Motegi MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo shocked to claim front row

Jorge Lorenzo said he was shocked to qualify in second position on the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix having been outgunned by Honda during practice.

The reigning world champion was easily outpaced by HRC quartet Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli during practice and his hopes of an 11th front row start of the season seemed remote heading into today’s qualifying session.

The Spaniard though delivered a brilliant performance to finish with a best time of 1.45.523 that secured him second behind a dominant Stoner.

His time was just 0.256s behind his Australian rival but 0.268s ahead of third placed Dovizioso, and a further 0.175s clear of compatriot Pedrosa.

Lorenzo said: “To be honest I didn’t expect to be on the front row after practice. We struggled a lot to be close to the Honda guys but finally we found some solutions with the bike that gave us a lot more speed and I was in the low 46s which is a good pace for tomorrow. I improved a lot with the softer tyre and I pushed a lot and I made two fantastic laps. To be only 0.3s slower than Casey at this track is really special, so I am happy and satisfied. I think we can improve for tomorrow and we can fight at least for the podium. It could be the best qualifying of the year for me.”

Lorenzo starts tomorrow’s 24-lap race at the Twin Ring Motegi trailing Stoner by 44-points in the championship race with only four races remaining.

And he said his only tactic would be to attack rather than worry about Stoner’s potential.

He added: “The only thing I can do at this moment is attack. I can’t do anything more because at this track and the next one they are not the best for us, so we have to put our head down and keep pushing.”