Lorenzo shattered the lap record at Le Mans, his fastest effort of 1min 31.975sec bettering Marquez’s 1:32.042 set in qualifying in 2014.
Advertisement
“Little by little and practice by practice together with the whole team we improved small details in all the corners to create a bike that allowed me to keep a constant pace”.
Yamaha rider Lorenzo, who turned 29 on Wednesday, was 0.441sec faster around the Bugatti circuit than fellow Spaniard Marc Marquez (Honda), the current series leader after victories in Argentina and the United States.
A far cry from taking pole position at Jerez a fortnight ago, Rossi could only manage a spot on the third row of the grid, 0.854 seconds behind Yamaha team-mate and polesitter Jorge Lorenzo. And he is hoping to put the confidence and experience gained during the Jerez test to good use, with the clear goal to secure a fourth top 15 finish in five races.
Ducati’s Andrea Iannone will start on the front row for the first time since Phillip Island a year ago, although was left disappointed with an out-lap crash that ruined his chances of challenging Lorenzo for pole. He reported having experienced problems similar to those that his teammate Andrea Dovizioso had in Jerez that forced him to retire from the race; water leaked from the Ducati and went onto the rear tyre.
“The pace is not so bad, but from the third row everything is more hard, but we can try to make a not so bad race”.
Honda rider Pedrosa crashed at Turn 4 midway through the session, but got back to his garage in time to rejoin the session on his second bike.
Advertisement
“We did a wrong strategy and unfortunately I was stuck in the traffic, I lost a lot of time”, he said. “The negative thing about Le Mans is the weather, it is always very uncertain”. He is still unsure about the new softer tyre compound that Michelin have introduced this week for the races, and the Repsol man is not passing too much judgment on them yet until after the 28-lap race tomorrow.
