Spanish Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo took pole for today’s Czech Republic MotoGP in Brno after setting a new lap record in qualifying, yesterday.

Reigning champion Marc Marquez, on a Honda, and championship leader Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo’s Yamaha team-mate, will complete the front row.

The 28-year-old Lorenzo, the 2010 and 2012 champion, clocked 1min 54.989sec on the 5.4-kilometre (3.36-mile) circuit in the southern Czech city, wiping off his own record from the morning practice.

Fellow Spaniard Marquez, the 2013 and 2014 champion, stayed just 0.074sec behind Lorenzo while Rossi trailed by 0.364sec on a hot and dry afternoon.

Rossi leads the overall standings with 195 points after 10 out of the season’s 18 races, ahead of Lorenzo on 186 and Marquez with 139.

“Before the qualifying I thought a lap time similar to the other time I made this morning was enough to make a pole position but I was wrong,” Lorenzo, the last non-Honda rider to win at Brno in 2010, was quoted as saying.

“I improved a little bit on braking, I improved a little bit on opening the throttle,” added Lorenzo, who earned his second pole this season.

Italian Ducati duo Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso took the fourth and sixth places respectively, with Britain’s Yamaha rider Bradley Smith sandwiched between them.

Last year’s Brno winner Dani Pedrosa, Marquez’s team-mate and compatriot, only managed ninth spot after a heavy crash in Friday’s practice.

Weather might be an issue today as forecasters are predicting storms following an unprecedented heat wave that sent track temperatures soaring to almost 50 degrees Celsius during practising on Friday.