Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo will start tomorrow's Jerez MotoGP from pole position after a set of blistering laps in qualifying this afternoon saw him pip this morning's fastest man Dani Pedrosa by less than a tenth of a second.
Lorenzo, whose team-mate Valentino Rossi could only manage the front of the second row lapping three-quarters of a second slower than the Spaniard, put in a 1'38.933 lap with five minutes left of the session.
Pedrosa, on the Repsol Honda, battled for the pole with his countryman for the whole of the 45-minute qualifying session, with only Casey Stoner, Randy De Puniet and Loris Capirossi giving the top three anything to worry about.
Stoner takes the last place on the front row, half a second shy of the Yamaha, but crucially a row in front of arch-rival Rossi who has said he needs to qualifying close to Stoner in order to stay with him in the opening laps.
De Puniet starts next to Rossi with Capirossi rounding out the second row. Monster Yamaha's Colin Edwards was seventh, a second in arrears, with Pedrosa's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso eighth and Toni Elias in ninth.
Britain's James Toseland will start from 14th place, some 1.7s off the pace.
