MotoGP Brno: Lorenzo takes pole for Yamaha with new lap record

Lorenzo went straight to the top of the timesheets on his first run, beating the lap record he had set during Saturday's third practice session in the process.

The Yamaha rider then lowered the record again with a time of 1m54.989s, nearly half a second faster than anybody else had gone during the session.

Honda's Marquez improved significantly on his second attempt, but ultimately fell just 0.074 seconds shy.

"Before qualifying, I thought a laptime similar to the time this morning would be good enough for pole position but I was wrong," Lorenzo, the last non-Honda rider to win at Brno, said.

"Really I pushed more than the first time out because I had a very good laptime and I thought I would risk a little bit more - if I crash from the front it's OK.

"I didn't crash, I improved a little bit on braking and a little bit on throttle.

"Maybe the laptime was not perfect. In the last corner I opened maybe too much throttle, too much [wheel] spinning and lost some drive, maybe losing one tenth.

"But the rest of the lap I'm very proud of, I really made one of my best laps ever."

Championship leader Valentino Rossi completed the front row on the second Yamaha as he slotted into third place with his final run of the session.

Rossi's effort shuffled Ducati's Andrea Iannone down to fourth place, just ahead of Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith.

Andrea Dovizioso, on the second Ducati, will line up sixth on the grid for Sunday's 22-lap race ahead of Maverick Vinales and Pol Espargaro, who had earlier made it through as the fastest rider from Q1.

Dani Pedrosa will start ninth but the defending Brno winner was almost a full second slower than Lorenzo's best time as he continues to suffer from an ankle injury sustained on Friday.

Cal Crutchlow completed the top 10 on his LCR Honda, but the British rider had earlier been forced to come through Q1 along with Pol Espargaro.

Hector Barbera and Yonny Hernandez were the slowest riders in Q2 and will start the race from 11th and 12th.

Follow the Czech MotoGP from 10:00 BST on Sunday, on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live.

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m54.989s	-
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m55.063s	0.074s
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m55.353s	0.364s
4	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	Ducati	1m55.390s	0.401s
5	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	Yamaha	1m55.460s	0.471s
6	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m55.935s	0.946s
7	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m55.954s	0.965s
8	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	Yamaha	1m55.955s	0.966s
9	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m55.969s	0.980s
10	Cal Crutchlow	LCR	Honda	1m56.192s	1.203s
11	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati	1m56.399s	1.410s
12	Yonny Hernandez	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1m56.739s	1.750s
13	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1m56.713s	1.724s
14	Scott Redding	Marc VDS	Honda	1m56.765s	1.776s
15	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m56.806s	1.817s
16	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	1m57.133s	2.144s
17	Mike Di Meglio	Avintia Racing	Ducati	1m57.215s	2.226s
18	Loris Baz	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1m57.540s	2.551s
19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	1m57.552s	2.563s
20	Eugene Laverty	Aspar	Honda	1m57.634s	2.645s
21	Nicky Hayden	Aspar	Honda	1m57.645s	2.656s
22	Jack Miller	LCR	Honda	1m57.855s	2.866s
23	Alex de Angelis	IodaRacing Project	ART/Aprilia	1m58.599s	3.610s
24	Claudio Corti	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1m59.145s	4.156s
25	Karel Abraham	AB Motoracing	Honda	1m59.903s	4.914s