Lorenzo storms to pole in Qatar thriller

 In a dramatic qualifying session under the Losail floodlights, reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Jorge Lorenzo claimed pole position for the season-opening Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow and Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa. Saturday marked the debut of MotoGP’s new-look qualifying format, whereby the top 12 riders go head-to-head in a 15-minute shootout for the top spot. Maintaining his 100 per cent front row record at the Losail International Circuit, Lorenzo sealed his seventh career pole at the track with a best effort of 1’54.714. Crutchlow, the leading British representative, started his campaign in strong fashion and missed out on pole by two tenths of a second, having abandoned his final run at Turn 1. Pedrosa had had a quiet weekend up until qualifying, concentrating mainly on race pace, but sealed a front row placing as he pipped Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso by nine thousandths of a second. Dovizioso was the surprise of the session, showing just how far the Desmosedici has come since last year, and how well he is gelling with the machine at the track. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl and Repsol’s 20-year-old newcomer Marc Márquez will complete the second row, with the Spaniard lucky not to have run in the back of his teammate in the early stages. Valentino Rossi could manage no more than seventh position on his high-profile return to Yamaha, citing that he had made the wrong judgement on where to join the short session, leaving him in traffic on his final hot lap. Making up the rest of the third row will be GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista and Tech 3’s Bradley Smith. One of three rookies in the top ten, Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone heads the fourth row from Ducati’s Nicky Hayden who is 11th. With Ben Spies having suffered a hard fall in the preceding fourth practice session, the opportunity was very much open for a CRT bike to head into Q2, with Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró taking full advantage. However he couldn’t beat the prototypes, yet starts from a very credible 12th. Spies, riding the Ignite Pramac Racing machine, could manage only third place in Q1, which translates to 13th on the grid. Aspar’s Randy de Puniet, who pushed hard in an attempt to make Q2 but lost out in the second half of the lap, will be 14th, whilst impressing many was Czech newcomer Lukáš Pešek who will start his first MotoGP race from 15th on the grid for Came IodaRacing Project after finding good form with a soft front tyre – which most riders did not use. The rest of the top 20 is made up by PBM’s Yonny Hernández, who has suffered two crashes this weekend, Avintia Blusens’ Hiroshi Aoyama, Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham, NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards and Ioda’s Danilo Petrucci. The 24-rider grid is completed by Forward’s Claudio Corti at the start of his first full MotoGP campaign, Avintia’s Héctor Barberá, who suffered technical problems at the start of Q1, Australian Gresini debutant Bryan Staring and PBM’s Michael Laverty on the team’s own-built bike. MotoGP™ Qualifying Practice Classification
1- Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha Factory Racing 1:54.714
2- Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech3 1:54.916
3- Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 1:55.151

1st CRT
12th - Aleix Espargaró SPA Power Electronics Aspar 1:57.064