Form man Lorenzo seals pole at Catalunya

Jorge Lorenzo has claimed pole for the Catalunya MotoGP as the Spaniard’s rich vein of form on the factory Ducati continues.

Lorenzo shaded the top spot in Q2 by only 0.066s from Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, with Andrea Dovizioso completing the front row on the second of the Desmosedici machines

Fresh from his first victory for Ducati at Mugello, Lorenzo clocked a time of 1m 38.630s to secure pole for Sunday’s race.

The triple premier class champion says an improvement with braking, particular on corner entry, has been the main reason for his upturn in fortunes on the Ducati.

Marquez, unaffected by an earlier monster save at the final turn on his Honda, had to settle for second best but the championship leader will be confident of making amends for his Mugello slip-up on Sunday.

Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales heads up row two, four tenths down on Lorenzo’s time, where he is joined by Ecstar Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati).

Valentino Rossi will start from row three after the Italian could only qualify seventh fastest on the Movistar Yamaha, lapping in 1m 39.266s as the 39-year-old was half-a-second back on pole man Lorenzo.

Johann Zarco on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati) round out the third row of the grid.

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow was down the field on the LCR Honda in 10th position, eight tenths off a front row start, with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) joining him on row four as they qualified 11th and 12th respectively.

Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller was 13th fastest ahead of Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha) and Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki).

Bradley Smith was 17th on the Red Bull KTM behind Aleix Espargaro, whose Gresini Aprilia team-mate Scott Redding was 20th.

Click Here for the full Qualifying results…