Gibernau gives Ducati home Mugello pole.

Sete Gibernau has taken his first pole position of the 2006 season after leading a dream Ducati one-two during qualifying for the team's home Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

Gibernau's team-mate Capirossi had continued the home dominance by replacing Friday's fastest man, world champion Valentino Rossi, at the top of the free practice timesheets on Saturday morning - although the Ducati rider's best lap, of 1min 50.272secs, was still slightly shy of Max Biaggi's 2005 race lap record and one-second from Rossi's 2005 pole record.

But not for long: It took less than ten-minutes into this afternoon's qualifying hour for Capirossi to beat Biaggi's record with the first sub-1min 50secs lap of the weekend so far and then - after being toppled by Rossi and team-mate Gibernau - shoot back to the top with a scorching 1min 49.058secs circulation, set after 35 minutes, which broke Rossi's previous pole record.

The Ducati Marlboro one-two remained intact - despite the best efforts of Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano and then Repsol Honda's world championship leader Nicky Hayden - as the final five minutes began, when all riders returned for their last pole attack.

It ultimately took a further two-minutes before the Desmosedici domination was broken, by home star Marco Melandri, who split the red and white machines - but Gibernau instantly responded in style; leapfrogging both the Fortuna Honda rider and team-mate Capirossi to take pole with the first ever sub 1min 49secs lap.

Sete was sure to face a fierce response from the likes of Capirossi and Rossi on their final laps, but both surprisingly fell short of the Catalan - by 0.089secs and 0.198secs respectively - although Capirossi at least gave Ducati their dream home one-two on tomorrow's grid while Rossi secured his first front row start of 2006.

Sunday's second row will be headed by Hayden, who lapped just 0.243secs from Gibernau, with Nakano and Melandri starting alongside him. John Hopkins put Suzuki at the head of row three after qualifying seventh, just ahead of frontrunning rookies Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner.

Main disappointment of this afternoon was the performance of Rossi's Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards, who will start just 14th on the grid after a session in which he was rarely inside the top ten.

Full times to follow...

Qualifying:

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