Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has blitzed the MotoGP field in wet qualifying at Twin-Ring Motegi, taking pole position by almost three-quarters of a second from Marc Marquez with Nicky Hayden bagging the final front-row spot - his first since Jerez in 2012.
Lorenzo went quietly about his business in the first session of the weekend, extended to an hour and 15 minutes due to yesterday's cancellation and no running this morning due to poor weather, working his way up the leaderboard before exploding with a 1'53.471 to go quickest.
"It was the first time I have ridden in the rain since Assen, so at the start I was a little scared," said Lorenzo.
He was a full second faster than Hayden's Ducati until series leader Marquez slipped into second with his final lap of the session, cutting the gap to 0.658s before running off track at turn one for the second time today. Impressive, given it's his first time on a MotoGP bike at Motegi and it's raining.
Dani Pedrosa, who has won here for the last two years, sits at the head of row two but is a second off the pace with Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, a full second slower than his factory Ducati team-mate, joining him. Alvaro Bautista is seventh and injured Stefan Bradl in eighth and Aleix Espargaro in ninth place.
It has been a disaster for Britain's Cal Crutchlow, who is languishing down 11th place, some 2.6s off the pace and behind Yonny Hernandez' Pramac Ducati. Yamaha test rider Kats Nakasuga is in 12th with Bradley Smith, who spent a lot of time in the pitlane, one place further back.
Michael Laverty, who hasn't seen this track before, ended in 19th place on a 1'58.540.
