The 22-year-old Spaniard claimed top spot by just 0.041secs from Ducati's Casey Stoner in the dying seconds of the hour-long session with a lap of 2min 1.877secs on his Michelin qualifying tyres.

It means that Pedrosa, who rides with race number 26, has now amassed 26 pole positions, 26 wins and 26 fastest laps in all three classes of grand prix racing. However, Pedrosa's only win of the 2007 season came at the Sachsenring, from second on the grid.

"It's great to have three pole positions in a row and gives us a good chance for the start tomorrow, but of course the only important thing is the race result because there are no points for pole position," confessed Dani.

"The qualifying laps went quite well and I improved by 0.8s on my second fast lap which was just enough to take pole position. This afternoon the conditions were quite different to those we had yesterday and this morning – it was much hotter which made the surface a little bit more slippery.

"We've been testing more tyre options today and we still have to decide which ones we'll race with. It depends on the weather and especially the temperature we expect for tomorrow afternoon. We also need to do some more work on the set-up based on the data from today's two sessions," he admitted.

Team-mate Nicky Hayden will start from the second row of the grid after setting a lap time just 0.348secs behind Pedrosa's best.

"Sixth on the grid is ok, although it hasn't exactly been the best day for us," said the American. "The main thing we have to decide is which race tyre to run with because the track changed so much this afternoon when the temperature came up.

"The surface was really hot and greasy, it was quite difficult for me to find enough grip and my rhythm was not so good. We got a decent qualifying position to give ourselves a chance - now we've got to improve the settings in race trim. It's going to be really important to get a good start tomorrow and latch onto the front guys," concluded the #1.