MotoGP: Lorenzo storms to pole in Le Mans

After keeping up the pace in today‘s two free practice sessions on the second day in France, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi went straight through to the Q2 session to qualify on the first and third row for tomorrow’s fifth race of the 2016 MotoGP World Championship.

Lorenzo had his signature start to the qualifying session, waiting for all other riders to leave the pit lane before rushing out on his YZR-M1. Having set a 1‘32s lap this weekend, the Mallorcan continued the trend dropping a 1‘32.437s, a best lap of the weekend at that time, for first place. He further extended his lead with a 1‘32.236s before heading back to the pits with more than seven minutes remaining.

Two minutes later Lorenzo was back on track and had just enough time left for two more hot laps. Despite a slight error on his third hot lap, he made a stunning recovery. He waited until the last moment to show his blistering pace and became the fastest man ever around the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, posting a new circuit best lap record of 1’31.975s, extending his lead to 0.441s.

Valentino Rossi had a similar strategy to his teammate and was one of the last riders to exit pit lane as the lights went green. His first flying lap put him in third place until Lorenzo completed his first flying lap, pushing the Italian back to fourth. Eager to stay on the first row, he improved his time on his second try and moved back into the provisional top three with a 1‘32.829s.

The Doctor quickly returned to his box, before heading back out with a little less than six minutes remaining to start his second stint. He rode a strong second and third sector on his next lap but was unable to set another personal best lap and was pushed back to sixth. The Doctor put in two more laps, but was unable to improve and ended the session in seventh place.