Aragon MotoGP: Lorenzo beats Pedrosa and Crutchlow to pole

The Spaniard edged out championship rival Dani Pedrosa by just eight hundredths of a second, with Cal Crutchlow - on top for much of the running - a further 0.1s back in third.

All three riders had set personal bests in the first sector of their final efforts, but ultimately lost time over the rest of their laps.

The upshot was that Lorenzo hung on to pole, having only moved to the top in the final two minutes.

Pedrosa meanwhile was able to bounce back from an early crash, and the disadvantage of switching to his second Honda, to also soar in the final moments.

Crutchlow, by contrast, had made his move at the halfway mark and spent much of the session more than six tenths clear of the field.

As Lorenzo and Pedrosa made their charge he also improved, but fell just short of what would have been his first MotoGP pole.

Ben Spies made it three Yamahas in the top four, finishing less than four tenths of a second down on his works team-mate.

Honda's Stefan Bradl (LCR) and Jonathan Rea meanwhile put in notable performances to seal fifth and seventh, sandwiching the second Tech 3 of Andrea Dovizioso.

In only his second MotoGP qualifying session, Rea was therefore able to outpace both works Ducatis.

A difficult session for the Desmosedici was compounded as Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden both suffered falls. Rossi dropped his bike at Turn 2 with 25 minutes gone, while Hayden lost his two minutes from the end, ending the session clasping his already injured right hand.

A late effort on his second bike was enough to carry Rossi above Hayden and into eighth, while Hector Barbera on the satellite Pramac Ducati also threatened but ultimately had to settle for 10th.

Aspar's Aleix Espargaro finished as the top CRT rider in 11th, having leapt into ninth, ahead of Rossi, with just over one minute to run.

Pos  Driver               Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo        Yamaha                1m49.404s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa         Honda                 1m49.492s  + 0.088s 
 3.  Cal Crutchlow        Tech 3 Yamaha         1m49.576s  + 0.172s
 4.  Ben Spies            Yamaha                1m49.748s  + 0.344s
 5.  Stefan Bradl         LCR Honda             1m50.034s  + 0.630s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m50.241s  + 0.837s
 7.  Jonathan Rea         Honda                 1m50.410s  + 1.006s
 8.  Valentino Rossi      Ducati                1m50.949s  + 1.545s
 9.  Nicky Hayden         Ducati                1m51.013s  + 1.609s
10.  Hector Barbera       Pramac Ducati         1m51.072s  + 1.668s
11.  Aleix Espargaro      Aspar Aprilia         1m51.082s  + 1.678s
12.  Alvaro Bautista      Gresini Honda         1m51.155s  + 1.751s
13.  Randy de Puniet      Aspar Aprilia         1m51.459s  + 2.055s
14.  Karel Abraham        Cardion Ducati        1m51.521s  + 2.117s
15.  Michele Pirro        Gresini FTR-Honda     1m52.606s  + 3.202s
16.  Mattia Pasini        Speed Master Aprilia  1m52.638s  + 3.234s
17.  Colin Edwards        Forward Suter-BMW     1m52.853s  + 3.449s
18.  Danilo Petrucci      Ioda Suter-BMW        1m53.140s  + 3.736s
19.  Yonny Hernandez      Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m53.233s  + 3.829s
20.  James Ellison        Paul Bird Aprilia     1m53.719s  + 4.315s
21.  David Salom          Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m55.290s  + 5.886s