Qualifying cancelled - Rossi on pole.

Qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang has been cancelled, after over a two hour delay, due to standing water left by heavy rain.

Following three free practice sessions held on a perfectly dry racetrack, a massive rain storm - complete with thunder and lightening - hit the Sepang circuit just before Saturday afternoon's qualifying, delaying the session initially by one hour due to severely reduced visibility and standing water.

After that hour the rain had fortunately stopped, but left behind vast amounts of standing water and - after further track examinations - it was decided that another one-hour delay was required to try to reduce the flooding, with marshals seen sweeping water and digging trackside ditches.

But, despite the pitlane being almost dry, water kept running onto the track and topping up the deep pools of standing water - forcing race direction to finally admit defeat and cancel the session.

As such, the grid for Sunday's race will be set by using the best lap times recorded during the three free practice sessions, meaning that world champion Valentino Rossi (fastest in FP3) will start on pole ahead of world championship leader Nicky Hayden and Friday pace setter Loris Capirossi.

All riders but the injured Dani Pedrosa, Makoto Tamada, Alex Hofmann and Jose Luis Cardoso set their best free practice lap - and now 'qualifying time' - during Saturday morning's third and final practice session.

The full grid positions can be seen below:

1. Rossi (FP3)
2. Hayden (FP3)
3. Capirossi (FP3)
4. Roberts (FP3)
5. Pedrosa (FP2)
6. Gibernau (FP3)
7. de Puniet (FP3)
8. Hopkins (FP3)
9. Melandri (FP3)
10. Stoner (FP3)
11. Edwards (FP3)
12. Nakano (FP3)
13. Tamada (FP2)
14. Elias (FP3)
15. Checa (FP3)
16. Vermeulen (FP3)
17. Hofmann (FP2)
18. Ellison (FP3)
19. Cardoso (FP2)