Lorenzo grabs pole on MotoGP debut

Lorenzo managed to snatch pole from another high-profile rookie, reigning World Superbike champion James Toseland, with just two minutes remaining in the session.

But with American Colin Edwards rounding up the top three, this evening's running highlighted the superiority of the Yamaha-Michelin qualifying package, filling up the front row.

The fourth Yamaha, the one fitted with Bridgestone tyres as demanded by seven-time champion Valentino Rossi, qualified in a disappointing seventh place, 1.2 seconds behind Lorenzo.

The top Bridgestone runner was Reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, who had to settle for fourth fastest with his Marlboro Ducati.

Toseland used a qualifying tyre with 41 minutes remaining and took pole from Stoner by eight tenths, beating last year's pole position time set by Rossi by half a second.

Lorenzo then beat Toseland's by 3.5 tenths with 21 minutes remaining, but that lasted less than a minute, when the Briton took pole back by three hundredths.

With 11 minutes to go Lorenzo managed to improve over his best time, but was still short of Toseland's time by 22 thousandths of a second.

Lorenzo finally managed to snatch pole with two minutes to go with a time of 1:53.927, a quarter of a second faster than Toseland.

The top Honda was Team Cecchinello's Randy de Puniet, who managed fifth on the grid ahead of the Repsol-sponsored works bikes of Nicky Hayden in sixth and Dani Pedrosa in eighth.

Rookie Andrea Dovizioso with the JiR Team Scot Honda set the ninth fastest time, ahead of John Hopkins's Kawasaki in tenth.

The top Suzuki ended up being Chris Vermeulen's in 11th, with the other being Loris Capirossi's in 13th spot.

Marco Melandri in the other works Ducati will start the race from the 16th slot on the grid, ending the session 2.8 seconds away from pole.

Pos  Rider             Make      Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    1:53.927
 2.  James Toseland    Yamaha    1:54.182 + 0.255
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    1:54.499 + 0.572
 4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    1:54.733 + 0.806
 5.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     1:54.818 + 0.891
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     1:54.880 + 0.953
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    1:55.133 + 1.206
 8.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     1:55.170 + 1.243
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     1:55.185 + 1.258
10.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  1:55.263 + 1.336
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    1:55.540 + 1.613
12.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     1:55.692 + 1.765
13.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    1:56.070 + 2.143
14.  Toni Elias        Ducati    1:56.251 + 2.324
15.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     1:56.434 + 2.507
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    1:56.730 + 2.803
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    1:57.198 + 3.271
18.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  1:57.445 + 3.518