Source: Supplied.

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo eclipsed the Le Mans circuit best lap on his way to pole position for the Grand Prix of France on Saturday.

The Movistar Yamaha rider stormed to a 1m31.975s to lead Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) and Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) on the front row.

“From the beginning, the first practice on Friday, everything went very well already with our first setting,” Lorenzo said. “Little by little and practice by practice together with the whole team we improved small details in all the corners to create a bike that allowed me to keep a constant pace.

“I was using the same old tyres throughout free practice four and normally that means that when you use new tyres you can be very fast and that’s what happened today. I didn’t expect to set such an unbelievable lap time, but sometimes the lap time surprises you and I’m very happy with the pole position and the lap record.”

Row two will be filled with a mixture of talent including Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) in his team’s home race, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and second of the Tech3 entries, Bradley Smith. Directly behind them and leading the third row is Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) in seventh.

Australian Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda) will start from position 18 on the grid, improving to a 1m34.049s during the Q1 session. The heavy braking and brutal acceleration of the Le Mans layout has not been easy for Miller.

“In qualifying I struggled to warm the tyre up and wasn’t able to do a flying lap straightaway and then I ran out of time at the end of the session,” Miller said. “I’m quite happy with my race pace and looking forward to making a strong start and seeing what I can do and fight for some points.”

The Moto2 pole position at Le Mans belonged to Thomas Luthi (Garage Plus Interwetten) ahead of Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) and Simone Corsi (Speed Up Racing), while the Moto3 front row will be filled by Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold Honda), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and rookie Aaron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda).