Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo secured a perfect pole in front of the Italian crowd this afternoon in qualifying for tomorrow’s ‘Grand Prix di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini’. He will be joined on the front row by teammate Valentino Rossi who secured third on the grid.
Having broken his previous best lap in this morning’s free practice session, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo kept the pressure on in qualifying this afternoon, taking pole at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Teammate Valentino Rossi also showed a great pace in the 15-minute shoot-out and qualified in third position on the first row.
Lorenzo made his trademark early exit from the pits as the 15-minute session began and immediately dropped a first flying lap of 1’32.357s. On a two-stop strategy, he quickly returned to his pit box with ten minutes remaining for a tyre-change and headed back out less than a minute later.
Back on track, he was ready to put the hammer down and bettered his earlier time, clocking a 1’32.146s, another new circuit best lap record, and extended his lead to 0.443s from his closest rival.
With a little more than four minutes remaining, he came in for his second stop. He returned to the track with over three minutes remaining and, though he was unable to further improve on his best lap, his pole position time remained unchallenged, giving him his third pole of the season by 0.106s.
Though teammate Rossi had revealed his special helmet, that symbolizes how he is being chased by his rivals, he was the last rider to exit pit lane at the start of the Q2 session.
The Doctor started qualifying by setting a low ’33 with a first flying lap of 1’33.190 to take provisional fourth. Hot laps by rivals dropped him to ninth, but the Italian had another two laps and set a 1’32.952, moving him up to fifth before going in to the pits with more than six minutes on the clock.
Having been pushed back to seventh, Rossi started his second stint with two and a half minutes of the session remaining. He gave his all and made the crowd go wild when he posted a hot lap of 1’32.358 for third on tomorrow’s grid, 0.212s off pole.
Jorge Lorenzo
1st / 1’32.146 / 8 laps
“Rather than pole position, it’s more important to always be first or second; I finished first in all sessions, apart from the first practice, under all kinds of conditions, with new and old tyres. I think we did a good job with the bike during the whole weekend and we have a good setting. We just need to change the last details for tomorrow. It’s going to be interesting to see how the rear tyre drops as this new tarmac is more abrasive. It will be difficult to keep up the same pace during the whole race, but almost everyone will have the same problems and we are prepared to do a very good race.”
Valentino Rossi
3rd / 1’32.358 / 8 laps
“It was difficult at the end of the session, because there was a lot of traffic, I was able to find the right moment to do a good lap. The setting and also my pace improved today and for the qualifying the bike was not so bad. I still have some problems, especially in section three, which we have to improve. Starting from the front row is very important for tomorrow’s race, because Jorge is very strong and the guy with the better pace. Marc is always able to go with him, so the first lap will be very important. Because this is my home race, everybody wants to beat me, so the big shark on my helmet represents Jorge, Marc, the Ducatis. All these guys want to eat me because I’m the small fish, but I will try to escape, that’s the target!”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“It was a strong qualifying session today and we are very pleased with both Jorge and Vale’s performance. Jorge rode very good laps to take his third pole position of the year and his pace is really promising throughout the weekend. Vale was equally impressive. Despite traffic, he did really well to secure third, though there is still some work to do. Our set up and package is already very competitive, but we will continue to work in order to make some further steps overnight. I feel positive that we will be ready for tomorrow’s warm up and have both riders very much in contention during the race.”
Smith to launch from second row at the San Marino Grand Prix
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith made it four second row starts in as many consecutive races today after a superbly executed performance in qualifying. The British star began proceedings on day two by closing the FP3 session in 7th position and was able to comfortably progress through to Q2 after continuing his efforts in adjusting the setup of the Yamaha YZR-M1. Smith and his Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team carried on their work together in the FP4 session ahead of QP2 which left the 24 year old rider confident for the qualifying assault. When the 15 minute shootout started, he bolted into action aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1. After building up his speed, Smith powered to a best time of 1’32.801 on his 6th lap which, when the chequered flag fell, equalled a start on the rear of the second row tomorrow. In addition, this time saw him finish as the leading satellite rider. The Briton will now be seeking to have a strong start and fight as close possible to the leading factory MotoGP bikes in order to add to another positive collection of points to his world championship tally.
On the other hand, Pol Espargaro suffered misfortune after falling shortly after beginning the qualifying two session and will start from the fourth row of the grid tomorrow for the 13th round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship. The Spaniard kicked off his qualifying day at the 4.2 kilometre circuit by producing a best time of 1’33.012 in this morning’s practice which left him 9th and straight through to QP2 in the afternoon. Here the 24 year old focused and pulled out of the pit lane, determined to secure a solid grid position for the 28 lap sprint tomorrow. Espargaro completed a time of 1’33.222 on his first flying lap but whilst improving on the following run, he unfortunately fell at the 10th corner of the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Unluckily, despite the bike still being in a good condition to ride, Espargaro and the marshals were not able to restart it so time ran out for the 2013 Moto2 World Champion. Yet, his best lap will see him begin the battle from the rear of the fourth row, plus his time was only four tenths back from his teammate. Nevertheless Espargaro, who is known for his excellent starts, will intend to launch forward tomorrow and jump through the pack and back into the fight for the top six.
Bradley Smith
6th / 1’32.801 / 9 laps
“I have to be really pleased with the job that we undertook today as we reached our target of the second row again. That is really important here due to the layout of the circuit. Tomorrow, it will be crucial to get a good start and I’m actually on the inside of the track on the run into the first corner, which is a positive place to be. We improved the bike a lot in-between FP4 and qualifying and I know we can build on this even more in the morning’s warm up, so I feel really optimistic about improving my feeling further in terms race pace. It’s going to be a difficult GP mainly because it’s so easy to lose the front and we have seen this happened to many riders so far this weekend. So it will be key to be very careful with both ends of the bike and the most important thing is that I must remain consistent and smooth. However, I’m truly confident with the YZR-M1 and with my tyre choice so I am ready to do battle for a strong finish.”
Pol Espargaro
12th / 1’33.222 / 2 laps
“I can’t say too much about the qualifying but obviously, right now I feel frustrated with what has happened, because it has been an unlucky day. Just like yesterday, I felt comfortable with the bike today and we had a good set up from the first free practice. We tried some modifications on the bike following the analysis we did last night and they worked more or less ok, although we still have some margin of improvement to make as we are not where I think we could be at a track like this, especially considering that I have felt strong from the word go. Afterwards, in the FP4, we had a technical issue with one bike, so I had to come back to the box and go out on the other one. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to fix the bike and my team still needs to find out what was wrong. So, I had to face Q2 with just one bike and then the worst thing happened. I did one first lap and when I was in my second flying one I had a small crash. When I was falling, I already knew how stupid the crash was, so once I got up, I tried to start the bike again because it was just slightly damaged, but it was impossible. It’s a real pity because we were doing a good job this weekend, plus I felt strong and able to have a good race. With this mishap I will have to start from the rear of the fourth row on the grid, so I will have to do really well in the beginning, but I still think I have a good pace which I need in order to achieve a solid result tomorrow and I hope I can show it.”
Loris Baz in front of everyone at Misano
The qualifying session of the Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini ended with Open pole for Loris Baz of the Forward Racing team. Baz, second among the Open yesterday, went on track with some new solutions and snatched 16th place on the grid while his teammate Claudio Corti took 24th place.
The Frenchman posted a strong 1’34.093, despite the rising temperatures in the afternoon, and secured his second Open pole this year. The goal for the race remain the points-zone and the Open victory.
Claudio Corti is feeling positive after ending the day in 24th position. The Italian got his confidence back on his Forward Yamaha after crashing heavily yesterday, scoring a personal best of 1’35.385.
Loris Baz
16th / 1’34.093 / 7 laps
“It has been a great weekend until now. Thanks to the changes we made this morning I was able to take a good step forward and get even more feeling on the bike. I thought I could be even faster but temperatures raised a lot and the track was pretty hot. I have a good pace and I’m sure we can fight for the win in the Open class tomorrow.”
Claudio Corti
24th / 1’35.385 / 7 laps
“I am satisfied with this qualifying: in the morning I tried several new solutions and I was able to improve slightly in all sectors. Tomorrow the aim is to increase the feeling in acceleration and grip but I’m confident. We should continue this way.”
2015 MotoGP San Marino
Marco Simoncelli, San Marino 12/09/2015
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1’32.146
2 Marc Marquez Honda ESP 1’32.252
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1’32.358
4 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1’32.434
5 Michele Pirro Ducati ITA 1’32.736
6 Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 1’32.801
7 Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 1’32.821
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 1’32.934
9 Danilo Petrucci Ducati ITA 1’33.169
10 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki ESP 1’33.187
11 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 1’33.220
12 Pol Espargaro Yamaha ESP 1’33.222
13 Scott Redding Honda GBR 1’33.340
14 Maverick Viñales Suzuki ESP 1’33.439
15 Yonny Hernandez Ducati COL 1’33.710
16 Loris Baz Yamaha FRA 1’34.093
24 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 1’35.385
Circuit Length:
4226
Fastest Lap Ever:
1’32.146
(Jorge Lorenzo, 13-9-2015)
Last Years Winner:
Valentino Rossi
