250s: Lorenzo claims pole

The Spaniard had spent most of the session tootling around comfortably in third place on his Fortuna Aprilia, but made the most of a tow from Roberto Locatelli with a minute to go to launch himself into pole.

Lorenzo's lap time of 1:59.432 was good enough to secure his 15th pole in the 250cc class – ahead of Friday pace-setter Hector Barbera - who has moved from Fortuna to the Toth Aprilia squad - by 0.350 seconds.

Aprilia machines in fact took the top five places with the Aspar bikes of Alex de Angelis and series newcomer Alvaro Bautista – the reigning 125cc world champion – completing the front row.

Another ex-125 world champion Thomas Luthi was fifth on his Caffe Latte bike, while the KTMs of Hiroshi Aoyama and 125 graduate Mika Kallio were sixth and eighth – sandwiching Andrea Dovizioso's Humangest Honda.

Yuki Takahashi was ninth on the second Humangest machine while Julian Simon had an impressive 250cc debut in tenth on his Repsol Honda – ahead of his team-mate Shuhei Aoyama.

Irishman Eugene Laverty was 24th on his LCR Honda.