Lorenzo predicts tough race

The Spaniard, who took his third pole in a row on his Yamaha, thinks that the expected high raceday temperatures will require higher levels of concentration than normal after a sweltering qualifying session.

"It will be the hardest race of the year," he said. "The weather is so hot and it will be important to concentrate and be in the perfect physical condition."

The championship leader said that he had been impressed with the performance of the softer of the two kinds of Bridgestone tyres available for the race, after he completed a number of long runs on them in qualifying.

But that has now presented him with a dilemma as to which rubber to use in the grand prix.

"Before today we were pretty sure we knew what tyres we would use in the race," he added. "But in that session we did a lot of good laps on the soft tyre, so now it's much less clear."

Lorenzo's main title rivals Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizisio qualified on the second row.