MotoGP

Fourth “The Maximum” For Lorenzo In Qualifying

1 Mins read
Jorge Lorenzo - Photo Credit: Yamaha

Jorge Lorenzo - Photo Credit: Yamaha

 

Jorge Lorenzo admitted that he couldn't have done better than fourth in qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix today. The championship leader has been supreme at Estoril in his MotoGP career but found himself outqualified by Cal Crutchlow on the Tech 3 Yamaha, someone Jorge expects to provide tough opposition tomorrow.

“The main problem for me today was that in turn one and two I couldn't enter aggressively so I lost a lot of time in this section. In general the bike is not giving me a good feeling so this lap time was the maximum I could get today. We are in fourth but tomorrow is going to be hard as I have to try to pass Cal who is a hard braker! I will keep thinking positive and see what we can do.”

Ben Spies will start alongside his Yamaha teammate in fifth but the American was frustrated after seeing three separate hot laps thwarted by traffic.

“It was a tough session for everybody, the annoying thing was that three of my best laps were blocked but that's just the way it goes. Two of them I think could have been avoided but one of them was just a racing incident. We're on the second row in the middle and we're a lot better than we were in Jerez. I feel good on the bike and I just need to keep building the confidence now. Being three tenths behind Jorge at this track is pretty good.”

Team Director Massimo Meregalli isn't worried with having the two Repsol Hondas ahead of them on the front row and still expects his riders to challenge for the win.

“We missed the first row but we are pretty close. Traffic compromised at least two or three laps for Ben but overall we are satisfied as we are coming from a really bad weekend. The race will be tough, but we are confident as up to five minutes from the end of qualifying we were really close. Let's see what tomorrow brings.”

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