Front row start for Jorge Lorenzo at Phillip Island

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo qualified third on the grid at an overcast Phillip Island circuit for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix.

Lorenzo started the 15-minute qualifying heat in his normal fashion of making sure being the first rider to leave pit lane. His first flying lap of 1’29.175 saw him very briefly hold provisional pole until other riders completed their first lap, pushing him back to fourth place.

Lorenzo’s second attempt saw him post a 1’28.884 lap, moving him up to third position as he headed back to the pit lane for a tyre change with eight minutes of the session remaining.

A little more than two minutes later Lorenzo was back out on the track and immediately dropped under the 1’29 mark as he posted a 1’28.650 lap for pole position, until rivals Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez topped the leaderboard just moments later. Lorenzo put the hammer down once more but was unable to further improve his time. He will start tomorrow’s race on the first row from third place on the grid.

Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd | 1’28.650 | 8 Laps
“I’m pleased because it’s always good to be on the front row. Obviously I wanted to take pole position, but my lap was not fast enough. Being on the first row is always positive and to have Rossi and Pedrosa in second and third row is really good. During Q1 I was a little bit nervous because from the garage I saw spits of rain on the track and we don’t like to ride in those conditions, but we were lucky. The rain stopped before Q2 and we could ride a normal session and push at the maximum. There are still some corners in which I’m not quite satisfied with the set up of the bike. We will try to modify some things for the warm-up tomorrow.”

Source: Yamaha MotoGP