Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi has taken pole position at the Malaysian MotoGP after setting a new lap record in the third free practice session.

Rossi dominated the Saturday practice session and it worked to his favour with the riders' fastest practice time being used to determine the grid after organisers cancelled qualifying because of heavy rain.

The Italian's luck was even greater considering he had a disappointing opening day at Sepang, when he failed to finish inside the top five in either practice session

"We are a little bit lucky," Rossi told Reuters. "It's certainly strange, I think it's the first time we didn't do qualifying."

"But it's the right decision. The conditions were too dangerous with some parts of the track dry and some like rivers."

"The bike felt very good this morning and I managed a great lap. I'm hoping the weather is okay tomorrow and we can put on a good race."

Rossi flew around the Sepang circuit in a new record time of 2:00.605, breaking the record set the previous day by Italian Loris Capirossi.

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa also benefited from the rain, limping into last place during Saturday's session because of a fall the previous day, but his Friday time of 2:02.021 was enough to grab him fifth.

Championship leader Nicky Hayden (2:01.04) will start second on the grid, while Capirossi's record on the previous day was only enough to grab him third (2:01.17) ahead of American Kenny Roberts Jnr. (2:01.90) fourth.

Australian Casey Stoner clocked the 10th best time during practice, 2:02.790. (sportal)

Results from Free Practice 3

1 Valentino Rossi 2:00.605
2 Nicky Hayden 2:01.043
3 Loris Capirossi 2:01.167
4 Kenny Roberts 2:01.898
5 Sete Gibernau 2:02.181
6 Randy De Puniet 2:02.313
7 John Hopkins 2:02.453
8 Marco Melandri 2:02.560
9 Casey Stoner 2:02.790
10 Colin Edwards 2:02.800

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