Lorenzo closes on title with pole

The points leader - who only needs ninth place tomorrow to take his first title - prevented Nicky Hayden from pulling off a shock pole with a late lap of 2m01.537s.

As the temperature soared upwards for qualifying, the form suggested by practice was largely turned inside out.

Going into the final minutes, Yamaha held a commanding top four sweep, with Lorenzo following up his morning speed with provisional pole ahead of Tech 3's Ben Spies, while their respective team-mates Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards sat third and fourth.

Honda's Andrea Dovizioso spoiled the Yamaha formation by getting up to second with six minutes to go, but shortly afterwards came a shock burst of pace from Hayden, who grabbed first place with a lap 0.065 seconds faster than Lorenzo - despite the American having not even managed to get into the top 10 in practice.

But Hayden could not hold on and claim his first pole since the 2007 season, as Lorenzo improved with his last lap and beat the Ducati rider by exactly a tenth of a second. It was the first time runaway points leader Lorenzo had taken pole since Laguna Seca in July.

Hayden and Dovizioso remained on the front row, with Spies and Rossi pushed back to fourth - split by Casey Stoner on the second Ducati.

Edwards was seventh ahead of the two Suzukis, as Loris Capirossi recovered from his morning crash to take eighth behind team-mate Alvaro Bautista. Gresini Honda's Marco Melandri completed the top 10, with his team-mate Marco Simoncelli unable to match his morning and early-session form and only qualifying 11th.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             2m01.537s
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             2m01.637s  + 0.100s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              2m01.829s  + 0.292s
 4.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      2m01.993s  + 0.456s
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             2m02.023s  + 0.486s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             2m02.030s  + 0.493s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      2m02.097s  + 0.560s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             2m02.394s  + 0.857s
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             2m02.522s  + 0.985s
10.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      2m02.624s  + 1.087s
11.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      2m02.690s  + 1.153s
12.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      2m02.723s  + 1.186s
13.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          2m02.775s  + 1.238s
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  2m02.778s  + 1.241s
15.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       2m02.928s  + 1.391s
16.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      2m04.167s  + 2.630s