Lorenzo secures pole at Motegi

Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has taken pole position for tomorrow's Japanese round of the MotoGP world championship as he set a new qualifying record, scoring his first pole in five months and Michelin's first since May.

Casey Stoner led the early running on race tyres, before Randy de Puniet became the first to set a time on qualifiers just after halfway through the session.

Over the next fifteen minutes the times steadily fell, before with sixteen minutes remaining, Stoner took seven-tenths of a second off to put in a 1:45.831.

Two minutes later Lorenzo went less than a tenth faster with a 1:45.750, and despite two more attempts Stoner failed to improve. No-one else could match Lorenzo either.

However, it didn't stop Lorenzo going out and beating his own time after the chequered flag had fallen, lowering his own mark by two-tenths to 1:45.543.

Stoner's effort was good enough to stay in second, with a late lap by Nicky Hayden bumping himself onto the front row in third. This pushed Valentino Rossi down to fourth, alongside Dani Pedrosa and Loris Capirossi who continued with his strong Motegi form.

After running fast in practice and signing for Honda for next season yesterday, Andrea Dovizioso didn't have a great qualifying, and will start from fourteenth, nearly 1.4 seconds off the pace.

A crash in the last minute of the session hurt any hopes Alex de Angelis had of improving, ending the session in eighteenth, but still almost a second clear of Suzuki's Kosuke Akiyoshi who qualified last, over three seconds off Lorenzo's pole position.

Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:45.543 2. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:45.831 + 0.288 3. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:45.971 + 0.428 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:46.060 + 0.517 5. Dani Pedrosa Honda (B) 1:46.303 + 0.760 6. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:46.450 + 0.907 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:46.496 + 0.953 8. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:46.574 + 1.011 9. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:46.616 + 1.073 10. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:46.863 + 1.320 11. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:46.888 + 1.345 12. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:46.904 + 1.361 13. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:46.907 + 1.364 14. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:46.958 + 1.415 15. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:47.400 + 1.857 16. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:47.475 + 1.932 17. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:47.669 + 2.126 18. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:47.680 + 2.137 19. Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki (B) 1:48.671 + 3.128

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