MotoGP @ Qatar
Carrera a las 2:00 PM Hora Colombiana
Primer Colombiano en la Categoría Suprema de las Motos!!!
Jorge Lorenzo claimed pole position for the MotoGP season-opening Qatar Grand Prix, denying Casey Stoner a fourth straight Losail pole.
It was reigning champion Stoner who led the way for Honda for most of the hour, as he both topped the part of the session devoted to practice, then improved to a 1m55.149s on his first concerted pole shot with 11 minutes left.
That was beaten by Lorenzo's 1m54.993s for Yamaha just afterwards, and although four-time Qatar winner Stoner fought back with a 1m54.855s, it put him on top for less than a minute before the Yamaha lapped 0.221 seconds quicker. Neither man could get any more pace out of their last sets of soft tyres, so Lorenzo's 19th MotoGP pole was secured.
Cal Crutchlow turned his practice promise into a career-best MotoGP starting position and first front row grid slot in third place for Tech 3 Yamaha, three places ahead of team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.
The second works Yamaha of Ben Spies was left fourth on the grid after crashing with four minutes to go. It looked like the American might regain balance and stay upright, but eventually the bike got away from him.
Nicky Hayden grabbed fifth for Ducati in the closing seconds, but his team-mate Valentino Rossi was the slowest of the prototype riders in a lowly 12th place.
It was a quiet session for Dani Pedrosa (Honda) as well. The Spaniard will line up seventh, ahead of Hector Barbera's Pramac Ducati, top rookie Stefan Bradl on the LCR Honda and late crasher Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Ducati).
Spies and Abraham aside, the session saw five other crashes - all among CRT runners. Danilo Petrucci (Ioda), Ivan Silva (Avintia), Mattia Pasini (Speed Master), Randy de Puniet (Aspar) and James Ellison (Paul Bird Motorsport) were all uninjured in their tumbles, unlike their bikes.
Forward Racing's Colin Edwards was the fastest CRT rider, less than a second off his sometime Yamaha team-mate Rossi's pace on the works MotoGP Ducati.
