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.
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