Capirossi dominates for Jerez pole, Rossi ninth.

Loris Capirossi has led a Ducati Marlboro one-two during an eventful first MotoGP qualifying session of 2006, which ended with world champion Valentino Rossi a distant ninth.

The one hour session got off to a dramatic start when Alex Hofmann's d'Antin Ducati blew up on its out lap - sending the German into a gravel trap, but not before dropping oil all over the approach to the Angel Nieto right hander (turn nine).

Rossi was first to fall on the fluid - losing the front of his Camel Yamaha - before Kawasaki team-mates Shinya Nakano and Randy de Puniet, Fortuna Honda's Toni Elias and Team Roberts rider Kenny Roberts were also sent tumbling. Fortunately, all riders were unharmed and - after a 20-minute break to clean the track - qualifying was restarted with 56-minutes left to run. But would those that fell have to switch to their spare bikes?

With no such concerns was Capirossi, who went on to set the early pole position pace - but experienced a scare when he missed his braking point and was forced to wade through a gravel trap. Nevertheless, Capirossi remained in control of the session right until the 31st minute.

At that point, fellow Bridgestone rider Nakano appeared to be the first to fit a qualifying tyre as he steered his ZX-RR around the 4.4km circuit in a flying time of 1min 40.2secs - the fastest lap of the weekend so far - to grab a 0.594secs lead over Loris.

But that advantage would be blown out of the water just minutes later when Capirossi returned with a qualifier of his own to chop over one second from Nakano's best - and deliver a new lap record of 1min 39.2secs - while Suzuki's John Hopkins made it a Bridgestone 1-2-3 by slotting in behind the Japanese soon after.

The Michelin riders then began fitting super soft rubber of their own, resulting in Colin Edwards seizing second for Camel Yamaha and Toni Elias third for Fortuna Honda, but as the final 15-minutes began Capirossi was still on top - with Rossi down in 13th...

The vital final ten-minutes of the hour opened with a Ducati Marlboro one-two - Sete Gibernau having taken second behind his team-mate - while Rossi was still only eleventh. Superstar rookie Dani Pedrosa was one place ahead of the #46, having narrowly saved a front end slide at turn one.

But it was Pedrosa's Repsol Honda team-mate, Nicky Hayden, who was next to star - the young American splitting the factory Ducatis for second with 7mins to go - before Capirossi responded by pushing pole a further 0.2secs away, then Gibernau knocked Nicky down to third to restore the Desmosedici domination.

That provisional front row remained as the last two minutes began, with Pedrosa now pressuring his team-mate for the third, but it was Nakano that eventually deprived Hayden - the smooth Japanese stealing third, a position he kept at the chequered flag to hand team manager Harald Eckl a perfect front row birthday present.

Meanwhile, Gibernau's final pole attack fell 0.25secs short of Capirossi - and the Spaniard appeared to feel he'd been blocked somewhere on the lap - but a confident Loris confirmed his pole anyway, trimming a further 0.014secs from his record breaking pace on his own final lap.

By total contrast, Rossi's last lap was nowhere near the pace - the seven times world champion failing to improve on his lowly ninth position (1sec from pole) as he struggled with his M1. Was Rossi rattled by his early fall, unhappy with his second bike or had the much publicised chatter problems (which appeared visibly reduced) returned? Expect an answer later but, whatever the problem, Edwards was hit by it as well and will line-up one place behind his team-mate tomorrow.

With an all-Bridgestone front row, Hayden led the Michelin challenge with fourth - and gained vital psychological ground by holding off team-mate Pedrosa - while Elias caused a surprise by rounding out an all-Honda row two.

The Spaniard's championship runner-up team-mate, Melandri, will be disappointed with seventh, while class rookie Randy de Puniet recovered from his oil fall - and a further gravel trap stall a few minutes into the restart - to qualify just in front of Rossi... who would have predicted that?

Further back, rookie Chris Vermeulen also surprised by heading John Hopkins to be top Rizla Suzuki rider - albeit in 11th - while the man Vermeulen replaced, Roberts Jr, put his spare KR211V just behind the GSV-Rs in 13th.

Carlos Checa led the Dunlop and Tech 3 Yamaha challenge with 14th, while rookie Casey Stoner will start his first ever MotoGP race from 15th - one place ahead of Konica Minolta Honda's Makoto Tamada. Cardoso, Ellison and Hofmann complete the 19-rider grid.

Full times to follow...

Qualifying:

1. Capirossi
2. Gibernau
3. Nakano
4. Hayden
5. Pedrosa
6. Elias
7. Melandri
8. de Puniet
9. Rossi
10. Edwards
11. Vermeulen
12. Hopkins
13. Roberts
14. Checa
15. Stoner
16. Tamada
17. Cardoso
18. Ellison
19. Hofmann