Dani Pedrosa has broken Yamaha's 2008 pole domination, but kept Michelin's perfect five-race run intact, by putting Repsol Honda on top of a closely contested qualifying session at Le Mans.
The threat of rain added extra tension to the one hour session, the first half of which saw Pedrosa take charge on race tyres.
When qualifying rubber appeared, last year's wet race winner Chris Vermeulen briefly took the advantage, before being replaced at the top by Pedrosa and then Valentino Rossi.
But Colin Edwards, fastest in morning practice and second to Pedrosa on race rubber earlier in qualifying, then delivered a superb lap to pull a huge 0.7secs ahead of Rossi at the front of the field - and lowered pole yet again with ten minutes to go.
Rossi, Pedrosa and world champion Casey Stoner then began steadily chipping away at the Texan's advantage, but the Tech 3 Yamaha star was still 0.220secs clear of Ducati star Stoner with two minutes to go, but which time Casey had finished his qualifying attack.
The only man capable of depriving Tech 3 of an emotional home pole was now Pedrosa and the world championship leader saved his best for last - snatching his and Honda's first pole of the season by 0.127secs.
Edwards, on pole last time out at Shanghai, was denied a last gasp defence when he caught a slow moving Marco Melandri at the wrong place - and made his feelings to the Ducati rider known - but still secured a Michelin one-two for the French manufacturer's home event.
Stoner, still losing time in the twisty final sector, was more than happy with a front row start - but believed he had the speed for pole - while Rossi was a little disappointed to have been left 0.5secs from the top and facing a second row start.
Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo took the first three pole positions of the year, but the injured rookie, riding with two fractured ankles after his Shanghai accident, had suffered his second fall of the weekend during Saturday morning practice.
The Spaniard head butted the ground and was sent tumbling through the gravel after losing the front of his M1 - then shot straight on at turn one this afternoon, just managing to stay in control of his bouncing machine.
The reigning 250cc world champion emerged from it all with a fifth place start, while Nicky Hayden reversed a forgettable weekend by jumping up the order to sixth on the second Repsol Honda.
Edwards's rookie team-mate James Toseland will start his first French Grand Prix from a solid seventh place, with Vermeulen pushed back to eighth after his early heroics. Kawsaki's John Hopkins and JiR Honda's Andrea Dovizioso complete the top ten.
Another nightmare session saw Melandri (17th) and Anthony West (18th) again at the tail end of the field, with home riders Randy de Puniet and Sylvain Guintoli qualifying twelfth and 16th.
Rain duly arrived just minutes after the qualifying session had ended and could yet return for the race.
Qualifying:
1. Pedrosa
2. Edwards
3. Stoner
4. Rossi
5. Lorenzo
6. Hayden
7. Toseland
8. Vermeulen
9. Hopkins
10. Dovizioso
11. Capirossi
12. de Puniet
13. Nakano
14. Elias
15. de Angelis
16. Guintoli
17. Melandri
18. West
