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Lorenzo on Laguna Seca pole, Rossi sixth

LAGUNA SECA, California - MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo put Yamaha on pole position at the U.S. Grand Prix after a tight, fluctuating battle with Ducati’s Australian Casey Stoner in qualifying on Saturday.

Lorenzo secured the top slot with a best lap of one minute 20.978 seconds at a sun-soaked Laguna Seca circuit, with Stoner second in 1:21.169 and Honda’s Italian Andrea Dovizioso third in 1:21.617.

It was the 23-year-old Spaniard’s fifth consecutive pole, the 14^th of his MotoGP career, and left him ideally placed to stretch his 47-point overall lead on Sunday when he will bid for his sixth victory of the season.

American Ben Spies gave the home fans something to celebrate by finishing fifth on his Yamaha, just 0.024 seconds behind Honda’s Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, winner of last week’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

World champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, close to his best just seven weeks after breaking his right leg, will start the race from sixth after recording a fastest lap of 1:21.688.

“This is my fifth pole position so it is impressive for us to make it,” Lorenzo told reporters after snatching pole from Stoner with his penultimate lap in the one-hour session over the twisting, technically challenging circuit.

Pushing More

“I thought I couldn’t make it because the lap time of Casey was so quick, but I try,” said the Spaniard who has finished no worse than second in eight races this season.

“I say to myself: ‘I will push more.’ And I did it.”

Stoner, winner here in 2007 when he went on to clinch the MotoGP world title, was the fastest rider in official practice and he recorded the best lap early on in qualifying.

The 24-year-old Australian, bidding for his first win this season, then traded places with Lorenzo five times at the top before the Spaniard secured pole with his blistering late flourish.

“We definitely need to improve the bike a little bit before tomorrow,” Stoner said. “We tried a few different things that weren’t really working and unfortunately one of the settings took a long time to change so we wasted a little bit of time.

“I thought we could have gone faster, but I’m definitely happy to be on the front row again. Hopefully we can push a little bit more toward the front, something that I haven’t done this year.”

With eight races completed this season and 10 rounds to go, Lorenzo leads with 185 points. Pedrosa has 138 and Dovizioso is third with 102 points.