Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo will start from pole position for the MotoGP Grand Prix of Japan after dominating the reorganised qualifying session at Motegi.
Severe fog forced the cancellation of all of Friday’s free practice sessions, but the lack of track time failed to disrupt Lorenzo as he stormed to pole by six tenths of a second on a wet track.
Championship leader Marc Marquez, who was disqualified from last weekend’s race in Australia, was second fastest ahead of Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, who secured his first front row start for two years.
Friday’s exceptional circumstances forced organisers to rejig the schedule, ditching the usual two-part qualifying format in favour of a 75 minute qualifying session to allow riders time to adjust to the Motegi circuit.
Australian Grand Prix winner from last week, Lorenzo, saved his best until the closing stages of the session when he became the only man to dip into the 1:53s bracket.
The time was more than good enough secure pole.
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Marquez managed to keep the pressure on Lorenzo by firing in a strong lap late on to jump from fifth to second.
Hayden showcased his Ducati has the pace to worry the front runners as he ran in the top five for the majority of the session.
In the end, he managed a time a second slower than Lorenzo which was go0d enough for third.
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was fourth ahead of Valentino Rossi in fifth and Andrea Dovizioso in sixth.
Alvaro Bautista headed up row three with the returning Stefan Bradl and Aleix Espargaro.
Yonny Hernandez completed the top 10 ahead of both Monster Yamaha’s of Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith.
