Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo continued his strong pace at Silverstone today, qualifying second for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix. Teammate Valentino Rossi also gave a solid performance during the tense 15-minute session and took fourth.
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.
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
2nd / 2’00.522 / 6 laps
“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
4th / 2’00.947 / 7 laps
“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 – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 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.”
Impressive Tech3 duo to kick off Silverstone challenge from second row
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Pol Espargaro will lunge from 5th position on the grid for the 12th round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship at Silverstone after undertaking a brilliantly executed qualifying campaign today. The Spaniard began proceedings on Saturday morning by completing the FP3 session in 9th position, which left him able to instantly progress through to Q2. Proceeding that, a successful ride to 5th in the final free practice saw Espargaro full of optimism as he determinedly looked onwards to the qualifying 2 shootout. When the session began, he bolted from the pit lane aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1 and set a fast time of 2’01.031 on only his second lap. This was only 0.084 back from the head of the second row and his performance today will see him start the race as the leading satellite rider. He will seek to leap forward when the lights go out tomorrow and then challenge the factory MotoGP bikes at the rapid British circuit.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team pit box, Bradley Smith successfully clinched 6th position in qualifying and will aim to speed to glory in front of his home fans in the 20 lap sprint tomorrow. The 24 year old rider launched into action as soon as the morning practice began and sped to his best time of 2’02.125 on his penultimate lap out of 18, which left him in 6th position. Later in QP2, Smith who was feeling confident of storming to a strong qualifying position, got straight to work at the 5.9 kilometre track. After undertaking 7 laps, the Briton’s best time was 2’01.140 that he set on his sixth lap, which left him just one tenth of a second behind his teammate. Tomorrow he will intend to undertake a rocket start from the rear of the second row and battle to a top six position in order to consolidate his standing of 5th in the championship.
Pol Espargaro
5th / 2’01.031 / 6 laps
“It’s been quite a while since I have been as satisfied as this after the qualifying. The session went very well and with the new tyre and the good grip, we were finally really competitive. However, the most important thing is that we had a consistent pace in FP4 and I was able to feel confident with the lower grip level as well, which is an area that we usually struggle with. So now we need to analyse the solution that we found as this might be crucial for other tracks because it could allow us to be fast straight away. Regarding the race tomorrow, we do not really know what to expect with the weather conditions, but for sure starting from the second row will be a huge positive. The initial 5 to 7 laps will be vital for a strong result because it is usually on the full fuel load where we lose most of our time, but I will certainly give it my all and put on a good show for the British fans.”
Bradley Smith
6th / 2’01.140 / 7 laps
“I am pleased with my starting position for tomorrow’s race on the second row and I’m ready to do my best in front of my home fans. We accomplished exactly what we hoped to achieve today as it is crucial to get a good grid position in front of the Ducati MotoGP bikes, especially at a track like this. Those bikes are very fast on the straight, but not as quick as the Yamaha in the corners, so I knew that I needed to produce a good result in order start in front of them. We tried a few things in FP4 for our race setup for tomorrow, but to be honest, we knew that there were some tweaks that we could make to improve my single lap time, but I focused on getting everything sorted for tomorrow instead. Anyway, it’s my third consecutive second row start in part two of the season, which shows our progress is continuing and even though I still need to find a bit more race pace tomorrow morning, I feel good. I hope that the weather remains dry as a lot of English fans are coming out to cheer for me, so I will do my absolute best to not disappoint them by fighting inside the top six or higher.”
Loris Baz in pole at Silverstone
It was a really positive qualifying session today at the Silverstone track for the Forward Racing team. Loris Baz will be starting, for the first time this season, on pole among the Open bikes while his team-mate Claudio Corti seems to have found the right feeling with his Yamaha Forward and got 23rd place.
Baz, despite a minor mistake during his last attempt, will start tomorrow from the fifth row thanks to a good 2’02.677 with the goal of reducing the gap separating him from current Open leader Barbera. The Frenchman is confident for the race and has showed a very consistent pace on the English track.
Corti also felt good vibes and will start from eighth row with a time of 2’03.789. The Italian got his breakthrough in the fourth practice session when he shaved almost a second off his lap-time and got closer to the other Open bikes.
Loris Baz
15th / 2’02.677 / 5 laps
“So far it has been a great weekend. I was immediately fast and after the changes made in FP3 I was able to find a good feeling and a good pace. Too bad I made a small mistake on my fast lap, but for the first time this season I got the Open pole: I cannot wait to get on track tomorrow.”
Claudio Corti
23rd / 2’03.789 / 5 laps
“I’m really happy and optimistic after this qualifying. During FP4 I managed to find the feeling I wanted and I got closer to my direct opponents. I could still improve something, but I made a small mistake at turn 13 in my last attempt. I’m really happy after the work of the last weeks. Finally I enjoy riding my Yamaha Forward.”
2015 MotoGP United Kingdom
Silverstone 29/08/2015
1 Marc Marquez Honda ESP 2’00.234
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 2’00.522
3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 2’00.716
4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 2’00.947
5 Pol Espargaro Yamaha ESP 2’01.031
6 Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 2’01.140
7 Scott Redding Honda GBR 2’01.329
8 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 2’01.376
9 Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 2’01.874
10 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki ESP 2’01.880
11 Yonny Hernandez Ducati COL 2’01.894
12 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 2’01.979
13 Maverick Viñales Suzuki ESP 2’02.016
14 Stefan Bradl Aprilia DE 2’02.657
15 Loris Baz Yamaha FRA 2’02.677
23 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 2’03.789
Circuit Length:
5900
Lap Record:
2’01.941
(Daniel Pedrosa, 1-1-2013)
Fastest Lap Ever:
2’00.234
(Marc Marquez, 30-8-2015)
Last Years Winner:
Marc Marquez
