Overall championship leader Dani Pedrosa of Spain took his first pole position of the season for the French MotoGP here today.
The Honda rider recorded a time of 1min 32.647sec and edged out Yamaha's Colin Edwards of the United States and Australia's reigning world champion Casey Stoner, on a Ducati.
Pedrosa, who has a good record here winning the 125cc race here in 2003, and the 250cc in 2004 and 2005, was delighted to have got pole but wary of the challenge ahead.
"It's our first pole position of the season, it is very important especially on this circuit," said Pedrosa.
"The race will be complicated, because a lot of the riders will be challenging. Also I am keeping a keen eye on the weather forecast."
Italian star Valentino Rossi will start from the second row having recorded the fourth fastest time.
Should Rossi win on Sunday he would join Spaniard Angel Nieto as the second most successful rider of all time in all categories with 90 wins apiece.
Edwards had looked on course for a repeat of his pole position in China last month before Rossi went on to record his first win of the season.
The Texan was on a final hot lap but couldn't get past the Ducati of Marco Melandri, whose teammate Casey Stoner, the reigning world champion, joins the American on the front line.
Experiencing further run-offs was fifth placed Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo, who crashed in the morning practice and experienced several off-track excursions whilst looking for a fourth MotoGP pole position.
He will start from fifth.
Nicky Hayden, the 2006 world champion, salvaged a second row start with which to attempt to move his way up amongst the frontrunners, whilst James Toseland heads row three on a new track for the Briton, ahead of Suzuki's 2007 Le Mans race-winner Chris Vermeulen and Kawasaki's John Hopkins.
