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Fiat Yamaha Team riders
Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo will share the front
row for tomorrow’s MotoGP season-opening Grand Prix in
Qatar, having qualified second and third in tonight’s
session at the Losail International Circuit. The pair
were split by just 0.024 seconds tonight and beaten only
by Casey Stoner, with Rossi and Stoner having now been
first and second in all three sessions.
Despite the single-tyre rule having spelled the end of
one-lap qualifying tyres, tonight’s session proved to be
exciting nonetheless with most riders, including Rossi
and Lorenzo, choosing to keep one of the softer compound
Bridgestone tyres to use at the end of the 45 minutes
for a couple of flying laps. Tomorrow’s 22-lap race will
see the riders using the harder compound Bridgestone
rubber and Rossi, who has had a good race pace all
weekend, is confident of being able to mount a strong
challenge. Lorenzo meanwhile has posted his fast times
on the softer tyre and now needs to make a few changes
together with his team and use the warm-up well in order
to refine his setting and find a better feeling with the
race tyre. The race will begin at 2300 local time, CET
2200.
Valentino Rossi
“I am really
happy to be on the front row here because we know that this
isn’t one of our best tracks. We also knew that Stoner would
be strong and, although this is definitely true, we’re not
too far off and the gap is closing all the time. Starting
second is going to be very important here because there is a
question mark over the tyres on this surface. The asphalt is
still very dirty which is hard on the tyres and I think that
the last few laps are going to be quite entertaining! There
are a couple of places on the track where we can still be
faster so we will have a look at the data and I hope we can
make another step in the warm up and fix a couple of small
problems. There is definitely a question mark over the last
six or seven laps though and I think we could be sliding
about a bit. Anyway, everyone is in the same position, with
the same tyres, and it could make it quite fun; let’s wait
and see.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“After being on
pole here in my first MotoGP race last year, I am happy to
be back on the front row at least! It is going to be
important I think because it will be a hard race. During the
test here I was faster with the hard tyre but for some
reason we have the opposite situation this time and I am
much faster with the soft tyre. With the hard tyre we have a
few issues still, which is a problem because this is the
tyre we need to use for the race. Now we need to work hard
to try to solve the problem tonight. Tomorrow I won’t be
thinking about winning, just about doing the best I can and
taking as many points as is possible in the circumstances.
Of course you never know what will happen in a race!”
Davide Brivio
“The first row
was our main target so we’re pleased with this result. We
were also able to make a few more adjustments and improve
the setting, so we’re happy with how we’ve used the reduced
track time we’ve had. The gap to Stoner is still there but
we will try a few more things in the morning to try and
close it a bit more, then the rest will be up to Valentino!”
Daniele
Romagnoli
“Tonight’s
session was not so bad, and it’s good for everyone in the
team to see Jorge on the front row here again. We know that
he can be fast with the soft tyre but we still need to
improve the pace with the hard tyre because at the moment we
still have some problems, mainly on the entry to the turn
where the bike is still understeering. We have some ideas
and the warm-up is going to be very important to improve
things so that Jorge can ride to his full potential tomorrow
night.”
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