Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi delivered brilliant performances today in qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix České Republiky, Lorenzo breaking the record of fastest lap for a stunning pole position and Rossi claiming his second front row start of the season.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo put maximum effort into this afternoon’s qualifying session, delivering pole position for tomorrow’s race at the flowing Automotodrom Brno.
Lorenzo wasn’t the only Yamaha rider on fire either as teammate Valentino Rossi put in a stunning ride to secure third, just 0.364 seconds from pole, for a first double front row qualifying result for the factory Yamaha team since Misano 2014.
After he displayed a dominant form in the third and fourth free practice session this morning, Lorenzo again confirmed he is a force to be reckoned with during the qualifying heat.
The Spaniard was the last rider to head out on track at the start of the 15 minute session to be assured of some clear space to crank out a hot lap and went to work immediately. His first flying lap delivered a 1’55.238, smashing his own lap record and shooting him straight to provisional pole.
He hurried back into the pits for fresh rubber with seven and a half minutes remaining and was back on track in confident mood with a little under six minutes on the clock, ready to raise the level even further. He broke another record with his next flying lap, the first ever lap under the 1’55 mark with a 1’54.989. He had time for two more laps, but was unable to further improve upon his incredible lap time and will start tomorrow’s race from a well-deserved pole position.
Teammate Rossi also gave a strong performance this afternoon. Having been quick in today’s practice session the Italian made best use of the qualifying tyres in the quick fire heat. He left pit lane as one of the first riders, but headed straight back after scrubbing in his new front tyre.
He returned to the track with twelve minutes left of the session, his first lap of 1’56.345 putting him in seventh place. He kept pushing as everyone else was changing tyres and posted a 1’55.856 for fourth before arriving back at the box for another tyre with four minutes of the session left.
He rejoined the fight less than a minute later for a final attempt to improve his grid position as a last minute flurry of activity pushed him back to fifth. He gave his all on his final lap and delivered a brilliant 1’55.353 for third position on the front row of the grid.
Jorge Lorenzo
1st / 1’54.989 / 7 laps
“I am really proud of my two lap times, because the first one was as impressive as the second but just not enough to make the pole position. In the end I had to improve the lap time by two or three tenths to keep an advantage over Marc. I didn’t expect my time, but I didn’t expect those from Marc or even Valentino either, but everyone was pushing so much and they improved a lot. My pole position lap was very good, almost perfect, except maybe the last corner wasn’t because I had a lot of wheel spin, but a perfect lap is impossible, so we have to be very satisfied. I am confident for tomorrow because I think we have a great base setting. We will see tomorrow what the weather is like, how our rivals are doing after some laps, but we are confident.”
Valentino Rossi
3rd / 1’55.353 / 7 laps
“I think a first row start is going to be very important because Jorge and Marc will be very fast from the beginning and if you start from behind it will be impossible to stay with them, so I’m very happy with this result, also because we worked very well with the team. Already this morning we found a good way to proceed, but this afternoon we improved the setting and were able to also have a good pace, and like I said it’s very important to start from the front row, because it will be a very hard race.”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“A fantastic pole position from Jorge, his first lap was already impressive, but the second part of the session was even better. It was also a really good qualifying from Vale, we’re happy with third place and a front row start. The set up of the bike is working very well for both riders, so we will look for some minor last improvements that we can test in the warm up, during which we will decide which tyre we will use in the afternoon. We are feeling confident that tomorrow we will see a hot race, both in temperature and in racing action.”
Smith powers to second row in Brno qualifying thriller
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith produced his best qualifying result of the year today as he shot to 5th position in the highly intense qualifying shootout at the bwin Grand Prix Ceske Republiky. The 24 year old, who currently sits in 5th in the MotoGP World Championship standings, got straight up to speed in this morning’s FP3 practice as he delivered a top time of 1’56.195, that left him in 4th position in the combined standings. His performance saw him glide straight through to Q2 and once the 15 minute session began, the British rider jumped on his Yamaha YZR-M1 and launch into his qualifying campaign. Smith undertook seven laps at the 5.4 kilometre Brno circuit and produced an impressive time of 1’55.460 that was 0.125 quicker than last year’s pole position. In addition, his lap was fractionally behind third place by barely over a tenth of a second and tomorrow he will start the 22 lap race from the middle of the second row as he aims to clinch the leading satellite honours once again.
On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team pit box, Pol Espargaro undertook a fully determined qualifying effort and will start the 11th round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship from 8th position. The 2014 leading satellite rider endured a tricky time in the morning practice session as he finished with a best lap of 1’56.484. This was only three tenths behind his teammate, yet it put him in 11th and just 0.013 seconds outside the cut off point for Q2. In the first qualifying session, the 24 year old persevered and a rode a strong time of 1’56.212 that put him at the top of the pile by over three tenths of a second. Straight after that, when Qualifying 2 occurred, Espargaro waited until the midpoint of the session in order to save his only remaining set of tyres, but once on track, he attacked straight away and concluded the practice with a personal best of 1’55.955. This time was a blink of an eye from the second row by only 0.020 after he completed just three laps and we will see him begin at the Automotodrom Brno from the middle of the third row.
Bradley Smith
5th / 1’55.460 / 7 laps
“I am very happy with my performance today as it is my second consecutive qualifying result on the front two rows after the summer break. This is especially rewarding because my main focus for the remaining races was to improve my grid positions as we lost too much time at the beginning of the races earlier this year. In FP4 we tried various different settings and some were positive and others were not as good but the team made a combination of these and in the end I went out on a bike in Q2 with a setting which I hadn’t ridden yet. It was a bit risky, but it turned out to be a good choice by the team and I have to thank them for their great work. I am only half a second from the pole time and again, I was fighting with the Factory Yamaha for the front row, and so I have to be happy. The top five riders were a big step above the other guys on the single lap pace, however I’m sure it will be different in the race. The important thing tomorrow will be to get a good start as it will be a long, tough one and so, tyre management is vital. We will try to make some small improvements tonight, especially for tyre preservation and I will test them tomorrow morning. However, I’m pretty sure that we have the right bike to do a good job.”
Pol Espargaro
8th / 1’55.955 / 3 laps
“Without a doubt, it has been a complicated day here in the Czech Republic. We had to face different issues with the bike, which prevented us from setting up the M1 properly. As a result, we are still struggling a little bit to find a solution which will make me feel confident, especially if the grip level isn’t too high. However, to finish with a gap of just two hundredths of a second from the second row is quite pleasing especially after the challenge of going through QP1, plus with only one tyre left for Qualifying 2. Of course this is not where we want to be but I’m confident that we will adjust a few things on the bike in tomorrow’s warm up so that we are prepared for what will definitely be a tough race. Having said that, I will give my absolute all in order to come away with the best possible result after the uphill start we had so far.”
Loris Baz third Open in Brno
The riders of the Forward Racing team will line up respectively in sixth and eighth row for the start of the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. Loris Baz finished the qualifying session in 18th position, while Claudio Corti was 24th.
Baz, third Open bike behind Barbera and Di Meglio with a time of 1.57.540, will go hunting points during the race tomorrow starting from 18th place. For the Frenchman it will be important to have a good start and get as close as possible to the Spaniard who is the current leader of the Open standings, six points ahead of Baz.
His teammate Claudio Corti will race on the offensive. The Italian, who has improved by almost one second in qualifying, stopped the clock in 1’59.145 and will occupy the 24th position on the grid.
Loris Baz
18th / 1’57.540 / 6 laps
“It was not a perfect qualifying but I can’t say I’m totally unhappy. The goal was to get in the Top15 and close to the quickest Open but unfortunately I could not push as I wanted especially on the front tyre. Tomorrow’s race will be complicated: the temperature and the weather will be the true unknowns.”
Claudio Corti
24th / 1’59.145 / 7 laps
“I’m pretty happy with the result today considering the really high level in MotoGP this season. I lapped almost a second faster than yesterday. After just one race weekend I can say that we are on the right track, we have to continue like this. I’m confident for the race: yesterday I did some tests with full tank and the feelings were good.”
[ad-right]]
2015 MotoGP Czech Republic
Brno 15/08/2015
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1’54.989
2 Marc Marquez Honda ESP 1’55.063
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1’55.353
4 Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 1’55.390
5 Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 1’55.460
6 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 1’55.935
7 Maverick Viales Suzuki ESP 1’55.954
8 Pol Espargaro Yamaha ESP 1’55.955
9 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1’55.969
10 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 1’56.192
11 Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 1’56.399
12 Yonny Hernandez Ducati COL 1’56.739
13 Danilo Petrucci Ducati ITA 1’56.713
14 Scott Redding Honda GBR 1’56.765
15 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki ESP 1’56.806
18 Loris Baz Yamaha FRA 1’57.540
24 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 1’59.145
Circuit Length:
5403
Weather:
Sunny
Lap Record:
1’56.274
(Jorge Lorenzo, 1-1-2012)
Fastest Lap Ever:
1’54.989
(Jorge Lorenzo, 16-8-2015)
Last Years Winner:
Daniel Pedrosa
