Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has marmalised the Brno MotoGP lap record on his way to pole position this afternoon but he was chased hard my reigning world champion Marc Marquez with series leader Valentino Rossi bagging the final front-row spot with his last lap.
Lorenzo used medium compound front and rear Bridgestones for his 1’54.989 which gave him an almost-half second advantage with only a minute or so left on the clock. Marquez matched him in the opening couple of sectors but then dropped away fractionally to finish just 0.074s behind his compatriot.
Rossi was languishing in eighth place until he exited pitlane for his final run, keeping the hard front but switching to the medium rear and, with his last lap, put in a 1’55.353 to go a second quicker than he had all weekend and occupies the all-important final slot on row one which means no traffic in his pursuit of his team-mate when the light go out in the Czech Republic.
Britain’s Bradley Smith crashed the front-row party with his last lap, putting in a 1’55.460 before he was bumped back to third by Marquez and then on to the second row Andrea Iannone, using his soft-tyre concession to put in a 1’55.390 for third before he was pushed back to the second row by Rossi. The top five riders were all under Cal Crutchlow’s outright lap record of 1’55.527 set in 2013.
Iannone’s works Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, also on the soft tyre, took the final last spot on row two with his 1’55.935. Ecstar Suzuki MotoGP rookie Maverick Vinales ended with a terrific 1’55.954 to bag seventh place, one ahead Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro. In-pain and hobbling Dani Pedrosa, whose leg is swollen from a crash yesterday, took ninth place.
Cal Crutchlow, like Pol Espargaro, had to come through qualifying one and ended his day in a disappointing tenth. He is joined on the fourth row by Hector Barbera and Yonny Hernandez. Scott Redding ended in 14th place with Eugene Laverty in 20th.
