Ben Spies of the United States captured his first career pole position yesterday when he dominated qualifying for the Indianapolis MotoGP with a time of 1 minute 40.105 seconds.

Spies, on a Yamaha Tech 3, was more than two-tenths of a second faster than that of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo who will be his team-mate at the factory Yamaha team next season.

Lorenzo twice put himself atop the times in the final 15 minutes, but Spies gave American fans a thrill when he turned his fast lap at the famed Brickyard with barely more than two minutes remaining in the qualifying session.

Lorenzo was second-fastest at 1:40.325. American Nicky Hayden, the 2006 world champion, was third at 1:40.336.

On Friday, it was announced that Spies will take over from Valentino Rossi in the Yamaha factory team in next season’s world MotoGP championship.

“We’re delighted that Ben will join the Factory Team for next season,” said Lin Jarvis, managing director of Yamaha Motor Racing.

“Ben has shown great promise in his first ten MotoGP races. He has learnt rapidly and recorded strong results, including a well-deserved podium finish at Silverstone - impressive for someone in their first full season.”

Spies has been favourite to take over the hotseat since the announcement that world champion Rossi was leaving for Ducati.

“We believe that Ben will be a future title contender and that he will be a good fit with our team,” added Jarvis.

“His mission next year will be to continue learning, consistently challenge for podium places and try to win some races.”