Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo rode a fantastic lap during qualifying at Jerez to break the lap record and take pole position for tomorrow’s MotoGP race. Marc Marquez (Honda) qualified second, while Andrea Iannone (Ducati) qualified in third position.
It appears from practice that Lorenzo also has the best race pace, and Marquez is complaining of pain and weakness in his recently broken finger, and therefore has his sites set on making the podium, rather than winning.
Here are the results from Q2:
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time | Gap 1st/Prev. |
| 1 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’37.910 | |
| 2 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1’38.300 | 0.390 / 0.390 |
| 3 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1’38.468 | 0.558 / 0.168 |
| 4 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1’38.539 | 0.629 / 0.071 |
| 5 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’38.632 | 0.722 / 0.093 |
| 6 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 1’38.638 | 0.728 / 0.006 |
| 7 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | CWM LCR Honda | Honda | 1’38.714 | 0.804 / 0.076 |
| 8 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1’38.823 | 0.913 / 0.109 |
| 9 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1’39.464 | 1.554 / 0.641 |
| 10 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1’39.491 | 1.581 / 0.027 |
| 11 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1’39.789 | 1.879 / 0.298 |
| 12 | 45 | Scott REDDING | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 1’39.825 | 1.915 / 0.036 |
re: “Marquez is complaining of pain and weakness in his recently broken finger”
from that shot, no lingering pain in Jay’s finger I reckon…? 🙂
some paparazzo earned his weekend’s money with that one. love the redline tires, almost hot-roddish. brilliant.
Another day, another (relatively) poor starting position for Rossi. Sure would be nice if he could qualify half as well as he races.
Lorenzo will be the hare tomorrow. He’s going to get out front fast, and we’ll see whether Marquez and Rossi can hang with him long enough to make it a race. I’m not concerned about Marquez’s finger, or his stamina. He’s a twenty-year-old kid. He’s competitive. He’s borderline insane. Yeah, no worries. He’ll adrenaline his way through. Rossi? He just needs to be in the lead pack following the first two laps. He needs to be close enough to Lorenzo to put some fear into him, then it’s anyone’s ballgame.
Cmon VLJ if Rossi started on the front row, where would the drama of him working his way thru the pack into the lead come from? That’s been the entertaining part of the season so far. Hope that they got Lorenzos helmet liner glued in properly this time. I’d say for MM, in the heat of the battle he won’t even feel his finger, unless he loses, then he will say it affected him.
Yes, it seems that Rossi actually rides better when he has someone to reel in. Like he is more focused or determined or something.
I’m not necessarily betting MM makes a podium finish…then again, I’m not betting against him either.
MM is big and healthy. Yet Lorenzo has a style.