(CNN) -- Casey Stoner earned his third pole position in four attempts this season as Honda riders dominated qualifying for Sunday's French Grand Prix.

The Australian, third in the MotoGP standings, set the fastest lap of one minute 33.153 seconds -- just 0.059s ahead of Marco Simoncelli at Le Mans on Saturday.

Another Italian, Andrea Dovizioso, gave Honda a clean sweep of the front-row positions while Spain's Dani Pedrosa will start fourth for the Japanese manufacturer.

Yamaha riders claimed the next four places, with world champion and 2011 series leader Jorge Lorenzo fifth ahead of Britain's Cal Crutchlow, veteran Colin Edwards and his fellow American Ben Spies.

Stoner fastest in French MotoGP practice

Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi's difficult start to his first season with Ducati continued as he qualified ninth ahead of American teammate Nicky Hayden.

Lorenzo, who like Pedrosa failed to win a place on the front row for the first time this season, will become the youngest rider to reach the milestone of 150 Grand Prix starts across all classes.

The Spaniard, who turned 24 on May 4, was half a second off the pace set by 2007 world champion Stoner -- who heads the grid for the 25th time in his career.

The 25-year-old won the opening race of the season in Qatar, but failed to finish in Jerez as Lorenzo triumphed on home soil, and was third in Portugal as Pedrosa led a Spanish 1-2