Photography by Gold & Goose
If it had been a race Jorge Lorenzo would have won by a country mile. The Yamaha ace blistered the Brno circuit Saturday with the first ever lap in the 1:54s to earn the pole for Sunday’s Bwin Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. His 1:54.989 was .074-seconds faster than second-place qualifier, Honda’s Marc Marquez. Yamaha will have two riders on the front row, as Valentino Rossi came through with a last-second run that put him in third.
It marks Lorenzo’s second pole of 2015 and his 32nd-career pole.
“Being honest I thought a lap time similar to what I made this morning (1:55.4) was enough to make pole position,” Lorenzo admitted. “But I was wrong no? Because even Valentino improve this lap time, and Marquez finished very, very close to my lap time.
“(In the second half of Q2) I pushed more than the first try out because I already have a good lap time. I say ‘OK, I’m going to restart and do more,’ because if I crash from the front it’s OK. But I didn’t crash – I improved a little bit on braking, I improved a little bit on opening the throttle. Maybe the lap time was not perfect because the last corner I opened maybe too much throttle and too much spinning and I lose a little bit of drive. Probably there I lose one tenth, but on the rest of the track I was very proud of my lap time, I really make one of my best laps ever and this gives me this amazing pole position.”
It was Pol Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow making it through to Q2 from the Q1 session.
Lorenzo opened the final qualifying session with a blazing 1:55.238 to top the charts. He then came out and improved his time 1:54.989, becoming the first rider ever to circulate Brno at a sub-1:55 lap time.
Rossi, like he’d done at Indy, opened the session by pitting early for a fresh rear tire having gone out on the first lap with a scrubbed rear to prevent pushing the front end of his Yamaha too hard. He was not showing a lot during the session until the last possible moment, when chased by Marquez, Rossi clocked a time that put him on the outside of the front row.
The last time Rossi was on the front row was Assen (where he won the pole), and he went on to win that race.
Ducati’s Andrea Iannone quietly made it through to fourth, to head up the second row Sunday. Then came Brit Bradley Smith on the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha. It was a season best qualifying for Smith qualifying fifth, the still unsigned rider perhaps sending a message to the paddock that he would be a good prospect for 2016. Andrea Dovizioso rounds out the second row on the second factory Ducati.
Dani Pedrosa was nursing a tender ankle from a Friday highside crash when his bike oiled its rear tire, which also caught up Valentino Rossi, and only managed ninth.
American Nicky Hayden qualified 21st. It marked the third time this season he qualified outside the top 20.
Czech Grand Prix MotoGP qualifying results at Brno – Aug. 15, 2015
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 307.6 1’54.989
2 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 308.5 1’55.063 0.074 / 0.074
3 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 305.6 1’55.353 0.364 / 0.290
4 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 310.6 1’55.390 0.401 / 0.037
5 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 308.5 1’55.460 0.471 / 0.070
6 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 314.8 1’55.935 0.946 / 0.475
7 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 303.4 1’55.954 0.965 / 0.019
8 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 308.5 1’55.955 0.966 / 0.001
9 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 309.1 1’55.969 0.980 / 0.014
10 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR CWM LCR Honda Honda 307.5 1’56.192 1.203 / 0.223
11 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 309.1 1’56.399 1.410 / 0.207
12 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 306.8 1’56.739 1.750 / 0.340
13 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 301.7 1’56.713 0.501 / 0.175
14 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 303.5 1’56.765 0.553 / 0.052
15 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 298.4 1’56.806 0.594 / 0.041
16 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 297.1 1’57.133 0.921 / 0.327
17 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 302.0 1’57.215 1.003 / 0.082
18 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 296.1 1’57.540 1.328 / 0.325
19 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 299.5 1’57.552 1.340 / 0.012
20 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 301.6 1’57.634 1.422 / 0.082
21 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 297.0 1’57.645 1.433 / 0.011
22 43 Jack MILLER AUS CWM LCR Honda Honda 296.3 1’57.855 1.643 / 0.210
23 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 291.7 1’58.599 2.387 / 0.744
24 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 297.8 1’59.145 2.933 / 0.546
25 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 298.1 1’59.903 3.691 / 0.758
