Jorge Lorenzo will start tomorrow’s fourth round of the MotoGP World Championship – the Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Andalusia – from the third row of the grid.
At the end of this afternoon’s Q2 session, the Ducati Team’s Spanish rider set the eighth quickest time of 1’38.910, around six-tenths of a second away from the best time of polesitter Dani Pedrosa.
There will be a row 5 start on the other hand for Andrea Dovizioso, the Italian rider unable to get out of Q1, which he concluded in fourth place with a time of 1’39.255.
In the morning’s FP3 run, which was held on a dry track and with an air temperature of 20°, Lorenzo was second fastest behind Pedrosa, thus gaining automatic access into the second qualifying session, while Dovizioso was classified in sixteenth.
After the early afternoon’s FP4 session, which finished with Lorenzo fourth and Dovizioso seventh, the two Ducati Team men then went out on track for the qualifying sessions which determined the starting-grid for tomorrow’s 27-lap race.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’38.910 (8th)
“Overall today’s sensations were good and for the first time this season I had a pace that was similar to those riders ahead of me. To be honest, in qualifying I hoped to improve on this morning’s result a bit, but for some reason I didn’t have good grip with the rear tyre and was unable to accelerate well out of the corners. At any rate for me today was one of the best days I have had in this first part of the season from every point of view, and this is really good news for us. It means that we are maintaining good progression and tomorrow we’ll see if we can come away with a good result in the race. The most important thing is my consistency and that I feel strong on the bike.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’39.255 (14th)
“Today was a bit of a difficult day, even though I’m actually satisfied with my race pace, which this afternoon was in line with the fastest riders: to be honest, I didn’t expect that and so I have a good feeling about the race. I think that my grid position does not respect the speed we showed in FP4, but unfortunately this starting position could condition my race. I’m really sorry for the team but now I will have to try and get a good start, not lose too much time at the start and try and make up places rapidly.”
