Valentino Rossi made significant strides with the set-up of his Fiat Yamaha M1 at the Sachsenring this afternoon, finding an improved race pace around the twisty German track. The Italian will need all the help he can get tomorrow however as he was only able to qualify seventh for the race, at the head of the third row.

Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo secured his best grid spot since the French Grand Prix back in May today, qualifying fifth for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. The Spanish youngster put in a promising showing on his Michelin qualifying tyres and set his best time on his 25th of 29 laps.

After hot sunshine yesterday, heavy rain early on left the track wet for the morning’s practice session, which meant that Lorenzo and his team were unable to try some of their planned modifications. This afternoon’s qualifying session was dry but the 21-year-old was unable to make much headway on race tyres and is still lacking the pace that came so easily to him earlier in the year. His good performance on qualifying tyres therefore was a welcome confidence boost and he will be looking to make the most of it in tomorrow’s 30-lap race.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 5th Time: 1'21.795 Laps: 29

“We’ve worked very hard this weekend and I am happy to be on the second row, it’s an improvement and with the Michelin qualifying tyres I was able to go quite fast. However with the race tyre we still have problems and it’s very frustrating; we don’t have enough grip with the rear and this means I don’t have enough confidence in the bike and I can’t ride fast. More than ever today, I am finding it very hard to understand how I was so fast earlier on in the season and now I am so slow! All we can do is keep working and not stop, in order to try to find the confidence we are lacking. I hope tomorrow that I can make the most of starting on the second row, try to stay with the leading riders and hopefully enjoy my race. I’m sorry really that Valentino was behind me on one of his fast laps, I was slowing down to go into the pits and I wasn’t aware that he was there. In fact I didn’t know anything about it until afterwards but I am very sorry that it happened, especially when he was doing such a good lap.”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager

“Today has been another difficult qualifying session and Jorge still doesn’t have enough confidence to ride with as fast a pace as the front riders. Our biggest problem is the lack of rear grip and the fact that the rear tyre is spinning too much, especially under acceleration. The team is working very hard to improve our package but the weather didn’t help us much this morning and we didn’t have time to try all the solutions we had planned. Therefore we will have to use the warm-up to continue our work! With the Michelin qualifying tyres Jorge was able to make a good second row so for the race we hope he can get a good start and then try to stay with the leading riders.”

Rossi finds improved race ahead of German Grand Pirix

Valentino Rossi made significant strides with the set-up of his Fiat Yamaha M1 at the Sachsenring this afternoon, finding an improved race pace around the twisty German track. The Italian will need all the help he can get tomorrow however as he was only able to qualify seventh for the race, at the head of the third row. After a problematical afternoon yesterday, the team’s difficulties were compounded this morning when heavy rain left the track wet and rendered the majority of the first session useless. Luckily the afternoon was dry, if significantly cooler than yesterday, and Rossi and his team were able to find a good balance between their bike and their Bridgestone race tyres to set a string of consistent laps. He was disappointed after this not to qualify better and starting from the third row will complicate issues for him tomorrow as this track is notoriously tricky to pass at, although he defied this in 2006 when winning from 11th. Rossi will set a new record for consecutive Grand Prix starts with his 202nd successive appearance since his first race in 1996.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 7th Time: 1'21.845 Laps: 31

“Today things didn’t go how we hoped with the qualifying tyres! We had four as usual and, with the best one, unfortunately I found Jorge on the last corner. He was slowing down to enter the pits and he didn’t see me, this was just unlucky because I think that lap could have been good enough for the second row. Then with my last tyre my lap looked like it would be good enough for the front row but I had some problems with grip on the last two corners and I lost about half a second, so finally we are on the third row! I know I have passed many riders before here but everyone is so close now that I know it will be very hard and so it’s going to be very important that I get a good start. Luckily after the problems of yesterday and this morning we have found a good setting and a good Bridgestone tyre, and this afternoon we were as fast as Pedrosa so I think if I can manage not to lose too many places in the first few laps, then I can fight for the podium. This is my target for tomorrow.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“This afternoon we improved a lot and this qualifying position is disappointing because we had a much better potential and the latest modifications that the team and engineers made worked very well. It seems that we have the pace to race and therefore it’s just a pity that we are on the third row; we just couldn’t put everything together on the same lap today. We will continue in the morning to make some final adjustments and then hopefully Valentino can get a good start and try to fight his way forward and stay with the leaders.”