Another superb qualifying session from Jorge Lorenzo
today means that the Fiat Yamaha Team rider will
launch his Assen assault from pole position
tomorrow, as he bids to take his first premier-class
win in Holland. An inch-perfect final lap from the
Mallorcan saw him qualify 0.282 seconds ahead of
Randy de Puniet, with Casey Stoner filling the final
front-row spot and Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies
taking fourth, his best MotoGP qualifying position
to date.
Lorenzo was the only rider to dip
into the 1'34s this morning and was the first to do so
again this afternoon as he set about refining the set-up
of his M1 around the elegant twists and turns of the
historic track. He surrendered the top spot to de Puniet
for a short while but with ten minutes to go he moved
back into pole position and remained in command to the
end, extending his lead with a brilliant final lap to
secure his second pole of the season for the 80th Dutch
TT tomorrow.
Jorge
Lorenzo
"I'm
very happy to take my second pole of the season but I
feel even more comfortable and confident because I've
been first in all three practice sessions, despite the
other riders pushing hard during qualifying. I think
tomorrow's race could be interesting and of course I
want to try to win, but as always the main goal is to
finish and take points. I will try to escape but if I
can't I will fight for the podium. We can afford to be
very calm because of our lead in the standings but the
team and I are still working as hard as we can to keep
going at this level; we're not relaxing."
Wilco
Zeelenberg - Team Manager Jorge Lorenzo
"Once again it's
been a very smooth weekend for us so far and we're happy
to get another pole position. Jorge is satisfied with
the improvements we've made to the bike since yesterday
and he was a few tenths faster today, plus he's been
extremely consistent in his pace so we can see
everything is working well. The only thing left for us
to do is to make our final tyre choice for the race,
because both Bridgestone compounds are working well
here. We will wait to see the temperature
tomorrow, make some checks in warm-up and then decide."
