Jorge Lorenzo has taken a home MotoGP pole position for Sunday's Spanish Grand prix after a thrilling qualifying session at Jerez on Saturday afternoon.
After three wet free practice sessions, qualifying began in dry but cold conditions, and with dark clouds circling overhead.
The one-hour session saw numerous different riders feature in provisional pole, with Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow holding the advantage when spots of rain began falling just before the halfway mark
The Englishman sat nervously in the pits through the middle stages, but the heavier rain that would have confirmed his first pole didn't materialise and instead the second half of the session saw the action intensify.
But it was Spaniards Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa who proved the class of the field, swapping pole time and time again before Yamaha star Lorenzo finished just 0.135sec ahead of the Repsol Honda rider.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden completed the front row after an excellent performance, but was over one-second from pole, with Crutchlow crashing on his way to fourth. Reigning double world champion Casey Stoner will start fifth.
Ben Spies completes the second row, while Valentino Rossi - competitive in the wet - will start a miserable 13th. The Italian was last of the manufacturer bikes and also beaten by the Aspar Aprilia CRT bike of Randy de Puniet (tenth).
Not what The Doctor ordered as he seeks to bounce back from a nightmare opening round in Qatar.
