Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow was going to scrap the lap that put him on the front row for tomorrow's Estoril MotoGP race because he ran wide in the first turn but changed his mind and made up the time through the final sector to keep factory team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on row two.

The Isle of Man resident was topping the timesheet with only a couple of minutes left to go and was only deposed by Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, the former just able to find a tenth of a second to go quickest and he was followed in by the little Spaniard.

"To be back on the front row again is a really great achievement for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team and this is reward again for all of our hard work. I am really happy as well to be the fastest Yamaha because that proves what a good job all of us are doing. I was on the hard tyre for the first part of the session working on the race set-up and it felt a little different to what I am used to, but we made a lot of progress with the bike during the session," said Crutchlow.

"I felt really comfortable and confident on the soft tyre and felt I could be fighting for the front row. I was actually going to scrap my best lap but I made up some time in the last sector and it was good enough for the top three. I'm happy with that but we still have to improve the bike a bit more for the race. I want it to turn a little better and brake a little better. I am looking forward to the race but it is going to be a difficult job. We know Jorge is going to be there and a podium will be very hard but as always I'll try my best.”