Pace and confidence come for Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo will start from the front row at Misano on Sunday after placing second in qualifying, and the Fiat Yamaha rider was highly satisfied with how his session went on Saturday.

Following a difficult opening practice on Friday in which the Spaniard struggled to get comfortable on his M1 he found a far better set-up in the second session on Saturday morning, which allowed him to battle with Dani Pedrosa for pole before eventually placing second.

"We have improved in every practice here and after the troubles of yesterday I'm happy about this session,” said Lorenzo, who ended up 0.308s off Pedrosa’s pole time. “I have a good pace now and I'm feeling confident about a good race.”

The only lingering issue for Lorenzo was the lack of time in which to gauge an impression of the rear tyre options, but overall he was happy with the performance of his machine.

“Unfortunately we couldn't profit as much as we might have with the softer tyre at the end of the session and our bike isn't the fastest here, but we have good corner speed so I hope we will be able to stay with the leaders. I am feeling excited and motivated for tomorrow's race," concluded Lorenzo, who is 68 points clear of Pedrosa at the top of the standings ahead of the race.