Rossi‰Ûªs Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was third fastet. The 23-year-old admits that he still has some pain when braking but is more concerned in tweaking his set-up tonight to put him in the best possible shape for tomorrow night's race.
"Considering my situation I am really happy about my grid position and I think we can be proud of our work," Lorenzo said.
"Unfortunately today though we have lost some feeling on the rear and it was difficult to go as fast as yesterday. My hand isn't perfect and I still have some pain in braking but I am less worried about that than about the bike. We will use the warm-up to try to make some improvements and then I will just do my best in the race and try for the podium."
Heading up the second row for the inaugural race of 2010 will be Randy de Puniet. The LCR Honda rider‰Ûªs progression throughout the weekend continued with a best time of 1‰Ûª55.831, putting him in fourth position and making him not only the fastest Honda on the starting grid but also the highest placed private rider.
‰ÛÏTwo months ago we had some issues with the new bike at Sepang test but we remained concentrated on our job and I was confident that my crew could give me a better bike," de Puniet said.
"We have improved slowly and my feeling has increased a lot. Since the beginning of this week end we have worked in the right way making some long run on race tyres with an excellent pace. In the qualifying session we have tested our race map and at the end I have lapped on soft tyres gaining the second row. Honestly I was not expecting such a brilliant result but I am very happy and want to thank my crew. Tomorrow‰Ûªs start is really important if I want to close the gap to the front riders‰Û
