The weather has been a factor at just about every race so far this season, usually by being treacherous, changeable and unreliable, so the relief with which several days of calm, predictable and warm weather is being greeted is entirely understandable. With no exceptionally cool mornings, or dry days followed by wet days, teams and tire makers are glad to be able to work consistently on a setup, and getting ready for the race.

Casey Stoner would probably be fine without the setup time. Stoner was back to his old tricks in the free practice sessions, taking just 4 laps to get onto the top of the timesheets, and relinquishing that position only very briefly during all three sessions. So it was hardly a surprise to see Casey Stoner taking provisional pole on his 3rd lap out of the pits, and cracking into the 1'34 bracket - faster than anyone but himself had been so far this weekend - on the next lap.

By the end of his first run, Casey Stoner held provisional pole with a lap of 1'34.763, nearly half a second ahead of the rest of the field. Stoner was once again exerting his authority on the rest of the field, and setting the mark to measure the rest of the field by.

Behind Stoner, things were a good deal more interesting. Fortunately for Michelin, their tires were working well at the circuit, as Jorge Lorenzo and Randy de Puniet were mixing it up near the top of the timesheets, and were obviously competitive with the Bridgestones. With quarter of the session gone, Lorenzo held the 2nd fastest time on his Fiat Yamaha, while Alice Ducati's Toni Elias showed that his good result in Brno was a sign of more to come, with the 3rd fastest time, ahead of Valentino Rossi.

But the times were pretty close. Apart from Casey Stoner, who was over 0.4 seconds ahead as the session approached the halfway mark, just half a second covered the 2nd to 10th spots on the grid. It was clear that once the qualifiers went on, a tenth of a second could be the difference between being on the front row or the third row of the grid. The wait was on for the first rider to go out on soft rubber.

All eyes were on Randy de Puniet, as the flying Frenchman is invariably the first qualifier out, but not today. Instead, shortly after the halfway mark, it was James Toseland who was first out on soft rubber, though his first attempt at qualifying only took him up to 3rd. Fortunately for the traditionalists, de Puniet was close behind Toseland, and even better, the LCR Honda rider snatched provisional pole from Casey Stoner with a lap of 1'34.753 seconds.

It was pretty clear that 0.01 seconds over Stoner's times on race tires was never going to be enough to hold on to pole. As if to emphasize this point, Stoner went out again on race tires, and after another high 1'34, snatched back the pole from de Puniet with a lap of 1'34.400. Now satisfied with his race setup, the Australian headed back into the pits for his qualifying tires, leaving the rest to wonder just how fast he'd be on tires with even more grip.

By now, the action had really hotted up. Stoner's provisional pole fell with a minute, as Jorge Lorenzo put his second qualifier to good use, and setting a 1'34.300. Chris Vermeulen had earlier taken 3rd, but was forced off the front row just moments later by Valentino Rossi, who was just over a tenth behind his team mate.

And Lorenzo was getting faster. With 8 minutes of the session left, the Spaniard got faster still, setting a lap of 1'34.156, and confirming his claim to the pole. His position was strengthened further still, when Casey Stoner only managed a 1'34.160 on his first qualifier, forced to settle for 2nd.

The qualifying battle was settling out into two groups, with Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi squabbling over the front row, while Randy de Puniet, Dani Pedrosa, Chris Vermeulen and Toni Elias slugged it out for the 2nd row. But with 5 minutes left to go, the matter was far from setttled.

Valentino Rossi struck the first blow, shaving a few hundredths off Lorenzo's provisional pole time with a 1'34.113, but this clearly wasn't going to be enough. A couple of minutes later, his Fiat Yamaha team mate was back, and cracking into the 1'33s with a lap of 1'33.964, a time that looked like it could be tough to beat.

Not for Casey Stoner, though. Lorenzo's pole time stood for just 35 seconds, as Casey Stoner was on an astonishing lap. A couple of tenths ahead at the second checkpoint, by the time the Marlboro Ducati rider broke the beam at the third checkpoint, he was over 6/10ths up. If he could just stay on board, the pole would be his, but Casey Stoner was pushing. Stoner finally crossed the line in a time of 1'33.378, just under 0.6 ahead of Lorenzo, on a time that would be impossible to beat.

That didn't stop Valentino Rossi from trying. On his final flying lap, the Italian took another few tenths of his own best time, and took 2nd place on the grid with a time of 1'33.888, forcing his team mate down to 3rd.

Randy de Puniet took 4th, a quarter of a second behind Lorenzo, but the fight for the 2nd row had been close. Only a few hundredths separated Randy de Puniet in 4th, a resurgent Toni Elias in 5th, Dani Pedrosa in 6th, Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen in 7th, who was unlucky to be forced back to the 3rd row of the grid, and Shinya Nakano in 8th. The Tech 3 Yamahas of James Toseland and Colin Edwards rounded out the top 10.

Though qualifying is a fascinating spectacle - and the qualifying at Misano was pretty good as far as spectacles go - the soft qualifying rubber can make for a pretty distorted picture of the race. Based on times on race tires, the front row are likely to be the bikes fighting for the podium, with Casey Stoner clearly the quickest of the bunch. The only question is, with a fractured scaphoid opened up in his left wrist, whether Stoner can last a whole 28 laps in the searing heat.

Valentino Rossi will be doing his best to ensure Stoner doesn't, and is likely to attempt another Laguna Seca job, the Misano track being tighter and harder to pass at than Brno. And Jorge Lorenzo looks to be back to his old form, and is certainly fast enough to run at the front. Hopefully, now that he has found some of his old confidence, he can stay on the bike, and not crash out and hurt himself for the umpteenth time this season.

At least the Michelin tires look to be up to the job. After 3 miserable races in a row, the French tire maker seems to have pulled itself together. The paddock is awash with extra Michelin crew, and the added attention seems to be paying off. Of course, Michelin have traditionally done better in very hot temperatures, such as we are likely to see during the race tomorrow, and this could be one reason for their resurgence.

The race is shaping up to be the classic we are all hoping for. There are question marks over Stoner's wrist, but Rossi also needs to find another tenth or so to be sure of keeping Stoner within striking distance. In sight of his 68th career win in the premier class, and with Giacomo Agostini very prominently present in the paddock, Rossi will want to put on a show. It would not surprise me in the slightest if Yamaha were to have Agostini's 1975 championship winning bike hiding under a tarpaulin somewhere at Misano. It would surprise me even less if Ago were to suit up and ride out to join Rossi on track on that bike, should Rossi win.

There's just the small matter of beating Casey Stoner on the Ducati to deal with first.

Full results of the Misano MotoGP Qualifying Practice.