Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo grabbed pole position for tomorrow's Qatar MotoGP round, edging out early leader Cal Crutchlow by two-tenths of the a second in the new 15 minute, 12-rider format.
"I think we've carried the momentum from testing to here. I think the pace is not bad. We can improve in some areas. We will look at the data tonight and assess for tomorrow's race. I think it is going to be very dfficult to challenge the factory guys but I will do my best," said Crutchlow.
The reigning champion went round in 1'54.717 which was enough to depose the Monster Yamaha man's 1'54.916 into second place while Dani Pedrosa still took third place despite a coming together with team-mate Marc Marquez.
The pair were line astern on their penultimate lap but Marquez got a bit too close to his older compatriot, rubbed his fairing on Pedrosa's RC213V and had to back off, ruining both of their laps. Pedrosa was able to recover and set a 1'55.161 while Marquez slipped down to sixth behind Stefan Bradl.
Andrea Dovizioso was looking good for a front-row start before Pedrosa recovered to take third and has confirmed that he can at least make the Desmosedici do one fast lap but has also said that race pace isn't great.
Valentino Rossi ended up at the top of the third row with his 1'55.711, almost a second off the pace and behind the Ducati, which is almost ironic, with Alvaro Bautista and Britain's Bradley Smith in ninth. Andrea Iannone, Nicky Hayden and Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top 12.
In the earlier first qualifying session open to those riders outside the top ten in third free practice, Ben Spies recovered to take 13th place with Randy De Puniet 14th and the second of the CRT men.
Lukas Pesek bagged third in the sub-class while Colin Edwards was 19th and Michael Laverty finished last.
