With dark clouds looming over the circuit, it was race winner from Jerez, Lorenzo who claimed his 17th MotoGP pole and the 43rd in his career. The Yamaha rider’s win in Spain was the 15th time he had stood on the top step on the podium, matched Alex Criville’s record of the most wins by a Spanish rider in the premier class. This is a circuit where the Mallorcan has won the last three races from pole position.
The pole position lap time of 1’37.161 was just over one tenth faster than his nearest challenger Simoncelli. After dominating both Friday practices, the Italian rider had continued to lead the timing screens throughout the qualifying hour until he was pipped by the reigning World Champion in the final five minutes. Simoncelli then was on a lap which was a third of a second up on the Yamaha when he crashed into turn 7 which ruled out the possibility of the 24 year old fighting to regain top spot.
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The top four riders were separated between 0.223s, with the Repsol Honda duo of Pedrosa and Casey Stoner in third and fourth. The Spaniard’s second place in Jerez was the 90th time he has stood on the rostrum in Grand Prix racing where as Stoner was victim to a much publicised crash at the previous race. The Australian crashed out of this race last season whilst hunting down the leading pack and will be looking to get back into contention for this year’s title in the race tomorrow. motogp.com
Multiple former champion Valentino Rossi could only manage ninth on his Ducati.
Lorenzo replaced Simoncelli, who suffered a late crash, at the head of the time sheet four minutes from the end of the hour-long session.
This was his first pole of the season, his 17th in MotoGP and 43rd in all.
The pole position lap time of 1min 37.161sec was just over one tenth of a second faster than his nearest challenger, Simoncelli. AFP
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