The Fiat Yamaha rider bettered Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso in qualifying to take his sixth pole position of the season, from which he will launch his first bid at clinching the 2010 title. Ben Spies, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi qualified on the second row.

Jorge Lorenzo will start the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix from pole position – his sixth of the season – after topping qualifying at Sepang on Saturday. The Fiat Yamaha rider can secure the 2010 title with a finish of at least ninth place in Sunday’s race, and placed himself in prime position to do so with a best lap of 2’01.537.

Nicky Hayden appeared close to securing his first pole in three years when he took the lead of the session towards the end, but the Ducati rider will not be disappointed with his second front-row start of the season after eventually losing out to Lorenzo by exactly one-tenth of a second.


Following up his first premier class pole last time out at Motegi, Andrea Dovizioso secured third position on the grid with another impressive qualifying display. The sole Repsol Honda representative this weekend was 0.292s off Lorenzo’s marker by the conclusion of the hour-long session.

Just missing out on a front-row start by a margin of 0.164s, and also the final rider under the 2’02” barrier in the session, Ben Spies took fourth spot having led the timings with ten minutes remaining. Casey Stoner of the Ducati Team ended the session in fifth position, just seven-thousandths ahead of Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) who took the final slot on row two.

Completing the top ten in the session were Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Rizla Suzuki duo Álvaro Bautista and Loris Capirossi, and Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini). Héctor Barberá (Paginas Amarillas Aspar) had a fall at the very end of the session and qualified in 15th.

The MotoGP race is scheduled to get underway at 4pm local time on Sunday.