Jorge Lorenzo shows great pace ahead of Qatar qualifying
After yesterday‘s strong results, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo and teammate Valentino Rossi were keen to get down to business today in the second and third free practice session.
Their main goal for the sessions was to improve the tyre life, while gaining more experience on the YZR-M1s with Michelin tyres, crucial for the tyre choice come Sunday‘s race. In the afternoon they moved their attention towards setting a fast time to promote directly to tomorrow‘s Qualifying 2 session and the riders finished the day in second and seventh respectively.
Lorenzo started FP2 with the same approach as he tackled FP1; he waited for the entire field to head out of pit lane before mounting his YZR-M1. Though the start to the session was similar, his target for the session was different.
Yesterday the Majorcan aimed to show off his blistering pace, today he spent the earlier evening session adapting his setting to his personal preferences. Despite windy conditions somewhat slowing his pace, he ended the first Friday session with a fastest lap of 1‘55.934s, 0.494s slower than his time from yesterday.
The triple and reigning MotoGP World Champion improved in the second 45-minute outing of the day when he battled for a top ten position in the ranking order. After getting a feel for what the track will be like during Sunday‘s race, he put his head down with ten minutes to go and rode a strong stint, securing second place with a incredible lap of 1‘54.776s, just 0.137s behind today‘s leader.
Tomorrow the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammates will be back on track from 19:55 to 20:25 local track time (GMT+3) for Free Practice 4, followed by the Qualifying 2 session from 21:00 to 21:15.
JORGE LORENZO
In the first practice there was some wind and we struggled a lot to be competitive compared to the other riders, it looked like the wind affected them less. In the evening, especially in the last laps, there was no wind and we were able to be competitive and try different tyres. Finally we have an idea of which compound is better for the race, but I would like to improve my pace a little bit more. We are in the top group, but I would like to have an advantage. Let‘s see if we can do it tomorrow before qualifying.
Source: Yamaha Racing