Lorenzo grabs pole for Spanish MotoGP

Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo survived some treacherous damp conditions to beat compatriot Dani Pedrosa into pole position with a thrilling final lap in qualifying for the Spanish MotoGP on Saturday. 

The 2010 champion Lorenzo, on a Yamaha, won from pole position at the season-opener in Qatar, and was fastest again in Jerez with a time of 1:39.532 on a circuit where he has triumphed for the last two years. 

Repsol Honda's Pedrosa had been quickest in the rain-interrupted practice sessions, but was beaten into second by 0.135 seconds, as Lorenzo made the most of the drying track. 

American Nicky Hayden completed the front row on a Ducati, with Britain's Cal Crutchlow, world champion Casey Stoner and American Ben Spies behind them on the grid. 
"We are very happy with this pole position because it was a strange session," Lorenzo told www.motogp.com. 

"There were a lot of water patches and it was very dangerous. You had to pay a lot of attention, it would have been easy to crash and get injured.  

"Thank you to the team for working hard to keep giving the right set up in changing conditions." 

Despite missing out on pole, Pedrosa was pleased to make the front row of the grid in Jerez for the sixth year in a row. 

"It was very difficult to know how much to push because there were some wet spots and it was easy to make mistakes," he said in a team statement. 

"Also, after so many laps with wet tyres in the free practices, when you put on the slicks it's like another bike but you have no time to waste to find a good lap time. So I'm quite impressed with the time and very happy to be on the front row." 
 
Stoner was not as pleased as his Repsol Honda team mate. 

"Qualifying didn't go so well," the Australian said. "Conditions have been terrible all weekend, from half dry tracks to fully wet so we haven't really been able to get any form of set up on the bike. 

"We had hoped to be on the front row but with conditions like this I wasn't really willing to push. There were a lot of people falling off and the wet patches that were there were incredibly slippery. 

"We're not really sure what to expect until we see the weather tomorrow and this makes things pretty difficult". 

Spaniard Marc Marquez took pole in Moto2 and Alex Rins made it a Spanish 1-2-3 by grabbing pole in Moto3 in only his second world championship start. 

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