Title contenders up front on Friday.

If Stoner wins his ninth grand prix of the season on Sunday, Rossi must finish fifth or above to prevent the Australian capturing the title with four rounds still remaining. But, after his Misano disaster, Rossi was in determined mood on the Michelin-shod Fiat Yamaha and finished third fastest - indicating that Stoner and Ducati could well be made to wait.

Second place went to Japanese Tech 3 Yamaha rider Tamada who used a Dunlop qualifying tyre toward the finish of the second session, but set a best time on race tyres good enough for seventh. Former 125 and 250cc world champion Dani Pedrosa was fourth with Randy de Puniet fifth for Kawasaki. Two weeks ago at Misano in Italy de Puniet brought down Pedrosa on the second bend of the race and angry words were exchanged.

John Hopkins, riding the Rizla Suzuki, was sixth still just over half a second slower than Stoner while his team-mate Chris Vermeulen was 11th - but still only seventh tenths of a second behind his fellow Australian at the front.

Spaniard Carlos Checa crashed his LCR Honda both in the morning and afternoon sessions. He was unhurt in both incidents.

Qualifying should be equally close tomorrow while the 28-lap race on Sunday should provide Stoner with one of his toughest races of the season as he strives to become the second youngest rider to win the premier class of grand prix Motorcycle racing.

Free practice times (3) - Estoril.

1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 37.173 secs

2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 37.434 secs

3. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 37.681 secs

4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 37.785 secs

5. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 38.013 secs

6. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 38.068 secs

7. Makoto Tamada JPN Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 38.091 secs

8. Carlos Checa SPA Honda LCR (M) 1min 38.185 secs

9. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 38.217 secs

10. Shinya Nakano JPN Konica Minolta Honda (M) 1min 38.260 secs

11. Marco Melandri ITA Honda Gresini (B) 1min 38.260 secs

12. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 38.355 secs

13. Colin Edwards USA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 38.400 secs

14. Alex Barros BRA Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 38.537 secs

15. Toni Elias SPA Honda Gresini (B) 1min 38.599 secs

16. Alex Hofmann GER Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 38.724 secs

17. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 38.725 secs

18. Anthony West AUS Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 38.941 secs

19. Kurtis Roberts USA Team Roberts (M) 1min 40.177 secs

2007 Portuguese Grand Prix:

Fastest Friday time: Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro (B) 1min 37.950secs

2006 Portuguese Grand Prix:

Pole position: Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha (M) 1min 36.200secs

Fastest race lap: Kenny Roberts Jr USA Team Roberts (M) 1min 37.914secs

250: Lorenzo set to end Estoril drought.

The Spaniard has never been on the podium in a 250cc race in Portugal, but showed no signs of discomfort with the Estoril circuit as he put in a 1min 40.480secs lap nearly a full second quicker than Roberto Locatelli's pole record from 2006.

The provisional first two rows would all have taken pole any other year, but the closest to Lorenzo on this occasion was his title rival Andrea Dovizioso, over four tenths of a second slower than the factory Aprilia rider.

The KTM duo of Mika Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama made up the front row featuring all three major factories, followed on the provisional second row by morning crasher Alvaro Bautista, title contender Alex de Angelis and the Spanish duo of Julian Simon and Hector Barbera.

First qualifying - Estoril:

1. Lorenzo (Aprilia)

2. Dovizioso (Honda) +0.344secs

3. Kallio (KTM) +0.413secs

4. H. Aoyama (KTM) +0.583secs

5. Bautista (Aprilia) +0.858secs

6. de Angelis (Aprilia) +0.943secs

7. Luthi (Aprilia) +0.975secs

8. Simon (Honda) +1.025secs

9. Barbera (Aprilia) +1.172secs

10. Takahashi (Honda) +1.191secs

23. Laverty (Honda) +4.127secs

24. Linfoot (Aprilia) +4.405secs

DNQ Lawrence (Aprilia) +8.985secs

Stoner 'reasonably happy'.

The Ducati Marlboro star, who needs to score 15 points more than Valentino Rossi to secure the crown on Sunday, worked with his usual precision to achieve an impressive pace, his best run averaging low 1min 38secs.

Stoner's closest rival was Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha's Makoto Tamada, who used a qualifying tyre to get within 0.039secs of the #27, while nearest title rival Rossi was just 0.17secs behind in third for Fiat Yamaha.

"We're reasonably happy with the way today went, we struggled a little bit this morning and also a little bit in the last part of this afternoon's session but apart from that we're very happy with the settings we've got for this track, which is one of the most difficult circuits of the year with a lot bumps and some very technical corners," said the Australian, who has topped practice and qualifying at the last four MotoGP events and won the last three races. "We've nearly done race distance on the tyres, so everything is going very well, we just need to try and improve the traction for tomorrow. If we can do that then we should be able to push to improve our lap times and also our pace for the race."

Team-mate Loris Capirossi, who must simply want a nightmare 2007 season to end, was seventh fastest.

"I'm struggling a lot here," admitted the Italian, who will ride for Suzuki next year. "During the final phase of the afternoon session I was able to find a better set-up and I did some not so bad laps, but we aren't okay yet. The engine delivery is too aggressive, so I'm having a lot of trouble, most of all in the slow parts of the track. We need to work on the engine management system and the electronics."

Rossi to make a race of it?

Stoner needs to score 15 points more than Rossi on Sunday, the difference between first and sixth place, to wrap up his first world crown four rounds early.

However, the Italian was a close third fastest on Friday at Estoril - just 0.17secs behind Stoner, with Makoto Tamada using a Dunlop qualifying tyre to split the pair. After three Stoner start-to-finish wins in a row, Rossi finally looks capable of racing with the Australian once again.

"Today I am quite happy because we've made some improvements to the new engine and it's going well for us, plus the new tyres that we found at the last test are also working quite well," declared Valentino. "We have a few small problems to fix, but I was able to ride a lot better today; I was quite fast from the start and we did some good work to find the right setting. Also this afternoon Tamada used a qualifying tyre so in reality we were second fastest on race tyres and quite close to Stoner; this is a good result. The bike is not so bad and it feels like we've made a good step forward. At the moment we need to think about the second part of the race, because this is where we expect more problems, but tomorrow the condition of the asphalt should be improved so hopefully this will also help our tyre performance."

"Today was positive for Valentino but more difficult for Colin," added team director Davide Brivio. "With Valentino we're continuing to use the new engine, we have found some positive things with it and it's working well. Plus the new tyres we have here are an improvement for us. We can see that Valentino is already able to ride quite well and his pace is close to the top so we will keep working in the same direction. With Colin we have some more work to do and we have to check very carefully tonight the information we gathered today in order to find a better set-up for him tomorrow. We know he can improve because this morning he was quite fast, so we need to go back in that direction tomorrow."

Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards was the only rider to lap slower in the afternoon session, leaving him 13th overall as a result.

Portuguese GP - Hayden storms to Estoril pole

Nicky Hayden put the memories of a frustrating 2007 behind him by claiming an incredible last-gasp pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

The world champion produced the lap of his life to scorch around Estoril in 1:36.301 to knock Casey Stoner off the top by four hundredths of a second.

Hayden had not looked like a factor in the early stages of the session as he pounded around on race tyres on his Repsol Honda. Instead Valentino Rossi and John Hopkins set the pace.

But, as the majority of the riders switched to qualifying tyres, the 26-year-old American moved his way towards the front, recovering from a trip through the gravel at turn six in the process.

While he was doing so Stoner, on a Ducati, rattled off a lap that had the rest sweating, to go a second clear of the field, but incredibly Rossi, and then Hayden were both able to better the time.

Hayden's pole was the fifth of his career, his first since last year's Australian Grand Prix and undoubtedly his finest.

Behind Stoner, whose run of poles was ended, Rossi completed the front row on his Yamaha.

Makoto Tamada was one of the stars of the session as he qualified a season's best fourth on his Dunlop-shod Tech-3 Yamaha, one place ahead of Dani Pedrosa's Repsol Honda.

Colin Edwards and Marco Melandri were next up for Yamaha and Gresini Honda after quiet runs, but not at all quiet was Sylvain Guintoli, who will start from a career-best eighth on the second Tech-3 machine.

Toni Elias and John Hopkins rounded out the top ten for Gresini Honda and Suzuki, but at least both kept their bikes on the Island.

The same could be said of Shinya Nakano, who dumped his Konica Minolta Honda at turn seven after ten minutes before recovering to qualify 13th.

Nor was it true of Randy de Puniet, who crashed at turn six and would have to be content with 18th for Kawasaki.

Portuguese GP - 125s: Pasini in seventh heaven

Mattia Pasini proved he is the king of qualifying by securing his seventh pole position of the season in qualifying for the 125cc Portuguese Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old Italian, who had been fastest on Friday, was trailing Lukas Pesek with a minute of the session remaining, but just edged his rival in the final minute of the session.

But the Polaris World Aprilia rider was not finished there either and went round even quicker on his final tour to end up with a best time of 1:44.675 and claim his eighth career pole.

Czech rider Pesek will start second on his Seedorf Derbi with the Aprilias of Simone Corsi and Gabor Talmacsi completing the front row.

Corsi, on a Skilled Racing bike, was impressive as demoted the championship leading Aspar man to fourth late in the session.

Fifth, and equalling the best grid spot of his career, was German rider Sandro Cortese on his Caffe Latte Aprilia while Sergio Gadea led a trio of Spaniards behind him on his Aspar bike.

The trio was completed by Pol Espargaro's Campetella Aprilia and title contender Hector Faubel's Aspar machine.

Stefan Bradl equalled his career-best grid spot in ninth for Blusens Aprilia while Joan Olive ensured that Polaris World book-ended the top ten.

Britain's Bradley Smith improved from 19th overnight to 15th on his Repsol Honda, but Danny Webb slipped back from 27th to 29th on his De Graaf Honda.