Lorenzo speeds to front row start at Sachsenring

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi will start tomorrow‘s Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland from the first and second row of the grid, having taken third and sixth respectively in today‘s qualifying session.



A sunny and crowded Sachsenring set the scene today for the duel for pole position that saw Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo ride his Yamaha YZR-M1 to a third place start for tomorrow‘s race. Valentino Rossi also looked threatening for a spot on the front row at the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, but came just short and secured sixth place on the second row of the grid.

Unfortunately I made some mistakes and I couldn‘t do the perfect lap.

Valentino Rossi

As often, Lorenzo displayed his determination by being the first rider out of the pit box. He moved into second position with his first flying lap, dropping immediately into the low 1‘21s with a 1‘21.481. Unable to improve his time in the following laps he came in for a change of rear tyre with eight minutes remaining, to continue his attack.

Having dropped to sixth, the Spaniard returned to the circuit two minutes later and climbed back up to second place, dipping under the 1‘21 mark with a blistering 1‘20.921. Lorenzo had three more attempts at beating his personal best time, but was unable to improve and ended the day in third, 0.585s from the front.

Teammate Valentino Rossi also went straight in to the action as soon as the green light signaled the start of the 15-minute time attack. The Italian‘s first lap initially lifted him to sixth before dropping to seventh as the pace increased, but the short German circuit allowed him three more tries and he responded soon with a 1‘21.364 for third.

He returned to the pits with a little more than six and a half minutes on the clock and quickly changed tyres in under a minute, before heading back out. He stepped up his pace in the next lap, but was still pushed back to fourth. Not letting this discourage him, he bettered his time even further on his second try with a 1'21.220 to reclaim third. He held on to this front row start until three rivals jumped in front of him in the final stages of the session, moving Rossi to sixth on the grid, 0.884s from first.

Jorge Lorenzo: "Third is a very good position, because we always struggle to be competitive at this track. This isn‘t the easiest circuit for Yamaha and it‘s also difficult with my riding style, but I did my best to ride a good lap time. I wasn‘t very happy about the first try, I was in sixth position, so that wasn‘t a really good lap time, but in the second one I improved so much.

I was happy because I thought I was close to pole position, but when I saw that the fastest time was a 1‘20.336, I understood that today was not our day and that our rivals had a better bike to do one fast lap. Tomorrow it will be difficult to stay with Marquez, who seems to have a better pace, but everything is possible in racing and we are going to try our best to be fast from the start."

Valentino Rossi: "I wanted to try to start tomorrow‘s race more in front, because our potential today wasn‘t so bad. I thought and hoped that I could do a 1‘20-high, but unfortunately I made some mistakes and I couldn‘t do the perfect lap. Apart from that, I‘m on the second row and that‘s not so far behind and my pace is quite good.

I can keep a good pace also with a used tyre so now we have to work and try to fix some small problems and make some small improvements for tomorrow and see what happens in the race. If you look at today‘s pace, Marquez is very strong and Pedrosa is the second, but very close. After them come me and Jorge and we are very similar. All the essential is there, I will try to fight with Jorge, ride a good race and try to arrive in front of him and score more points."

Yamaha Racing