Jorge Lorenzo took his first pole position of the MotoGP season at the San Marino Grand Prix, beating the Ducati of Andrea Iannone by just 0.051s on a track where has won at the last three occasions.
"We knew we were competitive here…not like Silverstone, where we started very bad. I knew it was complicated to get pole position. Finally I improve my lap time, Marc was slower than last year. Track conditions were a little worse than last year but our bike has improved. But tomorrow is the important thing."
Valentino Rossi in the other Yamaha secured his first front row start of the season with a lap time of 1:33.302 at home turf.
On a day where the factory Yamaha team shined, Hondas of runaway championship leader Marc Marquez and runner up Dani Pedrosa could qualify only in fourth and fifth places respectively. Marquez's time 1'33.360 was a tenth shy of Lorenzo’s pole time of 1:33.238 but that was enough to hand Marquez his first non-front row start since Barcelona 2013.
Andrea Dovizioso will join the two Honda riders on row two of the grid ahead of Espargaro brothers Pol and Aleix.
Stefan Bradl in the #6 Honda and Yonny Hernandez in the #68 Ducati progressed to the second leg of MotoGP qualifying, having set the fastest two laps in Q1 and will start tomorrow’s race from 10th and 11th on the grid. Alvaro Bautista was the slowest rider in Q2 and will join the aforementioned two riders of row four of the grid.
MOTO2: Kallio leads VDS Racing front row lockout
In Moto2, Mika Kallio beat his teammate and championship leader Esteve Rabat in qualifying to secure his third pole position of the season. The session was extremely close with top 18 cars separated by just one second.
In the end, Kallio crossed the start/finish line with a time of 1:38.043 to take pole position by just 600 hundredths of a second. The lead Interwetten Paddock of Thomas Luthi and the fastest Technomax carXpert of Dominique Aegerter were third and fifth respectively, one day after both teams announced they will be merging into a single entity in 2015. Reigning Moto3 champion Maverick Viñales was sandwiched between the two drivers in fourth place.
MOTO3: Miller pips Ajo for Moto3 pole
Championship leader Jack Miller took his seventh pole position of the season, piping Niklas Ajo’s Husqvarna by just four thousandths of a second at San Marino. Miller’s closest championship rival Alex Marquez was only fourth fastest, having beaten by fellow countrymen and teammate Alex Rins. The Mahindra of Miguel Oliveira completed the top five with a lap time of 1:43.298 around the Italian Circuit.
MOTOGP MISANO QUALIFYING TOP TEN
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1:33.238
2. Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing/Ducati 1:33.289
3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:33.302
4. Marc Marquez Honda 1:33.360
5. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1:33.418
6. Andrea Dovizioso Pramac Racing/Ducati 1:33.439
7. Pol Espargaro Yamaha 1:33.557
8. Aleix Espargaro Forward Yamaha 1:33.713
9. Bradley Smith Yamaha Tech 3 1:33.761
10. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1:33.995
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