Jorge Lorenzo put in a superb performance in qualifying to conquer the front row of the grid for the Catalan GP with second-fastest time he recorded today at the Montmeló circuit. This morning the Spanish rider had been sixth fastest in the FP3 session, the only one decisive for direct access into Q2 because of the modifications made to the last chicane after yesterday’s practice. Lorenzo lapped in 1’44.201 on his first run in Q2 and tomorrow will share the front row with poleman Dani Pedrosa and with a competitive Danilo Petrucci, who was third on a 2017 Pramac Racing Team Desmosedici GP.
Seventh quickest time and a row 3 slot went to Andrea Dovizioso, who set a time of 1’44.451 on his second run in Q2. The Italian rider had also guaranteed his place in the second qualifying session thanks to fifth-quickest time this morning in FP3.
The race, over 25 laps (116.375 km), is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 14.00 CET.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’44.201 (2nd)
“Today finally we were able to do a really good qualifying session and for the first time I start from the front row on a Ducati. Montmeló is a circuit that I like a lot, and above all it allows me to express myself to the maximum over one lap. In this afternoon’s free practice session we improved the bike a lot and we were able to make it more stable and keep up quite a fast pace. For tomorrow it will be very important to have good grip with the rear tyre in the last part of the race. I’m happy with today’s result and tomorrow morning in the warm-up we’ll try and make some final modifications to put us in a position to fight for a good result in the race.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’44.451 (7th)
“Today was an intense and demanding day, but in the end I’m pleased with the way we worked because we were able to improve my feeling and it was very difficult because of the very low grip. There are a lot of holes on the track, and many riders crashed today, and so it wasn’t easy at all. We have a good race pace even though we weren’t able to demonstrate it with our times, because in FP4 we decided to lap with a used medium rear tyre, unlike our adversaries, and now only the race can tell us what our real position is. In qualifying I didn’t have a perfect feeling with the soft tyres but despite this I set a good time. I think that if we get a good start we can have a say in the outcome of the race tomorrow.”
