MOTOGP: Lorenzo says Valencia performance was 'inspired'

Jorge Lorenzo says he is proud of a Valencia qualifying performance he rates as "inspired" after securing pole for his final MotoGP start with Yamaha.

Lorenzo claimed his 39th and last pole with Yamaha before joining Ducati next year with a new lap record, having led the way during the entire 15-minute session.

The three-time champion set a marker immediately, logging the first-ever sub-1m30s MotoGP lap of the circuit, and improved each time after stopping twice for fresh rubber. Eventually getting down to 1m29.401s, Lorenzo finished 0.340 seconds clear of Honda's Marc Marquez, with teammate Valentino Rossi completing the front row but 0.727s adrift.

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"Now I can say my last race with Yamaha I got a pole position, which is not bad," Lorenzo said. "For sure tomorrow is the important thing, the race, but the qualifying was impressive.

"I've been very motivated, very confident with tires with the tarmac, so I can reach my top level today and make three very, very quick laps, including [going faster by] two tenths every time I took new tires.

"Today was inspired and everything I tried was working, the bike was steady and even if I pushed more and more, I didn't crash. It was my day and I am very, very proud."

Pole was Lorenzo's fourth of 2016, with the first two coming in the opening five races, before a mid-season slump in cold and wet conditions. Including that run, Lorenzo has not won since beating Marquez to victory at Mugello in late-May.

"We improved the bike little by little and the bike is getting better in all the corners and tire decisions will be very important," he said. "I think with both tires we were competitive and we have a big chance to fight for the win."

Marquez (pictured) topped both of Saturday's practice sessions, but said Lorenzo simply put pole out of reach.

The new champion's cause was not helped by crashing at Turn 6 in practice four just before qualifying, which meant he could not use his favored Honda chassis in Q2.

"For some reason this weekend I felt much better with that bike that I crashed than with the other bike," he said. "I was angry because I knew that I was coming into qualifying and I wasn't able to use the first bike.

"I used the second bike – at the end it's more or less the same, but sometimes you feel a little bit better with one bike."

Originally on Autosport.com