Valencia MotoGP: Lorenzo grabs pole for title decider, Rossi crashes

Lorenzo set a new lap record to dominate the session, overcoming the early challenge of Honda's Marc Marquez. He described it as the "best lap of his life".

Rossi was slowest in the Q2 session anyway, but will start from the back of the grid due to his penalty for the collision with Marquez in Sepang last time out.

The Italian crashed at Turn 2 right at the end of the session, and was unhurt after sliding into the gravel trap.

Story of the session

The crucial 15-minute qualifying began with Marquez setting the bar high on his first lap, a best-of-the-weekend-so-far 1m30.499s, with Rossi’s opening gambit a leisurely 1m32.840s.

Pedrosa made it a Honda 1-2 on 1m30.784s, which he lowered by 0.08s on his second lap, with Lorenzo third on 1m30.996s. Rossi improved to 0.972s off the pace, but was only ninth and shook his head as he climbed off.

Yamaha made a swing-arm change to one of his bikes during the session, and on his final run Rossi crashed while following Pedrosa into Turn 2.

Marquez failed to improve on his second run, so aborted the lap.

Lorenzo’s second effort was ultra-rapid, a lap record-breaking 1m30.011s, which eclipsed Marquez’s previous pole record from 2013.

Marquez tried again, but lost two tenths in the second sector and ended the session 0.488s slower.

Pedrosa will start on the outside of the front row, with Aleix Espargaro a surprise fourth for Suzuki, ahead of Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith, Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro. 

Q1 thrills and spills

Maverick Vinales made it through to Q2 along with teammate Aleix Espargaro, despite the former suffering a big crash in Q1 at Turn 3, and was almost hit by Nicky Hayden at the following corner.

Hector Barbera had been in a position to go through for much of the session, but crashed near the end.

Valencia GP starting grid

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:30.011
2	Marc Marquez	Honda RC213V	1:30.499
3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	1:30.516
4	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:30.917
5	Cal Crutchlow	Honda RC213V	1:30.948
6	Bradley Smith	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:31.012
7	Andrea Iannone	Ducati GP15	1:31.056
8	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:31.080
9	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati GP15	1:31.245
10	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati GP14	1:31.292
11	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:31.340
12	Michele Pirro	Ducati GP15	1:31.780
13	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia RS-GP	1:31.824
14	Hector Barbera	Ducati GP14	1:31.851
15	Loris Baz	Yamaha Forward	1:31.856
16	Nicky Hayden	Honda RC213V-RS	1:32.083
17	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati GP14	1:32.142
18	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia RS-GP	1:32.282
19	Scott Redding	Honda RC213V	1:32.448
20	Jack Miller	Honda	1:32.564
21	Mike di Meglio	Ducati GP14	1:32.716
22	Anthony West	Honda RC213V-RS	1:33.049
23	Eugene Laverty	Honda RC213V-RS	1:33.066
24	Toni Elias	Yamaha Forward	1:33.092
25	Broc Parkes	ART	1:33.577
26	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:31.471