Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has bagged pole position for tomorrow’s Misano MotoGP encounter but has just a tenth of a second advantage over reigning champion Marc Marquez who is a further tenth ahead of series leader Valentino Rossi.
Lorenzo managed to go under the time he set in free practice three this morning - already seven-tenths under the existing outright lap record - with his final run while Marquez was on pole schedule but lost a chunk of time in the third sector and had to settle for second place.
Hometown hero Rossi has taken chunks of time out of Lorenzo over the course of the weekend, reducing the gap from three-quarters of a second yesterday to just two-tenths today but he had to fend off a charge from Dani Pedrosa who climbed up to fourth with a 1’32.434.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, who is using a GP15 with a different frame and exhaust to his factory counterparts, bagged fifth place with a 1’32.736 to sit in the middle of row two while Britain’s Bradley Smith put in is best time of the weekend so far with a 1’32.801 to round out the second row.
Andreas Iannone and Dovizioso put their factory GP15s in seventh and eighth places with Danilo Petrucci putting the GP14.2 he was given this weekend in ninth place. Aleix Espargaro came through from qualifying one to take tenth place, one ahead of Cal Crutchlow who was also a qualifying one man. Pol Espargaro had a crash early doors when he lost the front at turn ten and took 12th place.
Scott Redding only just missed a qualifying two slot and will start from 13th on the grid tomorrow and he has Suzuki’s Maverick Vinvales next to him. Loris Baz won the Open-class war in 16th place while Eugene Laverty, who crashed this morning, ended in 21st.
