Lorenzo Delivers with Pole in Aragon

Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo emerged the victor in an intense qualifying battle today, securing the pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Aragon at the Motorland circuit. The Championship leader started the first dry session of the weekend quite slowly, gradually picking up the pace to join the battle between his team mate Ben Spies, Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa for the top spot. It was with his last fresh tire just three laps from the end of the session that Lorenzo delivered, putting down a 1’49.404 lap to secure pole 0.088 seconds ahead of Pedrosa. The pole is his fifth of the season.

Texan Spies threatened to make it an all Yamaha front row this afternoon, consistently battling with the top three and briefly taking the top spot on the timesheets. His fastest lap came just one lap before the end of the session, delivering a 1’49.748 lap and missing the front row by just 0.172 seconds.

Jorge Lorenzo Position 1st – Time: 1'49.404 – Laps 22

“I feel happy, I really thought Cal would take pole position because his lap time was really quick but finally we managed to improve our lap time with the last qualifying tire. It’s important to be on the front row in pole position but tomorrow is what counts, we have to do a lot of laps and it’s going to be a long race. Let’s see how the weather is, we all hope it’s not going to rain, it’s much better if it’s dry."

DANI PEDROSA 2nd 1'49.492

"It's a very good result for us after all the issues we had! I'm really happy to be on the front row and so close to the pole position. After the crash I had at the beginning of the session – I guess due to cold tires because I was not pushing at all – we only had one bike left with 50 minutes remaining. I lost some time there and when I went out with the second bike I realized that I had to remain calm because it was the only bike I had for the rest of qualifying and also the only front tire. At the beginning, I was cautious trying to set a decent lap time and towards the end I just forgot about everything and pushed harder for the front row. We have a good position for the start, I just hope everything goes smoothly and we can have a great race tomorrow in front of the home Spanish crowd".

Qualifying Results