Lorenzo is 14 points behind Rossi in the championship standings, and is riding this weekend with a sprained shoulder.

Rossi had lagged well behind Lorenzo throughout free practice, but jumped right up to his pace level in FP4.

They traded pole position multiple times throughout the 15-minute Q2 session, Lorenzo only sealing it on his very last lap by 0.081s.

Story of the session

Lorenzo set the benchmark of 1m44.768s, but had Rossi following his every move behind him, and was just 0.017s clear of his rival after their opening laps.

Andrea Iannone then briefly took P1 away on 1m44.645s, the Ducatis using another iteration of fairing wings this weekend.

Honda’s Marc Marquez pushed Lorenzo down to fourth with a 1m44.676s, then Andrea Dovizioso grabbed fourth for Ducati with 1m44.757s, with Honda's Dani Pedrosa going on to top both of them.

Rossi then took provisional pole with 1m44.222s, with Lorenzo being pushed down to sixth ahead of the second runs.

Lorenzo rejoined and set the first sub-1m44s lap of the weekend, a 1m43.990s to regain his top spot. Rossi was 0.232s in arrears as he went for his final run, and suffered a big wobble on his first flying lap.

Rossi really got his second lap hooked up, though, and grabbed the top spot with 1m43.871s – by far his quickest lap of the weekend.

But Lorenzo wasn’t to be denied, pipping him by 0.081s on a stunning, last-gasp 1m43.790s.

“I was very happy with the laptime,” said Lorenzo. “I made a massive one.”

Rossi said: “It’s a shame, I thought I had the pole position, but on the other side I’m very positive looking forward to fight with Jorge tomorrow.”

Dovizioso had jumped up to third, just 0.070s ahead of Iannone, but Marquez grabbed third at the Honda-owned track in the closing moments and is hoping for rain tomorrow to beat the Yamahas.

Pedrosa slipped to sixth, ahead of Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro.

Bradley Smith crashed early on at Turn 5, dropping his Tech 3 Yamaha into the gravel at slow speed.

He later suffered a much faster second crash, fortunate to escape injury as he ploughed into the gravel at well over 100mph.

Results: 2015 Japanese GP qualifying

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:43.790
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:43.871
3	Marc Marquez	Honda RC213V	1:44.216
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:44.322
5	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	1:44.436
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	1:44.582
7	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:44.809
8	Cal Crutchlow	Honda RC213V	1:44.932
9	Bradley Smith	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.067
10	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki GSX-RR	1:45.081
11	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.219
12	Scott Redding	Honda RC213V	1:45.333
13	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia RS-GP	1:45.432
14	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:45.438
15	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha YZR-M1	1:45.496
16	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia RS-GP	1:45.608
17	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:45.691
18	Hector Barbera	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:45.724
19	Takumi Takahashi	Honda RC213V	1:45.743
20	Eugene Laverty	Honda RC213V-RS	1:45.751
21	Nicky Hayden	Honda RC213V-RS	1:45.843
22	Jack Miller	Honda	1:46.039
23	Loris Baz	Yamaha Forward	1:46.048
24	Mike di Meglio	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	1:46.179
25	Toni Elias	Yamaha Forward	1:46.256
26	Kosuke Akiyoshi	Honda RC213V-RS	1:47.760