Sete Gibernau will start the Gran Premio D'Italia Alice from pole position after out-foxing Ducati Marlboro team-mate Loris Capirossi inside the final two minutes of a frantic qualifying session at Mugello.

Catalan Gibernau timed his flying lap to perfection and demoted 'Capirex' to second on the grid with a stunning lap, 1:48.969, the Spaniard the only man to get under the one-minute 49 second mark.

Capirossi will start the race from the middle of the front row, Loris finishing the session just 0.089 seconds back of Sete, with Valentino Rossi claiming his first front-row start of the season to round out the top three.

Repsol Honda's Nick Hayden managed to fight his way to fourth position, heading the second row of the grid, with Shinya Nakano right behind him in fifth. Nakano looked to be on a pole lap with the flag out, two red sectors alight for the Japanese, but the lap went away from the Kawasaki man inside the final three corners.

Marco Melandri, double race-winner from this season, will start from the back of row two after a solid qualifying hour, and row three sees John Hopkins in seventh, Dani Pedrosa in eighth and LCR Honda's Casey Stoner in ninth.

Colin Edwards had a shocker, the Texan Tornado not getting to 'grips' with the qualifying tire, and the former world superbike champion will start the 23-lap race from 14th on the grid, the middle of the fifth row.

So, can Sete Gibernau convert his pole into a solid race performance tomorrow with the assistance of Bridgestone, or will Rossi finally break cover and show them all he's far from down and out with regards to taking another world title?

Whatever happens, the Ducatisti will be in passion overdrive, with their grandstand awash with red and white, and a home win will send them delirious.

Stay tuned to Soup' for further comment, press releases, as well as full warm-up times and race results, with our obligatory race updates thrown in to keep you cyber-people in touch via the power of the internet.

The Italian Grand Prix is due off at 2pm, local time, slipstreaming action guaranteed down in the Tuscan valley's.

Saturday Press to follow.    (superbikeplanet.com)