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Lorenzo on pole at Motegi

Jorge Lorenzo was on superb form at Motegi today, taking an impressive pole position on his first visit to Japan as a Yamaha rider. The 21-year-old will head the field for his Factory's home race tomorrow whilst his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi, who will be bidding to seal his eighth World Championship crown, will start from fourth.

Lorenzo struggled in the dry yesterday afternoon but some overnight set-up changes to his M1 reaped rich rewards today and the Spaniard was in very different shape from this morning, finishing the early session in second. This afternoon saw him sustain an even higher level of performance, improving with three out of four of his Michelin qualifying tyres and holding off Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden and Rossi to hang on to pole position. With his challengers already back in the pits he had pole in the bag for his final run but was nonetheless able to improve once again, setting a best lap of 1'45.543 and bettering the previous pole record by 0.181 seconds.

Speaking about his pole position Lorenzo said: "I'm so happy for this pole position because this is how I started my season and it shows that we are returning to how we were. It's the first pole since Portugal, when I won, and we have had a hard time since then until the last two podiums so this is a great satisfaction for me.

"I was able to ride so fast all day today, a big improvement from yesterday, and my Michelin tyres worked so well all day so thank you to them. My team have done a great job to set the bike up and this is a fantastic qualifying for us. It's not the race so now we have to wait for tomorrow, but we're starting in the best place so I am looking forward to having a great race."

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