Michelin-shod Yamahas continued their run of pole positions, but with Jorge Lorenzo being held back by his damaged feet it was Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 satellite team bike who was fastest by the considerable margin of over a third of a second in front of Valentino Rossi's factory bike. Casey Stoner reminded everyone that he should not be written off after a couple of indifferent races by rounding out the front row—that's his first top-three start of the year. Amazingly, Lorenzo did 21 laps, the same as he did in the morning session, to be fourth quickest. His manager, Dani Amatriain, told Randy Mamola on live TV that Jorge had breaks in both feet as well as the chipped left ankle and painfully swollen right ankle.

The great unknown will be the weather. There is a substantial chance—over 80%—that a major storm will hit the Shanghai area on race day morning. That could alter the picture more than a little.

As well as dealing with the grief from the Friday highside injuries, Lorenzo had to put his right foot down hard to prevent a spill when he ran on at the end of the big straight and survived the mother of all moments coming on to the front straight. Exiting the final turn, a rightangle left, the bike snapped to the right, then back again, then repeated the procedure a couple more times, often with plenty of air under first the front and then the rear tyre as well as between Jorge's leathers and the bike's seat. It would have been an astonishing save under any circumstances.

Rossi is obviously happy that he and his team are learning how to set up for Bridgestone tyres. There has been 'A great step forward' since the start of the season, he says, and is particularly pleased with his pace on worn tyres. Vale also describes Shanghai as the 'first Bridgestone track' he's been to. That might be a bit of an overstatement, Shanghai actually seems to be tire-neutral as far as race rubber is concerned but there were some interesting trends in qualifying. Everyone, especially Rossi, was shocked that Pedrosa wasn't on the front row at least, and no Honda rider improved his position from free practice. Suzuki had a good qualifying, but Kawasaki didn't after Hopkins crashed thanks to mega-chatter from a new design of qualifying tyre. Bridgestone still don't have a front qualifier so Rossi scrubbed in a soft race tyre early on and used it with the rear Q-tyres. Nicky Hayden's qualifying was nixed just when things look good. He lowsided, unhurt, at the right that leads on to the back straight. Unfortunately, that's about as far from the pits as you can get and the scooter that picked Nicky up wasn't the most efficient form of transport so he had to jog most of the way. Not surprisingly, he couldn't go faster on his second bike.

Times on race tyres still suggest another Rossi--Stoner battle, probably with the other previous Shanghai winner Dani Pedrosa in the mix. Colin hopes to do what Hopkins did last year and latch on to the faster guys thus buying a ticket to the breakaway. Much attention will be on Lorenzo, who had to be pushed to his bike in a wheelchair and lifted on and off it today. Rossi's view is that Jorge is 'a wizard with qualifying tyres, and with pain,' and that 'Dr Costa will make magic with the feet.' Given that highside, any points Jorge can garner on Sunday will be a major bonus.

The great unknown will be the weather. There is a substantial chance—over 80%—that a major storm will hit the Shanghai area on race day morning. That could alter the picture more than a little.