For the first time in his career Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was forced to go through Q1. He narrowly squeezed through, despite crashing on a flying lap after being pushed to second in the session. The situation seemed to be improving slightly for the current World Championship until he fell once again in Q2, this time at Turn 1. The crash came just as he began to push on his second run.
With no bikes left, Lorenzo was forced to sit out the remaining part of Q2 and watch his name slide down to 11th place. This is the first time Lorenzo has failed to qualify inside the top five in two successive races since the Dutch GP and the Red Bull US Grand Prix in 2013, having broken his collarbone in Assen and the missed the German GP.
Jorge Lorenzo: “During the second crash I entered the corner not braking so hard or deep, but on the previous lap I didn‘t warm up my tyres enough. I was completely straight and not braking very strongly when I lost the front. Three mistakes on my part are not normal for me, but this weekend it happened. I‘m disappointed about the crashes and the position, but ultimately I could see a big improvement. During every practice session we improved the bike and finally we were very competitive with the new tyre, especially in Q1. On the lap that I crashed I maybe could have done a 1‘21.5 or 1‘21.4. After I crashed we made another modification for Q2 but I didn‘t have enough new tyres, I only had one more, so we exited with a nine-laps old tyre and I was impressed about the lap time, a 1‘22.0, which was good. I imagined that if I put on a new tyre I could be on the first or second row, but unfortunately I wasn‘t able to finish the lap. Eleventh on the grid is a bad position, but that‘s where I finished.”