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A soaking wet Sachsenring on Saturday held no fears for
Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge
Lorenzo today, who took pole and second on
the grid amidst heavy rain at the German
Grand Prix. |
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A soaking wet Sachsenring on Saturday held no fears for
Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo
today, who took pole and second on the grid amidst heavy
rain for this afternoon's
German Grand Prix. It is the sixth time the pair has
shared the front row this season and Rossi’s third
MotoGP pole
of 2009 is also his first ever in the premier-class at
this track. Lorenzo meanwhile continues his impressive
statistic of having qualified on the front row at every
round so far this year.
Yesterday morning was overcast but dry and it was the young
Spaniard who ruled the second practice session, with his
team-mate half a second off in fifth. It began to rain
heavily at lunchtime and did not let up all afternoon,
creating treacherous track conditions with standing
water in some places. Both Rossi and Lorenzo looked
comfortable in the wet and the Italian took an early
lead just ten minutes into the session. 22-year-old
Lorenzo meanwhile put together a string of good laps,
gradually improving his time as he gained confidence on
the soaking surface and he duly moved into pole position
as the session entered it’s final stages.
The team-mates swapped the lead between them twice more
before Rossi staked his claim for his fifty fourth career pole with a
masterful final lap which saw him better his team-mate’s
time by an incredible 0.640 seconds. Casey Stoner joins
the pair on the front row for today's grand prix once again, a further six
tenths off Lorenzo.
Valentino Rossi
“I’m
really happy for this pole because it means I’ve
already got more than in the whole of last year!
Getting the pole position here is very important
for the race because it’s such a hard place to
overtake, so I’m really happy. We’ve done some
good work today and my team has done a great job
to set-up the bike. We’ve made a few small
modifications, which have improved the feeling
for me and I felt very confident today despite
the bad conditions. At the end it was really
very difficult and we were right on the limit
because there was so much water on the track,
but I knew I could push a bit more and the
result was this great lap. I really hope it’s
dry tomorrow – for the sake of everybody – but
at the moment it’s doubtful so at least we can
be confident that we’re well prepared in the wet
as well.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“Yesterday I was quite worried about my injuries
but I am happy to say that today I feel a lot
better and I was able to ride much more strongly
and brake much later. I was really fast in the
dry this morning and then this afternoon I did a
lot of consistent laps, improving all the time,
which is very good because often I struggle in
the wet. At the end it was very easy to crash so
I didn’t want to push too much or take too many
chances, it was important to be careful! Second
place is very good and I’m happy about the work
we’ve done. I hope I feel even better tomorrow
for the race and of course that the weather is a
bit better too.”
Davide Brivio (Team Manager - Rossi)
“This is a good pole for us, Valentino improved
his split times throughout so at the end it was
a case of just putting everything together and
this lap was the result. It’s difficult in very
wet conditions like this and we had a bit of
work to do during the session to adjust
everything but it all worked well and it seems
that we have a good wet set-up; it was a great
job from the rider and the team. Pole position
is important here because overtaking is hard, so
we’re hoping for a dry race so we can take full
advantage.”
Daniele Romagnoli (Team Manager - Lorenzo)
“Today was a great day, both the morning and the
afternoon. We started the morning strongly,
finding a good setting for the dry that enabled
Jorge to keep a very fast pace. This afternoon’s
session also went very well, despite the
terrible weather, and we’ve been able to attain
our goal of starting from the front row. Of
course we’d prefer it to be dry tomorrow but I
think we’re ready for anything."
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