( CNN ) -- Valentino Rossi revealed he is still fighting pain ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix , as MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo set the pace in qualifying at Laguna Seca . World champion Rossi will start on the second row of the grid on Sunday after finishing sixth fastest , in what will be just his second race back after breaking his leg in early June . Lorenzo , who has a 47-point advantage over Dani Pedrosa in the overall standings , claimed his fifth consecutive pole position -- and the 40th of his career -- as he edged out 2007 world champion Casey Stoner with his penultimate lap of one minute 20.978 seconds . The Fiat Yamaha rider was the only one to break the 1:21 mark , with Ducati 's Stoner clocking 1:21.169 . Andrea Dovizioso headed off Repsol Honda teammate Pedrosa to take third place , while American Ben Spies was fifth in 1:21.679 . Nine-time world champion Rossi clocked 1:21.688 to edge out another U.S. rider , the 2006 overall winner Nicky Hayden . The Italian revealed that he was troubled more by his shoulder problem than his leg . `` I think it 's going to be very difficult tomorrow because this track is a lot harder for me than Sachsenring [ in Germany ] , but I hope I can have a good race , '' he told the MotoGP website on Saturday . `` There are a few corners where we know we can be a bit faster , so tomorrow morning we will try to make some small changes to the setting to allow that , then I need to get a good start . `` My leg feels better than yesterday , which is good . The problem today is the shoulder because my left one is n't strong enough to compensate completely for the lack of power in my right one , and now I have some pain in both ! `` My hope for tomorrow is to be able to finish the race without too much pain and to do the best we can in the circumstances . We did n't go too badly today but we need to improve our setting a little bit to get closer to the leaders . `` Lorenzo and Stoner are very fast but after that there are a few riders quite close together , including me , so it 's not too bad . '' Dovizioso is third overall on 102 points , 36 behind Pedrosa , with Stoner fourth on 83 ahead of Hayden ( 78 ) and Rossi ( 74 ) with 10 races to go .
World champion Valentino Rossi qualifies sixth for Sunday 's U.S. Grand Prix . Italian struggling with shoulder problem in second race back after breaking his leg . MotoGP leader Jorge Lorenzo claims fifth consecutive pole position this season . Spaniard edges out 2007 world champion Casey Stoner with fast penultimate lap .