Jorge Lorenzo smashes lap record, Rossi crashes in Valencia qualifying

The Yamaha superstar clocked a time of one minute 30.011 seconds in a stunning lap to ensure that he will start from the front of the grid, with Marc Marquez second and Dani Pedrosa third.

And with Valentino Rossi, his arch-rival for the title, starting from the back of the grid Lorenzo will now be a red hot favourite to claim a third world championship.

"My best lap in all my life," Lorenzo said afterwards.

"It was unbelievable."

Rossie himself had a horrendous qualifying session, sliding off the track in Q2.

His failure will be academic, of course, since stewards penalised him for kicking out at Marc Marquez during the last race in Australia by insisting that he start the season finale from the back of the grid.

Rossi has an advantage of seven points over Lorenzo - but the Spaniard knows that should he win, Rossi would need to come through the entire pack and finish second if he is to win an eighth MotoGP title. Should Lorenzo not win then the picture becomes more complicated - but even a top four finish would leave Rossi needing a charge into the top ten.

Lorenzo's flying lap saw him beat Marquez to pole by 0.488 seconds.

The 2014 champion did his utmost to respond, but his ragged final lap was not an improvement, though he kept ahaed of Pedrosa on the front row.

Aleix Espargaro came through from Q1 and then thrust the lead Suzuki to fourth on the grid ahead of British duo Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith.

Andrea Iannone showed great practice pace but Ducati had to settle for seventh and ninth with the young Italian and his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, split by Pol Espargaro.

Maverick Vinales was only 11th behind Danilo Petrucci on the second Suzuki, but that was a remarkable achievement after a violent Q1 crash for the Spaniard.

Vinales had landed heavily on his back, and was nearly hit by Nicky Hayden - who produced a masterful avoidance manoeuvre to unsure he did not run over the rookie sliding across the track.

Yet within moments of landing, Vinales was running back to get his spare bike, and he duly went second to team-mate Espargaro in Q1 and earned a place in the pole shootout.

Ducati's additional runner, Michele Pirro, had to settle for 13th, just ahead of Stefan Bradl's Aprilia and Open class title combatants Hector Barbera and Loris Baz.

Hayden was 17th in his final MotoGP qualifying session, putting his Aspar Racing Honda three places ahead of the works-spec version of the struggling Scott Redding, whose last race weekend with Marc VDS is proving miserable so far.