Lorenzo sets record pace to secure Jerez pole

Jorge Lorenzo blitzed the Jerez motorcycle lap record to secure pole position for the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix.

The Yamaha rider proved to be in a class of his own as he posted a 1:37.910s effort to break Marc Marquez’s lap record to claim his first pole position since Misano in September last year.

Lorenzo set the pace from the outset before going on to improve upon his time twice with his final effort eclipsing the lap record.

Despite riding in pain with a broken finger, Honda’s Marquez managed to haul himself onto the front row just 0.333s adrift of Lorenzo in second.

Ducati’s Andrea Iannone showed strong pace at the Spanish circuit to grab the final place on the front row in third.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro was fourth fastest ahead of championship leader Valentino Rossi, who was unable to match the pace of his factory Yamaha team-mate.

The works Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro completed the second row in sixth spot just ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.

The sister Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso, Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez and Britain’s Bradley Smith rounded out the top 10.

Dani Pedrosa’s replacement Hiroshi Ayoama continued to struggle on the Honda in 16th position, while Australia’s Jack Miller will start Sunday’s race from 22nd on the grid.

“We’ve been struggling all weekend with the bike, trying to get rear grip and we’ve not quite managed it yet, but we’re working hard,”said Miller.

“It’s not going to be an easy race, but we’ve shown that we’ve been strong in the latter half of races so we’ll try to make sure we can do that again tomorrow. But it’s a hard track on a MotoGP bike, we’re trying to adapt and we’re not too far away, just over two seconds.

“The race is going to be hot and long so we’ve got to prepare ourselves for that and hopefully we’ll still have some tyre at the end of it.”

Result: MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

Position	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1:37.910	–
2	Marc Márquez	Honda	1:38.300s	+0.390s
3	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1:38.468s	+0.558s
4	Pol Espargaró	Yamaha	1:38.539s	+0.629s
5	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:38.632s	+0.722s
6	Aleix Espargaró	Suzuki	1:38.638s	+0.728s
7	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1:38.714s	+0.804s
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:38.823s	+0.913s
9	Yonny Hernández	Ducati	1:39.464s	+1.554s
10	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1:39.491s	+1.581s
11	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1:39.789s	+1.879s
12	Scott Redding	Honda	1:39.825s	+1.915s
13	Héctor Barberá	Ducati	1:39.569s	+1.659s
14	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1:39.603s	+1.693s
15	Álvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1:39.612s	+1.702s
16	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	1:39.866s	+1.956s
17	Eugene Laverty	Honda	1:39.974s	+2.064s
18	Nicky Hayden	Honda	1:40.025s	+2.115s
19	Stefan Bradl	Yamaha Forward	1:40.166s	+2.256s
20	Karel Abraham	Honda	1:40.177s	+2.267s
21	Loris Baz	Yamaha Forward	1:40.280s	+2.370s
22	Jack Miller	Honda	1:40.365s	+2.455s
23	Mike Di Meglio	Ducati	1:40.817s	+2.907s
24	Alex de Angelis	ART/Aprilia	1:41.108a	+3.198s
25	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	1:41.273s	+3.363s