Newly crowned world champion Marco Simoncelli snatched pole position for Sunday's Valencia season finale on his very final lap of Saturday's qualifying session.

Friday's first qualifying times may have proved irrelevant in the dry, but provisional pole sitter Alex Debon maintained his place at the top for much of the session - the Lotus Aprilia rider only being denied a home pole when Simoncelli's Metis Gilera squeezed 0.01sec ahead.

A further half second back, KTM's final qualifying session in the quarter-litre class saw the three Austrian machines claim third, fourth and fifth in the hands of Julian Simon, Mika Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama.

Second in the world championship Alvaro Bautista was a subdued sixth, over one second from pole, with Ratthapark Wilairot the leading Honda rider in seventh. Former 125ccc world champion Roberto Locatelli completes the second row.

Yuki Takahashi - who, like Kallio, will move to MotoGP next year - qualified in tenth position for JiR Team Scot.


Final qualifying - Valencia:

1. Simoncelli (Gilera)
2. Debon (Aprilia) +0.010sec
3. Simon (KTM) +0.556sec
4. Kallio (KTM) +0.786sec
5. Aoyama (KTM) +0.859sec
6. Bautista (Aprilia) +1.011sec
7. Wilairot (Honda) +1.160sec
8. Locatelli (Gilera) +1.165sec
9. Faubel (Aprilia) +1.227sec
10. Takahashi (Honda) +1.246sec