Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Secure Second and Ninth in Soaking Silverstone Qualifying Session2016-09-03 14:56Today‘s qualifying session at Silverstone Circuit for tomorrow‘s British Grand Prix was a challenging outing for Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, as bad weather continues to haunt the MotoGP paddock during the 2016 season. Despite rain dampening the time attack, the Factory Yamaha riders didn‘t hold back and used all of the 15-minutes of qualifying time to the fullest to secure a solid second and ninth place respectively. Rossi was eager to start off the session, to avoid traffic and the spray in these wet conditions and headed out of pit lane early. The nine time World Champion started the Q2 cautiously as the rain came in, setting a 2'27.714s lap to move up to sixth. He was pushed back a place when the pace picked up, but gave another push and delivered a 2'22.856s to move up to fifth, which he immediately followed up with a 2'22.269s for third place. The worsening track conditions caught out various riders, but the Doctor managed to stay out of trouble, despite continuously pushing. Having dropped one place in the provisional rankings, he was determined to make up ground. With two minutes still on the clock, he had just enough time left for two final attempts, but one was all he needed to drop a strong 2'20.263s for second place on the grid, 0.998s off pole. Teammate Lorenzo was the first to venture out on the soaking track at the start of the session and put in his first hot lap just in time before the rain really started to pelt down. His initial try saw him post a 2'22.192s for provisional pole. He followed that up with three flying laps, but was unable to improve his time due to the flooding track conditions. With no need to come in for a pit stop, the Mallorcan proceeded his time attack. He held on to sixth place with his brilliantly timed first lap and put his head down during the final minute of the session to better his time by over half a second with a 2‘21.687s. However, as various riders put in a hot lap, in the end he found himself in ninth position, 2.422s off the front. The extended imagery from today's Qualifying session at the Silverstone Circuit is available on www.yamahamotogp.com Download MASSIMO MEREGALLI MASSIMO MEREGALLI TEAM DIRECTOR Certainly the rain compromised today‘s working schedule. We had things to try in an effort to improve the bikes‘ settings in the dry, because our speed is not as fast as we expected. Furthermore, it looks like the race might be dry. Anyway, we worked quite well in the wet during FP4 and we were able to prepare a solid setting that allowed Vale to do a good 2‘20.263, that gave him second place on the grid. Jorge also did well, leading the beginning of qualifying and finishing on the third row. If it‘s a dry race it will be very important to also have a dry warm-up session as we still have some work to do. Otherwise, in case of a wet race, we are quite ready. We want to gain points on our main rival and we will do as much as we can to try and make it happen. We hope that the weather won‘t be the decisive factor tomorrow. VALENTINO ROSSI VALENTINO ROSSI When we have these conditions it‘s always difficult, but we were lucky that it was also wet in Free Practice so we could improve the bike and make a better setting and balance. In Free Practice I wasn‘t very confident, but the bike improved a lot so I felt good for qualifying and I was able to push. Starting from second place is very important for tomorrow‘s race, but now we have to wait for the conditions, because on the dry we aren‘t very strong. We need to work, so we wait and see what happens tomorrow. JORGE LORENZO JORGE LORENZO In FP4 I was quite fast at the end of the practice and the track was drying up. There wasn‘t so much water, but then for qualifying the water levels got high again. My first lap was without a lot of water so I was the fastest, but then the other riders improved their lap times a lot. With more water on the track I didn‘t feel confident to further improve my lap time more than 0.5s. This was not enough to be on the second row, but in general we‘re happy about our progression in the wet. We are much better than in Assen and at the Sachsenring, but with so much water it‘s not enough to be at the top, so we will keep trying next time in the wet. It looks like tomorrow is going to be dry, so we have to use the warm-up to improve the bike a little bit to be more prepared for a dry race. Source: Yamaha Motor Racing Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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