Lorenzo beats Dovizioso to frantic Silverstone pole

Full MotoGP qualifying results from Silverstone

Jorge Lorenzo has fought off Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for a dramatic pole position in mixed conditions following a delay for Q2 at Silverstone.

Lorenzo beats Dovizioso to frantic Silverstone pole

Full MotoGP qualifying results from Silverstone

Jorge Lorenzo has fought off Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for a dramatic pole position in mixed conditions following a delay for Q2 at Silverstone.

The Austria MotoGP race winner held his nerve on the bumpy Silverstone circuit in partly wet conditions following a heavy rain shower which hit FP4 and saw Tito Rabat suffer a nasty accident and taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg.

After a delay between Q1 and Q2 with the medical helicopter taking Rabat to hospital, the pole position fight was hotly-contested with conditions improving all the time. It provided the testing prospect of switching to dry tyres, with Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller the only rider to risk it, as Lorenzo timed his last lap to perfection to maximise his chance for pole position.

The Ducati rider duly took pole position off team-mate Dovizioso with a 2m 10.155s with Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco bolting on to the front row with his final flying lap in Q2.

That saw Cal Crutchlow narrowly miss out in fourth place for LCR Honda having briefly held provisional pole as the lap times tumbled which delighted his home fans.

Marc Marquez slots on to the middle of the second row for Repsol Honda with Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci taking sixth place.

Andrea Iannone heads up row three for Suzuki ahead of a starring role from Bradley Smith who topped Q1 for Red Bull KTM on his way to eighth place on the grid.

Miller’s dry tyre gamble failed to pay off as it did when he secured pole position in Argentina earlier this year as he failed to improve forcing him to settle for ninth place.

The other Q1 graduate Rins grabbed the front of row four on the Suzuki while it was a disaster qualifying for the Movistar Yamaha duo with Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi propping up the bottom of the Q2 results.

Vinales pitted on his first flying lap which saw him fail to set an early time in Q2, while Rossi pitted late on to miss out on his final lap complaining with a suspected tyre issue.

Qualifying was delayed following the nasty incident which red-flagged FP4 as Rabat missed qualifying with a broken leg after being hit by Franco Morbidelli’s bike as a number of riders came off at Stowe corner in aquaplaning wet conditions.

With Rabat being treated trackside it meant the start of Q1 was delayed by 25 minutes and once the first session got underway it saw a circuit with one section wet and the rest dry.

In a late dash for the top two spots to graduate into Q2, Smith produced a phenomenal lap to top the session for Red Bull KTM ahead of Suzuki’s Rins with Morbidelli the unlucky rider who will start from 13th place missing out by just over two-tenths of a second.

Home favourite Scott Redding also came close to sneaking into Q2 for Aprilia with his final lap but had to settle for 14th on the grid ahead of Thomas Luthi (Marc VDS Honda), while it was a disappointing qualifying for Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda who will start down in 16th place.

Read More