Photography by Gold & Goose
Jorge Lorenzo continued to show amazing speed at Misano. He set a new lap record and earned the pole for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of San Marino in spite of being balked by his own MoviStar Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi on his best run. Lorenzo turned a lap record 1:32.146 around the 2.6-mile Misano World Marco Simoncelli Circuit. It was Lorenzo’s third pole of the season and his 33rd-career MotoGP pole.
Lorenzo will be joined on the front row by Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, who clocked a 1:32.252 and series leader and home race favorite Rossi, who turned in a time of 1:32.358.
While Lorenzo came through with the pole, the Q2 session wasn’t without controversy. On his last flying lap Lorenzo came upon Rossi and as they entered a turn. At that point Rossi eased off the throttle and Lorenzo had to throttle back and modify his line to go around.
When the riders lined up for their practice starts Lorenzo looked over and gave a cold glance to Rossi.
Afterwards Rossi laughed off the incident.”Nothing,” Rossi said when asked what happened in the last-lap incident with Lorenzo. Before continuing, “Yes he passed; I don’t know I make him lose time? Anyway he’s on the pole so I think it’s not a big trouble.”
Lorenzo confirmed from his point of view that Rossi prevented him from clocking an even better time.
“I made a mistake on the previous tire in the last corner,” Lorenzo admitted. “I opened too much throttle and I had to close. The lap was better without this mistake, so in the third try I tried to be better in the last corner, but in the previous corner I found Valentino low and slow, so I had to close a little bit with the throttle to avoid the impact. I lose 2-10ths, probably enough to improve to 32.0 or 31.9 no?”
While there was a bit of drama between the Yamaha factory riders, who also happen to be first and second in the world championship, last year’s titlist Marc Marquez was frustrated with his qualifying run.
“OK, today we’re on the front row,” Marquez said. “This was the target, but I’m not happy my qualifying practice because I make too many mistakes. I didn’t make the perfect lap we’re really critical to find the limit. But OK, happy to be on the front row and we will try to be again fighting for the victory tomorrow for the Italian fans.”
American Nicky Hayden qualified 23rd on his Aspar Honda.
Michele Pirro, the Italian Ducati test rider making his second wildcard appearance this year, turned some heads with an outstanding fifth-place qualifying effort, which lands him on the second row between Dani Pedrosa and Bradley Smith. It marked Pirro’s best ever MotoGP qualifying position.
Pol Espargaro crashed in the session on his second flying lap at turn nine. He was up and OK after the fall.
The San Marino Grand Prix starts at 8:00 am Eastern on Sunday and can be watched live on Fox Sports 1.
Qualifying for Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix – Sept. 12, 2015
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 288.0 1’32.146
2 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 286.3 1’32.252 0.106 / 0.106
3 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 285.7 1’32.358 0.212 / 0.106
4 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 288.8 1’32.434 0.288 / 0.076
5 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 289.5 1’32.736 0.590 / 0.302
6 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 288.4 1’32.801 0.655 / 0.065
7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 294.0 1’32.821 0.675 / 0.020
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 294.1 1’32.934 0.788 / 0.113
9 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 289.0 1’33.169 1.023 / 0.235
10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 280.9 1’33.187 1.041 / 0.018
11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 286.7 1’33.220 1.074 / 0.033
12 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 287.7 1’33.222 1.076 / 0.002
13 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 283.6 1’33.340 0.379 / 0.194
14 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 282.7 1’33.439 0.478 / 0.099
15 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 289.5 1’33.710 0.749 / 0.271
16 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 279.4 1’34.093 1.132 / 0.383
17 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 282.2 1’34.137 1.176 / 0.044
18 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 288.3 1’34.296 1.335 / 0.159
19 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 280.8 1’34.333 1.372 / 0.037
20 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 281.5 1’34.368 1.407 / 0.035
21 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 277.7 1’34.468 1.507 / 0.100
22 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 282.5 1’34.722 1.761 / 0.254
23 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 275.5 1’34.732 1.771 / 0.010
24 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 276.6 1’35.385 2.424 / 0.653
25 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 279.1 1’35.406 2.445 / 0.021
26 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 274.8 1’35.684 2.723 / 0.278
