya Nakano, also on Yamaha, was second quickest and Italy's Max Biaggi third.

Italy's Rossi, who has won seven out of eight races this season and is the runaway leader in the championship, had a best lap of one minute 25.992 seconds in Saturday's qualifying, 0.234 second behind Jacque.

The French rider, who has not finished higher than fifth this season, said: "It's a great pleasure for the team and me.

"It's been frustrating. We knew coming here that we had a good chance on this track. I think we have a good chance on Sunday."

The Honda rider has traditionally struggled on the Sachsenring track, coming in a distant seventh last year behind arch-rival Biaggi.

But he said the heat had changed the behaviour of his bike.

Rossi said: "The bike was sweet this morning but more difficult to ride in this afternoon's heat - very much wheelspin."

Jacque said that he had expected this would be a good chance for his two-stroke bike to beat the four-stroke machines that have been allowed into MotoGP for the first time year.

"We knew we had good chance here because of the good results for Yamaha last year and we have an opportunity to beat the four strokes."

Huge crowd expected

Biaggi added: "It is a big surprise to see the two strokes so quick here from day one. I'm the four-stroke meat in a two-stroke sandwich.

"I'm also very happy to be the fastest four-stroke out there. This afternoon I tried everything for one or two laps because I knew lap times would be close."

Rossi, 23, has 195 points, ahead of Japanese team mate Tohru Ukawa in second place with 108 points.

Sunday's race near the east German town of Hohenstein-Ernstthal, where organisers expect a huge crowd of up to 150,000 spectators, will be the final event before a four-week summer break.

Fastest times from qualifying at the Sachsenring:

MotoGP
1 Olivier Jacque (Fra) Yamaha 1min 25.758 secs
2 Shinya Nakano (Jap) Yamaha 1:25.838
3 Max Biaggi (Ita) Yamaha 1:25.875
4 Alex Barros (Bra) Honda 1:25.956
5 Tohru Ukawa (Jap) Honda 1:25.991
6 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Honda 1:25.992
7 Jeremy McWilliams (GB) Proton 1:26.067
8 Garry McCoy (Aus) Yamaha 1:26.095
9 Daijiro Kato (Jap) Honda 1:26.105
10 Carlos Checa (Spa) Yamaha 1:26.118

250cc
1. Fonsi Nieto (Spa) Aprilia 1:26.874
2. Marco Melandri (Ita) Aprila 1:27.171
3. Roberto Locatelli (Ita) Aprilia 1:27.445
4. Roberto Rolfo (Ita) Honda 1:27.446
5. Franco Battaini (Ita) Aprilia 1:27.566
6. Sebastian Porto (Arg) Yamaha 1:27.613

125cc
1 Arnaud Vincent (Fra) Aprilia 1:29.097
2 Manuel Poggiali (San) Gilera 1:29.606
3 Simone Sanna (Ita) Aprilia 1:29.607
4 Alex De Angelis (San) Aprilia 1:29.626
5 Lucio Cecchinello (Ita) Aprilia 1:29.629
6 Pablo Nieto (Spa) Aprilia 1:29.668

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