There was a contrast in workloads in the Yamaha Factory Racing garage after qualifying for the Gran Premio bwin de España, with Jorge Lorenzo having sealed pole position as Valentino Rossi suffered a high-speed accident.

Celebrating his second pole of 2013 on his 26th birthday, Lorenzo had looked threatening all day, but was also aided by the misfortunates of some rivals.

"I turned 26 today, so it’s a good present to get this pole position," the champion commented. "I knew the track was difficult because we had seen a lot of crashes in other classes and in Q1. I said to myself, ‘I am going to try my best in the conditions we have and try to get the perfect lap.’

"I didn’t get the perfect lap because I made some mistakes and ran wide in some of the braking points. Anyway, it was still a very good lap so we have pole position. I think the pace will be much slower tomorrow, so we have to work on the bike to improve it and make sure we have good pace."


Rossi will start fifth on the grid, having walked away from his moment at the quick, right-handed Criville curve which takes the riders back towards the pit complex.

"I was pushing a lot and then, when I opened the throttle at maximum lean, I unfortunately lost the front," the Italian recalled. "It’s a bad point for a crash, because it’s a fast corner, but fortunately I had a ‘good’ crash. The bike is damaged but I’m okay, so that’s the important thing.

"Apart from the crash, I’m quite happy because the target was to stay in the top five, so we’ve kept up with that minimum target, but it is a pity because, the lap before, I was very fast but we had the same sort of problem in the next corner, so I lost a lot out there and maybe we could have started from the first row.

"We do usually suffer more on Saturdays and then we’re very strong on Sundays. It will be very important to find out what sort of pace we can keep up in the second half of the race because it is usually very difficult with the Soft tyre."

Lorenzo last won at Jerez two years ago, whereas Rossi is yet to celebrate success at the Andalucian venue since 2009.

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