Second place in Qualifying saw Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) continue his perfect run of front row starts at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya in the premier class. The factory Yamaha rider had struggled with the new layout initially, but found a little extra in Q2 to produce a 1’44.056 which put him second and 0.251s ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) in third position. Unfortunately Lorenzo was 0.467s back on pole setter Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and remains cautious about his prediction for Sunday’s race.
"The Safety Commission decided to make this modification to the track and this for sure doesn’t help our bike"The new layout of the circuit features several first gear bends, Yamaha’s weakest area with the 2016 bike. All of the issues arise in the final sector where Lorenzo went from being one of the strongest riders to losing significant time at. Yamaha believe there will only be one tyre choice for Sunday’s race which is unfortunately not their preferred compound. Of his last six visits to the Catalan GP, Lorenzo has won four times.
Jorge Lorenzo: “It’s very tragic what happened with Luis yesterday. As a result, the Safety Commission decided to make this modification to the track and this for sure doesn’t help our bike. There are a lot of corners in first gear, so this benefits our rivals a little bit. Finally, we set a very good lap time for this track and we have to try to finish on the podium tomorrow. It will be a good result after what has happened.”