Jorge Lorenzo takes sensational pole at Misano
Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo produced an incredible display of riding to take his 33rd MotoGP pole position in perfect conditions at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli to set a 1’32.146. The Spaniard obliterated Marquez’s 2013 Pole Record (1’32.915) by almost eight-tenths of a second as he set the fastest ever lap by a MotoGP bike around the 4.2km track on the Adriatic coast.
Jorge Lorenzo – P1 – “Rather than pole position, it’s more important to always be first or second; I finished first in all sessions, apart from the first practice, under all kinds of conditions, with new and old tyres. I think we did a good job with the bike during the whole weekend and we have a good setting. We just need to change the last details for tomorrow. It’s going to be interesting to see how the rear tyre drops as this new tarmac is more abrasive. It will be difficult to keep up the same pace during the whole race, but almost everyone will have the same problems and we are prepared to do a very good race.”
Lorenzo utilised two stops to allow him to put in three runs on fresh slicks. He set his fastest time on his second run, and looked on for a 1’31 on his third before he was hampered by his teammate Rossi riding slowly on the racing line. Lorenzo – who has never finished off the podium at Misano – showed complete domination on Saturday by topping FP3 & FP4 before going on to take his 59th career pole.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez had been the main threat to Lorenzo over the course of the weekend, topping FP1 and finishing in second behind his compatriot in every other session. Marquez also made two stops and set his best time on his third run but still found himself 0.106s behind Lorenzo and will start from the middle of the front row.
Movistar Yamaha’s Rossi only went for a one-stop strategy but it paid off for the nine-time World Champion as he managed to improve his time from practice by over four-tenths to claim only his third front row start of the season. Rossi was just 0.212s behind Lorenzo as he looks to defend his 12-point lead in the standings over his teammate and take back-to-back wins at his home grand prix. He had earlier tried the aerodynamic ‘winglets’ in FP4 that Lorenzo debuted on Friday, but neither Yamaha rider used them during qualifying.
Valentino Rossi – P3 – “It was difficult at the end of the session, because there was a lot of traffic, I was able to find the right moment to do a good lap. The setting and also my pace improved today and for the qualifying the bike was not so bad. I still have some problems, especially in section three, which we have to improve. Starting from the front row is very important for tomorrow’s race, because Jorge is very strong and the guy with the better pace. Marc is always able to go with him, so the first lap will be very important. Because this is my home race, everybody wants to beat me, so the big shark on my helmet represents Jorge, Marc, the Ducatis. All these guys want to eat me because I’m the small fish, but I will try to escape, that’s the target!”
Race Direction decided to impose Valentino Rossi the addition of one Penalty Point to his record, according to Article 3.2.1. of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Disciplinary and Arbitration Code because he was riding slowly close to the racing line, thereby disturbing another rider on a fast lap.
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa (+0.288s) will start from the front of the second row as the Spaniard aims to make it three podiums in a row at Misano in Sunday’s race.
Dani Pedrosa – P4 – “It was a bit of a strange qualifying session because I made some mistakes at a couple of points on the track, and could have done a little better. Now we have to focus on tomorrow; we will try to have the best first lap possible and come out strong, to keep position and push for the best pace we can can get throughout the entire race.”
Pedrosa finished ahead of the Ducati Test Team rider of Michele Pirro (+0.590s) who will start as the leading Ducati in fifth despite a crash earlier in FP4.
Michele Pirro – P5 – “I am very pleased because we have always been in amongst the top positions throughout the entire weekend and a row 2 start from fifth place is a fantastic result. It wasn’t easy to achieve, even though I believed I could do it, and above all merit must go to the team, who did an incredible job. I want to thank Claudio Domenicali, Gigi Dall’Igna and everyone who made possible my presence here as wild-card, giving me the opportunity to show how quick I am.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith (+0.655s) will start as the leading Satellite rider in sixth as he looks to make it 19 points scoring finishes in a row.
Bradley Smith – P6 – “I have to be really pleased with the job that we undertook today as we reached our target of the second row again. That is really important here due to the layout of the circuit. Tomorrow, it will be crucial to get a good start and I’m actually on the inside of the track on the run into the first corner, which is a positive place to be. We improved the bike a lot in-between FP4 and qualifying and I know we can build on this even more in the morning’s warm up, so I feel really optimistic about improving my feeling further in terms race pace. It’s going to be a difficult GP mainly because it’s so easy to lose the front and we have seen this happened to many riders so far this weekend. So it will be key to be very careful with both ends of the bike and the most important thing is that I must remain consistent and smooth. However, I’m truly confident with the YZR-M1 and with my tyre choice so I am ready to do battle for a strong finish.”
Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone will start from the front of the third row ahead of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in eighth.
Andrea Iannone – P7 – “Overall today for me was better than yesterday. We are still struggling in some parts of the track and we have to understand how to improve some aspects. To be honest I’m not happy with my Q2 because I was not able to do a perfect lap. Today I could only use two soft tyres and in the end I found I had more confidence with the hard one. But there are no excuses, when the time comes to do a quick time you have to do it and I was not able to because of a few small errors in T1 which made me lose precious time. What is important now is to be set up well for tomorrow, get a good start and try and do a good race.”
Andrea Dovizioso – P8 – “Pity about my qualifying but I didn’t do a perfect lap. I feel sure I could have got into fourth or fifth place and so I’m disappointed, because the second row is important. However we managed to improve our performance in FP4 in race set-up and so tomorrow, with a good start, I feel sure we can be competitive.”
Octo Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci made the most of his upgrade to the Desmosedici GP14.2 this weekend to complete the third row.
Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) had earlier made it through from Q1 and will start in 10th and 11th respectively.
Aleix Espargaro – P10 – “We improved the machine from yesterday and now we are a little closer to the top. Yesterday we had many issues with the grip and today things went better, even if the problem’s pretty the same: We lack some acceleration and we can’t deliver effectively our power to the ground, but oday my crew did a great job; Tom made some good settings that helped me to limit power-sapping wheelies. Beside the qualifying time I believe that my pace improved a lot so I will try to make a good start and keep contact with the top-10 tomorrow.”
Cal Crutchlow – P11 – “We had a tough day for sure. We tried different set-ups on two bikes and it didn’t make much difference, we’re struggling a bit for tomorrow’s race. I think you can see from me and Scott (Redding) how much we’re struggling compared to the factory guys, but there’s no apparent reason for it, we need to look at the data tonight and work hard, then hopefully we can have a good race. The goal is always to win, but the reality is a long way from that at the moment, but we have to keep our spirits high and keep the team motivated. We try our best every weekend, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but we have some ideas for tomorrow morning as I think we went the wrong way today.”
Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) will have to start from 12th after he crashed at turn 9 ending his session after just two laps.
Pol Espargaro – P12 – “I can’t say too much about the qualifying but obviously, right now I feel frustrated with what has happened, because it has been an unlucky day. Just like yesterday, I felt comfortable with the bike today and we had a good set up from the first free practice. We tried some modifications on the bike following the analysis we did last night and they worked more or less ok, although we still have some margin of improvement to make as we are not where I think we could be at a track like this, especially considering that I have felt strong from the word go. Afterwards, in the FP4, we had a technical issue with one bike, so I had to come back to the box and go out on the other one. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to fix the bike and my team still needs to find out what was wrong. So, I had to face Q2 with just one bike and then the worst thing happened. I did one first lap and when I was in my second flying one I had a small crash. When I was falling, I already knew how stupid the crash was, so once I got up, I tried to start the bike again because it was just slightly damaged, but it was impossible. It’s a real pity because we were doing a good job this weekend, plus I felt strong and able to have a good race. With this mishap I will have to start from the rear of the fourth row on the grid, so I will have to do really well in the beginning, but I still think I have a good pace which I need in order to achieve a solid result tomorrow and I hope I can show it.”
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding well start from 13th after failing to make it through from Q1 by just 0.194s, while Loris Baz (Forward Racing) is the leading open class rider in 16th.
Scott Redding – P13 – “On my last flying lap I lost the front through turn 11 and had to hold it up on my elbow while trying to regain traction on the gas, but it meant I ran wide. It was quite a fast corner to do that on, so I scrubbed quite a lot of speed and that was the main reason that I struggled at the end. We’ve been getting better and better with our race pace. We tried different tyres and everything this weekend and we haven’t had it easy, but we’ve tried a lot of things and in FP4 we made a good step. I think that tomorrow we can have a good race and hopefully get into the top ten and then work from there.”
Maverick Viñales – P14 – “I’m unsatisfied with the day; this was probably the worst qualifying of the year for me. When we came here for testing, my lap times were faster but more-importantly our capability to set the machine-up competitively was much higher. Here we couldn’t find the proper set-up, I felt the bike sliding a lot and I couldn’t get close to my previous times. It’s a pity, we worked a lot here to prepare for the race and now that we are in a race situation we can’t find the solution. Anyway, with the hard tyre, I don’t feel so bad and my pace is pretty consistent and fast, so I will try to recover as many places as I can at the start and keep in contact with the top-10 tomorrow.”
Loris Baz – P16 – “It has been a great weekend until now. Thanks to the changes we made this morning I was able to take a good step forward and get even more feeling on the bike. I thought I could be even faster but temperatures raised a lot and the track was pretty hot. I have a good pace and I’m sure we can fight for the win in the Open class tomorrow.”
Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) will start from the front of the sixth row in 16th, while Aspar MotoGP Team riders Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden are in 21st and 23rd respectively.
Jack Miller improved markedly from Saturday morning’s free practice session to secure a spot on the sixth row of the grid for tomorrow’s MotoGP World Championship race. Miller admitted afterwards that he was particularly pleased with the pace he had found using a hard tyre option. The Australian believes it will prove very beneficial during the race and is now confident of producing a good result at the Rimini circuit.
Jack Miller – P17 – “I’m reasonably happy with how it went. Our pace on the hard tyre is really, really good and I’m impressed with that as normally we’ve not felt good at all on the hard. I’m looking forward to how it goes tomorrow in both the warm-up and race and also in terms of how we go with the hard tyre in the race as it’s looking like a lot of the other open guys are opting for a softer option. But we’re confident we’ve got the same speed that they’ve got on the soft on the hard tyre, so it shouldn’t lose me much on the opening laps and then it should benefit us later in the race”.
The Aprilia Racing Team Gresini riders will start the race side by side from the seventh row tomorrow after working hard specifically on race strategy throughout all the sessions. This is a strategy that, on one hand does not highlight speed on the flying lap, but on the other guarantees that the two riders will be able to ride a more optimistic race tomorrow.
Stefan Bradl – P19 – “During FP4 we found some good solutions that improved the bike’s performance and they helped me to be faster today, although we are struggling a bit more here than on other tracks. I was really pushing hard in qualifying, giving 100% or maybe even a bit more… so I lost grip at the front and took a slide without any significant consequences. It was a shame not to be able to complete the lap, because I could have improved my time quite a bit. Anyway, the important thing is that today we were able to improve the bike setup, which is now more stable in braking and handles better, which also helps me to hold my line in the fast turns.”
Alvaro Bautista – P20 – “I had hoped to be faster in qualifying but we worked hard throughout all the sessions to get the bike ready for the race and I’m sure that penalised me a bit on the flying lap. I wasn’t able to push hard but that’s sort of what has happened in recent races as well. We struggle more in qualifying but then we are looking good for the race. Tomorrow will be a long day but I think I’ll be able to manage it well and stay close to the points positions.”
MotoGP 2015 San Marino Qualifying Results
Zarco snatches Moto2 pole from Rins grasp
Ajo Motorsport’s Johann Zarco left it late to deny Alex Rins pole position by just two-thousandths of second at the GP TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. The Frenchman took almost a second off Pol Espargaro’s 2013 Pole Record (1’37.666) to set a 1’32.754 with 4 minutes left, the fastest ever time by a Moto2™ bike around the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Paginas Amarillas Rins had been on top of the timesheets for most of the session but had to settle for second behind Zarco as he starts from the front row for the sixth time this season. EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Rabat (+0.100s) was third fastest as he claimed his 11th front row start of 2015 after the reigning Moto2™ World Champion had earlier topped FP3.
Forward Racing’s Simone Corsi (+0.367s) heads up the second row in his best qualifying performance since Assen. Dominique Aegerter (+0.418s) on the Technomag Racing Interwetten will start from fifth with Petronas Raceline Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin (+0.466s) producing his career best Moto2™ qualifying result to complete the second row.
Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes heads the third row ahead of Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) and Jonas Folger (AGR Team), while Julian Simon (QMMF) completes the top ten.
Axel Pons (AGR Team) crashed for the third time on Saturday as he hit the deck at turn 10. There was an incredible incident for wildcard Xavi Vierge (Tech 3) as he crashed coming out of turn 7 and his rider-less bike veered across track twice, luckily missing other riders on track before hitting the barriers.
Moto2 Misano 2015 Qualifying Results
Enea Bastianini claims third Moto3 pole of 2015
Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Bastianini set a 1’42.486 in a qualifying session that saw times slower than in FP3 at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Despite this, Bastianini’s time was good enough to beat Jonas Folger’s 2013 Pole Record by almost three-tenths of a second to claim his first pole position since Assen.
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Brad Binder seems to have gelled brilliantly with the new chassis and swingarm KTM brought to Misano for all of its teams as he starts from the front row for the first time in his career. The South African was just 0.037s off pole as a number of riders saw lap times cancelled due to running wide at turn 6.
Leopard Racing’s Danny Kent (+0.296s) completes the front row after leaving it late to make his move. The championship leader was down in 14th with just 6 minutes to go, but recovered brilliantly to set his best time on his last lap, although it was over half a second slower than the lap record he set in FP3.
Ongetta-Rivacold’s Niccolo Antonelli (+0.326s) heads up the second row ahead of Romano Fenati (+0.497s) on the Sky Racing Team VR46 KTM in fifth. Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira (+0.522s) was in sixth with Kent’s teammate Efren Vazquez setting a time good enough for seventh despite crashing out of the session with 15 minutes to go.
Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Husqvarna Factory Laglisse) pulled off his best ever qualifying performance to start the race from eighth in just his third Moto3™ race. Phillip Oettl (Schedl GP Racing) and Hiroki Ono (Leopard Racing) completed the top ten with less than a second separating the top 15 riders.
Scotsman John McPhee had his worst Qualifying of the season and will start the race from 26th. Andrea Locatelli (Gresini Racing Team Moto3) crashed out of the season at turn 10 and will be assessed in the morning after scans revealed he had a sacral fracture. Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders Jorge Navarro and Fabio Quartararo were both ruled unfit after crashes on Friday and will take no further part in the race weekend.
Remy Gardner – P28 – “I feel that I can do better because I’m not totally comfortable with the performance of the engine of my bike. The team is working to find a solution and improve and I’m sure that the warm-up will help us in terms of get a better compromise for the race. I’ll start from de back of the grid but race is enough long”.
After the session Race Direction decided to give both Hiroki Ono and Jorge Martin (Mapfre Team Mahindra) a penalty of three grid places and they will be forced to miss 10 minutes of Warm Up for riding slow on the racing line. Jakub Kornfeil (Drive M7 SIC) had his qualifying session cancelled after a technical infringement and will have to start from the back of the grid.
Moto3 Misano 2015 Qualifying Results
