Le Mans MotoGP: Lorenzo storms to pole, Rossi on third row

Lorenzo set the fastest-ever lap of the short version of the classic French venue, taking pole position by 0.441s ahead of Honda’s Marc Marquez.

Andrea Iannone will start third for Ducati, despite falling on his out lap ahead of his second run.

Rossi – who dominated at Jerez – has struggled this weekend and will start from the third row, as the Tech 3 Yamahas both beat him.

Story of the session

Lorenzo was not hanging around from the start, setting 1m32.437s on his first flying lap – the fastest of the weekend so far.

His main rival early on emerged as Iannone, who was on a faster lap but lost time in final sector, setting a 1m32.469s that was a few hundredths shy. Rossi was third-fastest at this point.

Lorenzo continued his run to bang in a 1m32.236s – just before Honda’s Dani Pedrosa crashed at Dunlop Chicane, losing the front end as he touched the throttle.

That incident split the session into two, with the final five minutes ending up quite frantic.

The drama happened straight away, as Iannone fell on his out lap due to a water pump issue – running to his second bike with less than three minutes on the clock.

First, Pol Espargaro’s Tech 3 Yamaha bumped Rossi off the front row, and then Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso did likewise to Espargaro moments later.

Dovizioso set an overall fastest first sector, but then lost any outside chance of snatching pole.

On his second run, Lorenzo improved to 1m31.975s, giving him pole by 0.441s.

Marquez produced a stunning lap to go P2, with Iannone unable to improve after his tumble - albeit the Ducati man did hold on to his third place.

Pol Espargaro produced a stellar effort to grab P4 with his final lap, pushing Dovizioso down to fifth.

Bradley Smith will start sixth on the second Tech 3 Yamaha, having demoted Rossi down to the third row.

Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales starts eighth, ahead of Cal Crutchlow, who complained of a huge vibration on his LCR Honda.

The returning Danilo Petrucci will start 10^th, despite crashing out late on.

Pedrosa will start 11^th, with Aleix Espargaro 12^th.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:31.975
2	Marc Marquez	Honda RC213V	1:32.416
3	Andrea Iannone	Ducati GP16	1:32.469
4	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:32.502
5	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati GP16	1:32.587
6	Bradley Smith	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:32.820
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:32.829
8	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:32.933
9	Cal Crutchlow	Honda RC213V	1:32.963
10	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati GP15	1:33.102
11	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	1:33.109
12	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:33.115
13	Hector Barbera	Ducati GP14	1:33.291
14	Scott Redding	Ducati GP15	1:33.310
15	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati GP14	1:33.360
16	Eugene Laverty	Ducati GP14	1:33.452
17	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia RS-GP	1:34.003
18	Jack Miller	Honda RC213V	1:34.049
19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia RS-GP	1:34.333
20	Tito Rabat	Honda RC213V	1:34.348
21	Loris Baz	Ducati GP14	1:34.455