Rossi repels Gibernau for home pole.

Valentino Rossi has taken a last gasp home pole position for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, after overcoming flying Spaniard Sete Gibernau with a record breaking last lap at the conclusion of a tightly fought qualifying session.

Heading into hour, Rossi, Gibernau and Carlos Checa had each set the pace, respectively, in the three free practice sessions - with Ducati rider Checa the fastest of the trio and the only rider all weekend to break the 1min 50secs barrier.

Rossi and Gibernau had been third and fifth fastest in the Saturday session, putting the pair 0.175secs and 0.529secs from the red Desmosedici up front prior to qualifying. Meanwhile, Camel Honda's Alex Barros was Checa's nearest morning challenger, the Brazilian closing to within just 0.113secs of the #7.

Loris Capirossi had completed another strong session for Ducati with fourth, while fellow Italian Marco Melandri claimed sixth and one place ahead of countryman Max Biaggi - who had been unable to replicate his Friday form and was left 0.803secs from the top.

Into the qualifying session and it took ten-minutes for the leading lap times to approach the low 1min 50secs mark, with the on-form Checa clocking a 1min 50.294secs to hold an early advantage over Repsol Honda team-mates Nicky Hayden and Biaggi.

Times at the top then remained relatively static as the teams and riders chose to evaluate tyre life for tomorrow's race rather than deliver a quick lap attack, with the only notable change as the halfway mark came and went being the rise of Biaggi - who would claim second, just 0.036secs behind Checa.

But it was Checa who continued to hold provisional pole with his 1min 50.294secs, set on just his fourth lap of the afternoon, until countryman Gibernau punched out a 1min 50.083secs circulation with 17-minutes to go.

That seemed to break the deadlock and less than a minute later Loris Capirossi retook pole for his Bologna based team by the tune of just 0.092secs - the Italian becoming only the second rider to lap in the 1min 49secs this weekend... but Gibernau responded on his next lap to push pole 0.177secs away from the #65.

And then Rossi joined the fight. The world champion (riding, like Capirossi, with a special Italian GP helmet) had been around fifth fastest for the previous 45-minutes - and taken a trip through the gravel trap after outbraking himself into turn one - but would now up his pace and split the Gibernau/Capirossi top two, while Marco Melandri leapt into fourth.

Into the last ten-minutes and with qualifying tyres now fitted the lap times began to tumble once again - with Gibernau and Capirossi breaking away from Rossi as the pair set the fastest ever laps around the Mugello circuit, while the #46 was in turn starting to face pressure for his front row position from Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano, Hayden, and Konica Minolta Honda's Makoto Tamada (now fourth, fifth and sixth respectively).

Rossi responded in style with five-minutes to go, grabbing second from Capirossi - and sitting just 0.008secs from Gibernau - while the majority of the field were in the pits for their final tyre change. The reigning world champion would soon join them, before returning for his own last gasp pole attack.

While Rossi was riding out of the pits, Biaggi bumped Capirossi from third - a mere 0.097secs from pole - and Loris would be unable to respond, or defend his position, after an unsettling corner entry slide on his last lap. He will start sixth on tomorrow's grid as a result.

The final seconds of the session saw John Hopkins take a hard earned fifth after a difficult weekend for Suzuki, but all eyes were on Rossi - the only rider now able to deprive Gibernau of pole.

The #46 never seems to disappoint when it really matters and today would be no exception as he gave his home fans exactly what they wanted with a record breaking last lap that saw him take pole for himself, Yamaha and Italy by 0.138secs.

But over on the other side of the hill the Biaggi fans were also content as their hero confirmed his front row start position with a best lap just 0.235secs from Rossi and 0.097secs from Gibernau. For his part, Sete wasn't too bothered about losing out on pole, saying - as ever - that race pace is what matters.

All three will certainly be in contention for victory tomorrow, but with the top six - Rossi, Gibernau, Biaggi, Hayden, Hopkins and Capirossi - lapping within 0.41secs of pole, the fight at the front could be the most unpredictable of the year... but who will go the distance?

Meanwhile, main loser in the closing stages of qualifying was undoubtedly Checa, who plummeted to eighth on the grid.

Ducati insist that Checa's flying morning time was set on a race tyre, so the #7 may well have the pace to run up front in the race - but must now need to rely on Ducati's launch control system to propel him up the order into turn one.

Further back, Tamada marked his MotoGP return with tenth, just behind countryman Nakano, while Kenny Roberts qualified the second Suzuki twelfth - one place ahead of fellow American Colin Edwards, who once again lost out in qualifying.

Barros, second fastest this morning, faired even worse - setting only the 13th fastest time - but the Brazilian still managed to outpace troubled team-mate Troy Bayliss, whose season seems to be going downhill. Bayliss was just 17th quickest today, with Hofmann, Xaus and David Checa between him and his team-mate.

Xaus and Checa both fell from their Fortuna Yamahas this afternoon - Checa appearing to effectively destroy his after launching it into a tyre wall - but were fortunately unharmed.

Full times to follow...

Leading qualifying positions:

1. Rossi
2. Gibernau
3. Biaggi
4. Hayden
5. Hopkins
6. Capirossi
7. Melandri
8. Checa
9. Nakano
10. Tamada
11. Roberts
12. Edwards
13. Barros
14. Hofmann
15. Xaus
16. Checa
17. Bayliss
18. Byrne