Texas Tornado Colin Edwards had taken pole for tomorrow’s Shanghai MotoGP. It’s only the American’s second pole in is MotoGP career and he got it on qualyfing tyres one minute from the end of the session, setting an outright track record of 1’58.139 in the process.
But the news of the session is that Jorge Lorenzo, who had a massive highside yesterday and is riding with broken bones in both feet, managed fourth and is only half a second slower than the poleman. And the Spaniard is trying so hard he had two big moments, one whicc could have resulted in an identical crash, with 20 minutes to go and another seven minutes later.
Joint championship leader Dani Pedrosa could only manage fifth, seven tenths off the lead, and is the sole Honda in a top eight dominated by Yamahas. His team-mate Nicky Hayden finished the session in tenth after crashing with ten minutes to go.
Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner traded times through the session, but The Doctor came out on top and put in a time of 1’58.494 which bettered the Aussie’s 1’58.591 with minutes to go. It looked to be good enough for pole until Edwards threw his hat in the ring.
Britain’s James Toseland was mid-pack until the last seconds of the session but managed to find some pace and qualified in seventh, a second behind his team-mate.