Lorenzo takes dominant pole at Jerez

The reigning 250cc champion beat compatriot Dani Pedrosa, who qualified second with his Repsol Honda, by a whopping six tenths of a second.

The front row was completed by Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards, 0.165 seconds behind Pedrosa.

Nicky Hayden in the second works Honda qualified fourth, ahead of Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet.

World champion Casey Stoner could do no better than seventh with his Ducati Marlboro, with rookie James Toseland eighth with the Tech 3 Yamaha and John Hopkins ninth with the Kawasaki.

Loris Capirossi on Rizla Suzuki completes the top ten.

Lorenzo and Capirossi swapped fastest laps in the first ten minutes of the session, with the Spaniard quickest with a 1:40.296 after four laps. Meanwhile, Edwards went through the gravel but his bike did not suffer any damage.

Twenty minutes into the session Andrea Dovizioso, who ultimately qualified 13th, went fastest ahead of Lorenzo with a 1:40.110 lap.

It was then de Puniet's turn to go fastest by almost one second over Dovizioso just two minutes later, before Lorenzo beat the qualifying lap record set by Capirossi on Ducati two years ago, thanks to a time of 1:38.964.

Dovizioso then look set to be able to challenge for second place, but he did too much of a wheelie on the exit of the last turn and could only set the third best time, which was bettered two minutes later by Edwards.

Lorenzo then improved on his pole time by a further 0.231 seconds with 18 minutes remaining.

Six minutes later Edwards also improved and went second fastest ahead of de Puniet, three tenths behind Lorenzo.

With less than nine minutes remaining, Lorenzo broke the lap record for the third time by a further 0.044 seconds with a lap of 1:38.689.

Two minutes later Rossi got up to third, making it three Yamahas filling up the front row, but this lasted for just a handful of seconds, as Pedrosa just managed to stay on the road and snatched second from Edwards, 0.155 seconds behind Lorenzo.

Hayden would demote Rossi further a few moments later, while Stoner still could not better than seventh, with a best time just under six tenths behind Lorenzo.

Finally with just two minutes to go, Lorenzo broke his lap record by an amazing half a second more, with a time of 1:38.189 that put him 0.655 ahead of Pedrosa. The latter then managed to improve his time a little, ending up exactly six tenths behind his rival.

The trick of the day belonged to Edwards, who made an amazing recovery with his Yamaha when he slid in a turn but managed to keep running without running off the track, thanks to miraculously leaning on his right elbow and knee.

Marco Melandri didn't manage to do so well with 26 minutes of the session to go, when he lost control of his Ducati just before starting a hot lap and had to return to the pits on foot.

In the end the Italian qualified 18th and last, 2.8 seconds behind Lorenzo, on a very bad day for Ducati, with the two Alice-sponsored bikes qualifying just ahead of Melandri.

Alex de Angelis also fell off with seconds remaining and got slightly hit by the rear tyre of his Honda Gresini.

Pos  Rider             Bike          Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha   (M)  1:38.189
 2.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda    (M)  1:38.789 + 0.600
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha   (M)  1:38.954 + 0.765
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda    (M)  1:39.061 + 0.872
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha   (B)  1:39.064 + 0.875
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Honda    (M)  1:39.122 + 0.933
 7.  Casey Stoner      Ducati   (B)  1:39.286 + 1.097
 8.  James Toseland    Yamaha   (M)  1:39.334 + 1.145
 9.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki (B)  1:39.439 + 1.250
10.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki   (B)  1:39.484 + 1.295
11.  Shinya Nakano     Honda    (B)  1:39.559 + 1.370
12.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki   (B)  1:39.704 + 1.515
13.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda    (M)  1:39.767 + 1.578
14.  Alex de Angelis   Honda    (B)  1:40.037 + 1.848
15.  Anthony West      Kawasaki (B)  1:40.088 + 1.899
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati   (B)  1:40.286 + 2.097
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati   (B)  1:40.939 + 2.750
18.  Marco Melandri    Ducati   (B)  1:41.027 + 2.838