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Championship leader Marco Simoncelli easily secured pole position for the 250cc Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Italian Simoncelli's time of one minute and 32.075 seconds bettered that of his nearest rival Mika Kallio by 0.787.

Simoncelli will now have an excellent chance of extending his 32-point lead in the riders' standings over Alvaro Bautista.

Bautista, who took provisional pole after the first session, will start third on the grid between the factory KTMs of Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama.

After Simoncelli laid down an early marker Aoyama briefly took P1 with a pair of quick laps, but the Gilera rider was back at the top of the timesheets halfway through the session and never looked back.

Kallio and Alvaro Bautista set their fastest laps after the chequered flag.

Hector Faubel, Julian Simon, Yuki Takahashi - who suffered a crash early on - and Alex Debon make up the second row.

Crash.Net / Eurosport