Moto GP - Jerez - Jorge Lorenzo clinched his second pole position

Jorge Lorenzo clinched his second pole position of the 2013 MotoGP™ season at the Gran Premio bwin de España today, topping an incident-packed qualifying session in on his 26th birthday ahead of Dani Pedrosa, Marc Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi, who will fill positions two to five despite all four riders suffering falls this afternoon.

With the sun shining and thousands pouring into the Circuito de Jerez for the first European qualifying session of the year, the front row was locked out by riders from the home nation, with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo delivering a best lap time of 1’38.673 to see off Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa by just under three tenths of a second.

Although Lorenzo has looked extremely strong since the start of the weekend, he was aided by high-speed crashes, which either disrupted or terminated his closest rivals’ sessions. Pedrosa’s teammate Marquez had tumbled in the final free practice session, whereas Yamaha Factory’s Rossi and Pedrosa’s errors came at almost the same moment as qualifying reached its climax. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Crutchlow visited gravel traps in both sessions and was fortunate to re-join the action and qualify fourth quickest. He visited the medical centre for further checks at the end of the day for precautionary checks.

Behind Rossi, the second row is completed by GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, who out-qualified Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl - who progressed to the pole shootout from Q1 with a trilling last ditch effort - and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. Hector Barbera led the CRT riders and impressed with a top ten position, but he too would be a crasher by the time the chequered flag flew.

11th place was an achievement for Andrea Iannone, as the Energy T.I. Pramac Racing rider had sustained cuts to his left leg in a Q1 accident, while Tech 3’s Bradley Smith had been the last man to enter Q2. That left Power Electronics Aspar out of the shootout for the first time in 2013 to the disappointment of Aleix Espargaro, who will start 13th from Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro and Aspar teammate Randy de Puniet.

Row six consists of Avintia’s Hiroshi Aoyama, Came IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci and Gresini’s Bryan Staring on the team’s CRT machine. The NGM Mobile Forward Racing attack will be spearheaded by Claudio Corti from 19th spot, who out-qualified Colin Edwards after the Texan crashed in Q1. The grid is completed by PBM pairing Yonny Hernandez and Michael Laverty, plus Lukas Pesek, whose Ioda bike was yet another to end the day off the circuit. Cardion AB Motoracing was not in action for qualifying, as Karel Abraham’s broken right collarbone provided too much pain on Friday. Also on the sidelines is Ignite Pramac Racing’s Ben Spies, who since the race in Texas has been advised by doctors to rest in order to rectify an on-going problem with a pectoral muscle

MotoGP™ Qualifying Practice Classification 1- Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha 1:38.673 2- Dani Pedrosa SPA Honda 1:38.920 3- Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1:38.971 1st CRT 10- Hector Barbera SPA FTR 1:39.980