Lorenzo Expects Strong Estoril Battle

After taking his first pole since Laguna Seca Jorge Lorenzo was pleased with the work he and his Fiat Yamaha crew had undertaken on Saturday at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal, especially as he has been fastest in every session so far this weekend.

“It’s been quite a few races since I’ve had a pole,” Lorenzo stated on Saturday evening. “I was getting a bit worried because doing one fast lap has always been one of my strong points but lately we haven’t been able to be quite competitive enough with the soft tyre. This weekend however everything is working really well and the setting with both tyres is great, so I was able to go out and do some very fast laps.”

Asked if he was confident of victory after outpacing his rivals thus far, Lorenzo replied, “I will be trying for the win, but it is going to be difficult because not only Valentino (Rossi) is fast, Dani (Pedrosa) and Casey (Stoner) are too, so in order to win I will have to push hard. Anyway I feel great on the bike and in every practice I have finished first, so I think we will be fine. I hope that several riders can be fighting for the victory because we know the fans love that. It will be a great battle between me and Valentino but I expect Casey and Dani to be there in the first laps.”

Pressed as to whether he felt more confident about his title chances given the way the weekend has gone so far, the Spanish star responded, “The championship is a complicated question for us because of the 30 points, which is a big gap. Only a failure from Valentino can really give me more of a chance.”