Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has bagged pole position for tomorrow's Losail MotoGP race ahead of world champion Casey Stoner but it is great news for Britain's Cal Crutchlow who will start from the outside of the front row after a storming final run of laps put him only four-tenths behind the Spaniard.
But it was disaster for Ducati's Valentino Rossi who qualified in 12th place and was the last of the prototypes and only eight-tenths faster than leading CRT runner Colin Edwards on the Forward NGM BMW-Suter. The Italian is a massive two seconds off Lorenzo's pace and could only watch as team-mate Nicky Hayden stormed to fifth with his final lap.
Crutchlow was in the running for the whole hour and eventually went round in a 1'55.022 which compares favourably to Lorenzo's 1'54.634 and Stoner's 1'54.855. He finished one place ahead of Ben Spies on the second works YZR-M1 but the Texan had another crash to add to the one yesterday which called a halt to his qualifying session five minutes to run.
Andrea Dovizio bagged sixth ahead of Dani Pedrosa on the second Repsol Honda while Hector Barbera was eighth and rookie Stefan Bradl took ninth after actually being held up by Rossi on his final flying lap. Karel Abraham rounded out the top ten on the Cardion AB Ducati.
Randy De Puniet crashed out early on but still managed to set the second fastest CRT time while Britain's James Ellison also had a spill and finished in 21st, six seconds off the pace.
