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Jorge Lorenzo took his seventh pole position of the season (his 25th in MotoGP) in still another exciting qualifying session. The Yamaha posted a blistering lap of 2.00.334 to shatter the 2009 Sepang record that was held by Valentino Rossi.
Dani Pedrosa had led most of the session until the final fifteen minutes when Andrea Dovizioso flew around the wide Malaysian track to post the first sub 2.01 lap. The Repsol Honda rider - who is lamenting chattering again - answered back and with an extraordinary fourth sector regained the provisional pole by 0.166s, but Jorge Lorenzo wasn’t giving up and started his fast laps but ended up short and was still fourth, and his next lap put him in second, but it was his last final flying lap that put him in pole position ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, who will take off on the front row for the second time this year.
Casey Stoner’s front braking problems weren’t completely resolved as he was in and out of his garage and the Australian was fourth and 0.477s adrift and followed by Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow and Ben Spies.
Pramac’s Hector Barbera grabbing a very useful tow from Lorenzo finished in 7th and ahead of factory Ducati riders Nicky Hayden (9th) and Valentino Rossi who coouldn’t do better than 11th finishing a tenth of second behind Alvaro Bautista who closed out the top ten, but the Gresini rider suffered a crash in the finale.
The in house Aspar battle saw Aleix Espargaro take 12th ahead of teammate Randy De Puniet and both CRT riders were faster than Cardion AB Ducati satellite rider Karel Abraham who was almost a second slower than Espargaro.
MotoGP Sepang Qualifying results:
01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 2’00.334
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.194
03- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.233
04- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.477
05- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.844
06- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.851
07- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.960
08- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.157
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.192
10- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.306
11- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.449
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.194
03- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.233
04- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.477
05- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.844
06- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.851
07- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.960
08- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.157
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.192
10- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.306
11- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.449
