Jorge Lorenzo secured his first pole position of the 2010 campaign at the AirAsia British Grand Prix after an exciting qualifying practice at Silverstone. The World Championship leader battled with Randy de Puniet through the latter stages of a cold afternoon session, finally edging the Frenchman out with a best time of 2:03.308.

“I am so happy about this first pole of the season, but I’m even happier about the fact that I felt so good on my M1 this afternoon,” Lorenzo said. “It is really important to be on the front row for tomorrow because this gives us the best chance of another podium.

“Today we did 18 consecutive laps with the hard tyre and then another eight with the soft, which is a good sign, but the track was quite cold today and it took time for the tyres to reach the right temperature, so we have to wait and see how the weather is for our final choice. I feel comfortable and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, although I hope it isn’t going to rain. Thanks to all of my team for doing a great job today.”

De Puniet had stunned the rest of the field with 15 minutes to go when he stripped half a second off Lorenzo’s top time, and the LCR Honda man looked on course for his first-ever premier-class pole when he again improved on that. However, his 2:03.434 was eventually the second fastest time as Lorenzo took pole back, and the Frenchman was left to be satisfied with his first front row start since Assen 2007.

In trying to reclaim pole, De Puniet also experienced a crash right at the end of the session as he pushed hard, injuring his right thumb in the process with a deep cut.

“I am very happy because this is my first front row start since Assen 2007,” de Puniet said. “I am really enjoying myself on this track and I thought it was possible to take the pole position today when I stripped half a second off Lorenzo’s top time, but in the last lap he took pole back and I also experienced a fall. I have cut my right thumb in the crash but it was not necessary to stitch it up.

“For sure this crash was helpful to me as I understood I must remain calm during the race! The overall package is working well and I am riding faster and faster lap by lap but we still have to adjust something especially in the engine mapping and traction control but we will work on it tonight. Honestly, I do not want to dream about the podium but we have got a good potential to race in the front tomorrow.”

Completing the front row will be Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who was 0.152s further back. The Spaniard set his fastest lap on his penultimate lap of the circuit, before also crashing out at Brooklands corner, which saw him stretchered off the side of the track. X-rays at the medical centre confirmed that Pedrosa had only suffered bruising to his left and right knees after the bike ran over his legs, and luckily he will be able to take his position on the starting grid on Sunday.

“Today we were quite fast in both sessions and we have a good machine setting, so I think we have the potential for a strong race,” the Spaniard commented. “I crashed when I was on my last qualifying lap as I braked going into a left hander, I hit some bumps and then the front started to move a lot and then had a little slide. Maybe the bike went over me and at that moment it hurt, but afterwards the pain went away so I’m okay for tomorrow.”

Leading the second row will be another Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso, who was four-tenths of a second off his teammate’s pace and the final rider to get within a second of Lorenzo. Ducati duo Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner had just 0.062s between them as they took fifth and sixth spots on the grid respectively.

“My race pace is fairly decent but the truth is we haven’t improved as much as we would like,” Stoner explained. “The biggest problem we’re having at the moment is keeping the heat in the tyres and that brings on a bunch of other issues.

“The temperature drops off with every lap that goes by and as a result so does the grip. We also tried to make the bike more stable over the bumps but we lost a bit of handling and rear grip. We’re doing our best to solve the problems and luckily still have the warm-up to try a few more things. Either way I think the race can be much better for us than qualifying.”

The top ten in the session was completed by Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech3), San Carlo Honda Gresini pair Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli, and Spies’ team-mate Colin Edwards. Sunday’s MotoGP race will start at 1:00pm local time.

The Forward Racing team were celebrating a qualification one-two in Moto2 as Claudio Corti and Jules Cluzel took the top spots for Sunday’s Moto2 race at Silverstone. Corti’s first World Championship pole in just his fifth race was secured with a best lap of 2:09.624, making him the first rider under to go under 2:10 this weekend.

Cluzel was 0.413s off his team-mate’s pace as the Frenchman achieved his third successive front row grid position this season. Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) – 0.376s further back – and Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) were separated by just six-thousandths of a second as they completed an all Suter front row.

Yonny Hernández’s impressive weekend continued as the Blusens-STX rider set the fifth best time, and another rider who has stood out is Xavier Simeon. Riding as a replacement on the Holiday Gym G22 team the Belgian qualified with the sixth best time. Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept) and Arne Tode (Racing Team Germany) also put in strong displays to take second-row slots.

British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) will be on the third row having placed 12th, one place behind Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) who is currently second in the World Championship standings. Leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) was 18th in the session.

Marc Márquez will start the 125cc race from pole position on Sunday after topping qualifying at Silverstone, a best time of 2:14.667 on his final lap of the 40-minute session securing him his third pole of the 2010 campaign.

The late effort from Márquez pushed him in front of home rider Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar), who had become the first 125cc rider of the weekend to go under 2:15 with his 2:14.966 on his penultimate lap. That placed the Brit second, 0.146s ahead of Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing), with Championship leader Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar) nine-tenths off Márquez’s pace as he completed the front row.

Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) and British rider Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) will all start from the second row as they placed fifth to eighth in the session.

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