Sete grabs pole in Shanghai shake-up.

Sete Gibernau has taken the first ever Chinese Grand Prix pole position after leading a Movistar Honda one-two at the end of a tense qualifying hour at Shanghai, which saw a Ducati and Suzuki in the top four while world champion Valentino Rossi was left clinging to the tail of row two.

The three free practice sessions heading into the hour had seen Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden (FP1), Team Suzuki's Kenny Roberts (in the wet FP2) and then Marlboro Ducati's Carlos Checa (FP3) setting the pace.

Of the trio, Checa had been quickest with a 2mins 2.006secs set this morning and, unusually, it would take just eight-minutes for the Spaniard to better that time this afternoon - the ever present threat of rain appearing to push the teams into setting an early fast lap just in case.

With 15-minutes gone Checa continued to lead the field, having reduced his best time to a 2mins 1.582secs, putting the former factory Yamaha rider 0.213secs in front of Marco Melandri, whose Movistar Honda team-mate Gibernau held third at that stage and Rossi fourth.

Checa's team-mate Loris Capirossi then leapt into second position for a Ducati one-two five minutes later - the Italian sitting 0.748secs behind Carlos after the #7 raised the standard to a 2mins 0.902secs - and then almost instantly the first spots of rain began to fall.

The impact was immediate, sending the majority of the field into the pits, while rain flags began to appear sporadically around the racetrack. But the moisture was mainly cosmetic and soon passed anyway, prompting the riders to return at the halfway mark.

First to shake-up the order at the front was Melandri, who split the Ducatis for second position as he closed to within 0.119secs of pole, while fellow Honda 'young guy' Hayden claimed a brief third, a further 0.5secs adrift.

Next it was Gibernau who took the initiative, seizing pole by 0.264secs from fellow Spaniard Checa to put the double world championship runner-up on provisional pole for the next 15-minutes, at which point Capirossi took to the top for the first time - just as the sun began to break back through the clouds.

Indeed, the still injured Loris ruled the session right up until the last 20-seconds, when the Ducati rider was hit by a two pronged Movistar attack; Melandri stealing pole by 0.607secs before team-mate Gibernau almost instantly bettered that mark by 0.163secs.

But Capirossi held on to complete tomorrow's front row, despite late session pressure from a charging John Hopkins, who put his Suzuki within a few tenths of the Italian to head row two - where he will be joined by Hayden and Rossi, the #46 clearly suffering significant handling problems today that prevented him threatening the front.

But Rossi was far from the only established star facing plenty of overnight head-scratching as Estoril winner Alex Barros was left down in eleventh for Camel Honda, while Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards was just 13th and Repsol Honda's Max Biaggi a soul-destroying 14th. For that trio at least, rain tomorrow may be something of a godsend.

Meanwhile, early pole sitter Checa will lead row three after slipping down the order in the dying stages, putting him just one place ahead of class rookie Toni Elias - who claimed an excellent eighth after lapping within a few tenths of fellow M1 rider Rossi and outpacing Suzuki's Kenny Roberts.

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano rounded out the top ten, while his temporary team-mate Olivier Jacque has qualified 15th for his MotoGP comeback.

Of the other class returnees, Jurgen van den Goorbergh will start 19th for Konica Minolta Honda while Tohru Ukawa claimed 18th as a wild-card for Moriwaki Racing.

Full times to follow...

Qualifying:

1. Gibernau
2. Melandri
3. Capirossi
4. Hopkins
5. Hayden
6. Rossi
7. Checa
8. Elias
9. Roberts
10. Nakano
11. Barros
12. Bayliss
13. Edwards
14. Biaggi
15. Jacque
16. Xaus
17. Rolfo
18. Ukawa
19. vd Goorbergh
20. Battaini
21. Ellison