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Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo brushed aside all the hype around Spanish rookie Marc Marquez to take pole position for today’s Commercial Bank MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar at the Losail International Circuit.
Yesterday evening, in the qualifying session, the Yamaha rider posted some blistering times across all four sectors to edge Cal Crutchlow of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 by two tenths of a second posting 1:54.714. Crutchlow clocked 1:54.916 and will start ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.
“I pushed to the limit,” Lorenzo said after the qualifying. “I know Cal (Crutchlow) is a fast rider and I had to post something really fast and make it to the pole. And that’s what I did.”
Lorenzo will be looking to repeat his 2012 success in Qatar when he went from pole to victory.
Crutchlow, who in a column for BBC Sport wrote on Friday that only Lorenzo could post a win on his bike, said he hoped to build on his performance for today’s race.
“I hope so,” he said when asked whether he fancies his chances in the race. “The team has done a brilliant job this weekend. Obviously it will be difficult to challenge the factory racing teams but we will do our best.”
Pedrosa was happy about his performance in the qualifying session after staying out of the top five through all the practice sessions this weekend. “It’s good to be on the front row after the kind of results I have had through the weekend,” the Spaniard said.
Andrea Dovizioso, who replaced nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi at Ducati will start fifth with a timing of 1:55.160, ahead of Stefan Bradl of LCR Honda MotoGP team, who came in Marquez, who had been impressive so far by topping the timing charts in practice sessions, could only manage a sixth place ahead of nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi.
The qualifying session for the team almost came to a premature end when Marquez and teammate Pedrosa came scarily close to a collision towards the end.
Rossi’s return to Yamaha, alongside former rival and current teammate Lorenzo has had far less impact than expected so far.
Alvaro Bautista of GO&FUN Honda Gresini finished eighth with 1:55.870 ahead of MotoGP debutante and Crutchlow’s teammate Bradley Smith.
Andrea Iannone of Energy TI Pramac Racing, who made it to the second qualifying session in the new qualifying format after finishing second behind Aleix Espargaro of Power Electronics Aspar in the first qualifying session, will start tenth, ahead of 2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden.
Espargaro will start twelfth.
In Moto2, Aleix’s younger brother, Pol, who rides for Tuenti HP 40, recovered from a crash early on in the qualifying session to take pole ahead of Italtrans Racing Team rider Takaaki Nakagami.
The younger Espargaro posted 2:00.882 on the last lap of his session to ensure he starts ahead of Japanese Nakagami, who posted 2:01.014, in today’s race.
Mika Kallio of Marc VDS Racing Team will start third with a qualifying time of 2:01.041 ahead of teammate Scott Redding, who headed the timesheets early on.