Misano MotoGP: Lorenzo storms to pole at Rossi’s home track

Factory Yamaha rider Lorenzo fought a duel with teammate Rossi in the second half of qualifying, which he won by the clear margin of 0.348s.

Suzuki’s British GP winner Maverick Vinales completed the front row, pushing Honda’s Marc Marquez back to the second row.

Michele Pirro – now elevated to factory Ducati status – will start fifth, ahead of teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

Story of the session

Marquez’s first effort was 1m32.783s, 0.282s quicker than Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro who was shadowing him. But Lorenzo reset the bar at 1m32.310s – two tenths up on Marquez – and then 1m32.076s.

Marquez improved to 1m32.443s, but was still 0.367s in arrears.

With Ducati’s Andrea Iannone missing through injury, Pirro took his factory bike. Although this deleted his status of going straight through to Q2, he sailed through Q1 with the fastest time, a 1m33.059s, having lost a 1m33.036s to exceeding track limits.

Pirro was third-quickest at the halfway point of the Q2 session, ahead of factory regular Dovizioso. Rossi was down in seventh at this point, 0.8s off his teammate’s pace.

Pitlane pantomime

Lorenzo and Marquez rejoined together for their second run, which led to hand-waving gestures between them along pitlane over who went first.

Rossi was the first to improve, however, jumping up to second on 1m32.342s, a quarter of a second off Lorenzo’s top time. But his first flying lap was chalked off for running wide at the final corner.

But Rossi improved again on his next lap to 1m32.216s, getting to within 0.14s of Lorenzo.

Lorenzo then improved to a stunning 1m31.868s, pushing the gap back out to 0.348s.

Vinales jumped to third in the closing moments, pushing Marquez down to the second row.

Pirro won the Ducati battle ahead of Dovizioso, with Cal Crutchlow seventh on his LCR Honda, ahead of works Honda rider Dani Pedrosa.

Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro crashed at Turn 10, and will start ninth, ahead of brother Pol’s Tech 3 Yamaha.

Qualifying results

Pos.	#	Driver	Bike	Time	Gap
1	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'31.868
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'32.216	0.348
3	25	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1'32.381	0.513
4	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'32.443	0.575
5	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'32.467	0.599
6	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'32.677	0.809
7	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'32.743	0.875
8	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'32.859	0.991
9	41	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'32.918	1.050
10	44	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'33.002	1.134
11	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'33.301	1.433
12	19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'33.929	2.061
13	6	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1'33.399
14	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	1'33.635
15	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'33.716
16	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'33.772
17	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'33.847
18	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'33.989
19	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'34.302
20	68	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'34.465
21	12	Xavi Forés	Ducati	1'35.161