Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo sealed the seventh front row start of his rookie season today, qualifying second for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. The Spaniard, who has won the last two 250cc races here, will start behind Casey Stoner with Nicky Hayden rounding out the front row.
After finding himself in better shape in the wet than the dry yesterday, a few overnight set-up changes to his M1 put the youngster in fine form today, which was dry and sunny. Lorenzo was third fastest this morning and carried on in the same fashion this afternoon, improving his race pace throughout the early part of the session before setting consecutively faster times with each of his four Michelin qualifying tyres. His final lap was just 0.069 seconds off Stoner’s and, with the first four this afternoon all under the previous pole record, it looks like being an exciting battle when the race gets underway at the later time of 1600 local time tomorrow.
Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi meanwhile had an unlucky afternoon, running off track on the approach to turn three and falling awkwardly into the gravel trap. The newly-crowned world champion will now start tomorrow’s race from 12th, on the outside of the fourth row.
Jorge Lorenzo Position: 2nd
Time: 1'28.734
Laps: 30
“I’ve been fairly consistent throughout the sessions here and we made another step this morning which allowed me to be quite fast this afternoon. The weather was more complicated than it looked because the wind was very strong, but anyway my bike worked very well. I am disappointed to miss out on the pole position by such a tiny amount but anyway I am happy to be on the front row and also to have such a good race pace. My rivals are fast too and we know that it is going to be a hard battle, but I am really looking forward to it. Yesterday we tried some practice starts, because this has been an issue for me lately, so now I hope I can get a good start tomorrow, stay at the front and try to fight. Thanks to my team and Michelin for getting us onto the front row again; the fourth race in a row!”
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager “It’s very good to be starting on the front row here; tomorrow we have a real chance of a good race. We improved quite a lot in the dry from yesterday, but we still have to improve the rear traction a little more. Our pace today was pretty good and we selected the best tyre, hopefully the conditions will allow us to use this one tomorrow. With the Michelin qualifiers Jorge was very fast and unfortunately we missed the front row by just 0.069 seconds! We will use tomorrow’s warm-up to refine the setting a little bit more but we’re in good shape and we’re looking forward to an exciting race.”
Ambient temperature: 18 degrees
Track temperature: 30 degrees
Humidity: 36%
Qualifying Times FRONT ROW 1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'28.665
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'28.7343. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'28.756
SECOND ROW 4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'28.808
5. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'29.031
6. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'29.277
THIRD ROW 7. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'29.513
8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'29.558
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'29.710
FOURTH ROW 10. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'29.925
11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'29.942
12. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'30.014
FIFTH ROW 13. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'30.202
14. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'30.297
15. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'30.545
SIXTH ROW 16. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'31.157
17. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'31.939
18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'31.995
Phillip Island: Record Lap: M. Melandri (Honda) 2005, 1'30.332
Best Lap: C. Stoner (Ducati) 2008, 1'28.665
