from Twowheelsblog
Even if Jorge Lorenzo didn’t take the pole position at Le Mans pipped by Marc Marquez by mere 0.030 seconds, the Yamaha rider is quietly confident that he can take on the two Repsol Honda riders.
“All weekend we’ve been working pretty much to improve the feeling on the front tyre, where we had some difficulties at Jerez, and trying to improve the bike to keep a more consistent pace. I think we’ve got it. I also concentrated on doing a very fast lap but unfortunately I couldn’t beat Marc today because he was really fast, but our main target was to improve the bike for the race and I think we’ve done that. We’ll see tomorrow,” said Lorenzo.
Valentino Rossi’s strong suit has never been qualifying. In 279 GP race starts he has had only 59 pole positions which we can compare to team mate Jorge Lorenzo who has 182 GP starts and already has 53 pole positions.
The new 15 minute qualifying format puts the Italian rider in a quandrary, unable to use, and above all trust a new soft tire right off, something that Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez are able to do without batting an eye, so they almost always qualify on the front row, while he lingers more often than not on the third row.
Rossi doesn’t have a bad race pace, but his position on the grid will penalize him again. He isn’t fast in the first two or three laps of the race where the usual three front runners build up their advantage and escape from the rest of the field, while the Yamaha rider finds himself bottled up and jockeying for positions unable to give chase.
Today’s qualifying was another example and another disappointment for Rossi, who admitted that he just can’t take advantage of the extra grip from a new tire and still isn’t content with his braking, which has always been his strong suit. The Italian is getting older and is becoming too much of perfectionist and his squad is always chasing an elusive set-up that will give him the 100% confidence that he wants, and the situation is becoming a vicious cycle.
“Like the other races, in the qualifying I am unable to do what I want,” said Rossi. “When I try to push more I create some problems with the bike. The other riders are better than me at using the extra grip from the new tyre, so I have to start from the third row. My rhythm is not so bad so we have to try to fix something. My rhythm and pace for the race is quite good, unfortunately Lorenzo, Marquez and Pedrosa are a bit faster.
Rossi also said that a tire issue (it was flaking) this morning’s practice session that set him backwards.
“Unfortunately today was a worse day compared to yesterday. We started quite badly this morning because we had some problems with the rear tyre so we struggled very much in the practice. We had a lot of question marks so we wanted to try the same setting this afternoon. In fact the tyre had a problem because this afternoon it was not so bad.”
