Rossi takes pole; Lorenzo to start on P2
| Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo kept the pressure on in qualifying this afternoon for tomorrow‘s Gran Premio de España, taking first and second on the grid.
Rossi was one of the favourites to claim a spot on the front row after dropping the fastest time, a low 1‘49s lap, in FP3 this morning. As the last rider to take to the track at the start of QP2, he had clear tarmac in front of him and was quick to push out a strong time attack. His first flying lap of 1‘39.761s gave him initial third place. Over his next few tries he improved his time to a 1‘39.463s but he remained in provisional third position as he headed into the pits with five and a half minutes remaining. Less than a minute later the Doctor was back on his way and ready to step up his pace. Despite there only being a few minutes left of the session he was not rushed by the clock and calmly waited until after the flag had already come out to drop into the 1‘38s with a1‘38.736 and take his first pole position since last year‘s Dutch Grand Prix in Assen. This impressive achievement puts him in joint first place with team-mate Lorenzo in the most pole position rankings, as they both hold 62 first place Grand Prix starts over all classes. Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s local hero Lorenzo finished at the top of the standings for three of the four practice sessions and had his eye fixed on the front row of the grid for the race. He was the first man to leave pit lane at the start of the qualifying two heat. He immediately dropped into the 1‘39s with a 1‘39.405 lap and took the lead, but was pushed back to second place as he headed into the pits for his first of two stops. He returned to the track with more than nine minutes remaining, but quickly came back into the box after experiencing tyre issues and switched back to his first bike to make his final dash for pole. His next lap was a superb 1‘38.858s for provisional first place and it remained unchallenged, until Rossi took over at the front in the final minute with a margin of just over one tenth of a second. Tomorrow the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team-mates will be on track for the fourth race of the season at 14:00 (GMT+2) local track time. (5.30 pm IST) |
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