Spies earns maiden MotoGP pole

On the weekend that he was announced as a factory Yamaha rider for 2011, current Tech 3 man Spies initially jumped to pole with a 1m40.465s a quarter of an hour from the end.

Works rider Lorenzo failed to beat him by 0.012 seconds - but both were usurped when Ducati's local hero Hayden put in a 1m40.336s lap seven minutes later.

Although Lorenzo managed to sneak ahead of Hayden, lapping just 0.011s faster, he was only on pole for half a minute before Spies improved to 1m40.105s to take the top spot by a relatively comfortable 0.220s.

While Spies celebrated his first pole in the series and the first pole for a satellite rider since Tech 3 achieved the same feat with Colin Edwards at Shanghai two years ago, Hayden held on to third behind Lorenzo to claim his maiden front row start with Ducati.

The works Hondas had been quick in the opening part of the session but Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa fell to fourth and fifth at the end. Casey Stoner could not match his Ducati team-mate Hayden this time, and will start sixth.

All were in better shape than Valentino Rossi. The world champion was never on the absolute pace and crashed his Yamaha at Turn 6 in the final few minutes, leaving him seventh on the grid.

Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda) recovered from an incident to qualify eighth, with Edwards ninth on the second Tech 3 Yamaha. Loris Capirossi gave the struggling Suzuki team the consolation of the final top 10 position.

Aleix Espargaro looked like he had a shot at a top 10 spot for Pramac Ducati for a while, but crashed and had to settle for 14th - one place behind Hiroshi Aoyama, who did an impressive job to take 13th in his first appearance for Interwetten Honda since injuring his back at Silverstone.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m40.105s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m40.325s  + 0.220s
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m40.336s  + 0.231s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m40.559s  + 0.454s
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m40.637s  + 0.532s
 6.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m40.664s  + 0.559s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m41.005s  + 0.900s
 8.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m41.092s  + 0.987s
 9.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m41.232s  + 1.127s
10.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m41.512s  + 1.407s
11.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m41.534s  + 1.429s
12.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m41.623s  + 1.518s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m41.631s  + 1.526s
14.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m41.649s  + 1.544s
15.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m41.856s  + 1.751s
16.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m41.896s  + 1.791s
17.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m41.923s  + 1.818s