MotoGP: Saturday progress for Yamaha as continue hunt for first win
Jorge Lorenzo secured third on the grid for the Hertz British Grand Prix, whilst his Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammate Valentino Rossi will start sixth.
It was a difficult start to the weekend for Lorenzo, the Spanish rider struggling with the tires and the cooler English weather.
For Q2 the Majorcan used the soft front tire, improving his pace dramatically and allowing him to challenge for the front. A 2:01.175s put Lorenzo third, 0.346s behind Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) in pole position. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was just 0.035s ahead of the Yamaha rider, having taken advantage of the softer option Open tires.
Lorenzo has been the most successful MotoGP rider at Silverstone since Grand Prix racing returned in 2010, claiming three wins.
Teammate Valentino Rossi ended both FP3 and FP4 in fourth position, focusing on finding a strong rhythm for the race. The Italian was able to improve his lap time to a 2:01.550s in Q2, good enough for sixth. He did struggle for maximum grip, however.
Rossi is a consistent threat starting from the second row and will be looking to improve his position come the race. The Italian is yet to score a podium at Silverstone, having missed the race in 2010 after breaking his leg in Mugello.
Lorenzo said, “We’re happy to be on the front row as yesterday’s situation was very bad. The team and I worked hard on acceleration and on the bumps to improve. We still have some problems on the medium tire over the bumps. This track with the hard tire is not good for our Yamaha and I think we could be faster with the hard tire from Brno. With a good start we can be at the front.”
Rossi added, “I’m a lot less worried about today. In both practices we were closer and fighting for the top. We made a good step over yesterday. I’m not satisfied with qualifying, I could have done better I think. Anyway, the second row isn’t a disaster. We have to work on braking and corner entry tomorrow.”
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