Pedrosa grabs pole in Malaysia MotoGP

Spain's Dani Pedrosa seized his first pole of the 2015 season in dry track conditions ahead of Sunday's Malaysian MotoGP, after a fierce battle with his Honda teammate and defending world champion Marc Marquez.

Pedrosa rocketed his Honda bike around the 5.5 kilometre (3.4 mile) Sepang circuit in a fastest ever lap time of one minute 59.053 seconds in Saturday qualifying, 0.409 seconds ahead of Marquez.

In third place was veteran rider and championship leader Valentino Rossi, who will start in the front row ahead of his Yamaha teammate and old rival, Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo.

Lorenzo finished fourth, 0.684 seconds behind Pedrosa.

Crowd favourite Rossi, who put on a stellar ride to the delight of his supporters, was 0.673 seconds behind Pedrosa.

"To start in the front row will help me in the tough race. Anything can happen," the Italian told reporters with a smile.
- Bitter championship battle -
Lorenzo, 28, had dominated Friday's practice, but qualified in fourth and will start in the second row along with Honda's Cal Crutchlow and Ducati's Andrea Iannone.

It will be a nail-biting world championship battle: only Rossi and Lorenzo can win this year's MotoGP crown in the final two rounds of the season.

Two-time world champion Lorenzo came in second at Phillip Island last week and has narrowed the gap with Rossi to just 11 points.

Despite crashing during the fourth free practice, Lorenzo looked resolute in attempting to catch up by securing front row in Sepang, but the Italian -- cheered on by his die-hard fans -- denied Lorenzo a prime place in the grid.

Rossi is hoping for a 10th career world title, but has yet to win since in 2009.

On Friday, Lorenzo rubbished Rossi's allegation that 22-year-old rival Marquez had helped Lorenzo win the Philip Island race, following a similar denial from Marquez himself.

Lorenzo and Rossi were teammates at Yamaha between 2006-2008, but relations were tense.

Things improved after Rossi rejoined Yamaha in 2013, but with the world title at stake their old animosity has re-emerged.

For Rossi to win the title on Sunday, he would need to push his advantage up to 26 points.

Rossi, the oldest rider in the MotoGP entry list, risks a world title showdown in the season's final race in Valencia on November 8 if he does not grab the title in Malaysia.

Meanwhile in Moto2, Swiss rider Thomas Luthi rode his Kalex machine around a hazy Sepang to seize a pole position by clocking two minutes 06.383 seconds ahead of Moto2's new champion Johann Zarco who came in second, 0.127 seconds slower.

Italy's Niccolo Antonelli, riding a Honda, snatched pole position for Sunday's Malaysian Moto3 Grand Prix with a time of two minutes 12.653 while title favourite British rider Danny Kent was sixth, down 0.341 seconds on the Italian and starts on the third row.

Sepang is one of the season's most demanding circuits but is also Rossi's favourite track as the Yamaha racer has won six times there in the premier class.

Temperatures can soar well above 40 degrees Celsius on the circuit, which lies outside Kuala Lumpur and is one of the longest in the season.

Source: AFP