Qualifying report
MotoGP British GP
Yamaha scores first and second row in Silverstone qualifying
Jorge Lorenzo continued his strong pace today, qualifying second for tomorrow‘s British GP; teammate Valentino Rossi also gave a solid performance and took fourth.
Published: Aug 29, 2015, 8:30 PM
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Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo continued his impressive pace from the third free practice in the afternoon and rode his Yamaha YZR-M1 to a second place starting position for tomorrow‘s British Grand Prix. Teammate Valentino Rossi also made a step today and will start the race at Silverstone from the second row, having qualified fourth on the grid.
Lorenzo was the last rider to come out of the box at the start of the overcast 15-minute session and needed little time to put the hammer down. His first hot lap was a 2‘00.798 for provisional second place. He followed that up with a second flying lap, but was unable to improve his time and with five and half minutes left Lorenzo returned to the pits for a fresh rear tyre.
If you don‘t get the perfect lap or don‘t push to your limits, it‘s very difficult to stay on the first row.
Jorge Lorenzo
The Spaniard was pushed back to third and cunningly waited for all other riders to exit the pit lane before heading out for his second attempt to improve his starting position. With three and half minutes still on the clock, he had just enough time left for a final try and dropped a hot time of 2‘00.522 to reclaim second position, 0,288s off the front.
Teammate Rossi also bided his time at the start of the session to avoid traffic. The nine time World Champion soon dropped under the 2‘02 mark with a 2‘01.779 and moved up to fifth, but was pushed back a place when the pace picked up. He gave another push and delivered a 2‘01.182 moving back up to fifth after which he immediately returned to the pits with a little less than six minutes of the session remaining.
A minute later he was back on track to pick up the pace. He was unable to improve on his time on his third flying lap, but having been pushed back to sixth the Italian was determined to make up ground. He put his head down on his final attempt and rode a strong final sector to secure fourth position clocking a brilliant 2‘00.947, 0.713s off pole.
Jorge Lorenzo: "To be honest, I didn‘t expect to improve so much and that everyone would be so quick in qualifying, but it‘s normal for everyone to improve their times by one second out of nowhere. If you don‘t get the perfect lap or don‘t push to your limits, it‘s very difficult to stay on the first row. For this reason I‘m very happy with second place, this is a very good position, I‘m very happy. I‘m very proud of my two laps. Let‘s see which small details we can improve for tomorrow to keep a consistent pace."
Valentino Rossi: "Reclaiming the lead in the championship is the target, but it‘s going to be difficult because Marc and Jorge are very strong at this track. I‘m quite satisfied because we improved the setting of the bike a lot. I‘m also happy about my pace and my riding, my performance wasn‘t so bad. Our goal was to start the race from the second row, so fourth place is OK, but we need to continue working to improve some other things for tomorrow. Pedrosa is also strong, so if we want to fight for the podium we have to go a bit faster."
Massimo Meregalli Team Director: "Another positive day for Jorge. He has shown his consistent speed and pace in all practice sessions and did another good job this afternoon. Valentino also did well today and booked solid progress. Considering the issues he had yesterday we are satisfied to be on the first and second row. The team has worked hard to make an extra step today and we still have the opportunity to improve the set up further for tomorrow. We will continue to work overnight so we can make an extra step during the morning warm up and be ready for the race with a fully competitive package. It‘s going to be long and tough race and for sure it will be competitive at the front, so it should be an exciting one to watch."
Yamaha MotoGP
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