THIRD POLE OF THE YEAR FOR LORENZO
There was differing luck for the FORTUNA HONDA riders at
the second day of qualifying at the Czech Republic GP. Whilst
Jorge Lorenzo took a spectacular pole, team-mate Hector Faubel
was badly affected by a crash he had in the morning session
that damaged his left hand. Lorenzo’s pole at Brno was
his third of the season, his debut season in the 250 class
and only the sixth of his sporting career. It meant the Mallorca
rider was fastest in three of the four qualifying sessions
over the weekend. The time posted by the Honda rider beat
the existing pole record which had been set by Tetsuya Harada
in 2001. The time of Lorenzo was some 0.7 seconds quicker
than that of the Japanese. The intensity of the final session
was demonstrated by the fact that the top seven riders all
managed to get inside Harada’s old mark which had until
today been a respected record. ‘Barby’ fell in
the morning session which meant he was only able to do three
laps and had to see the track doctor. Tests showed that the
rider from Dos Aguas had lost the nail from his left hand
which meant he was in pain in the afternoon session. However,
further tests showed there was no more damage and the rider
will be able to race tomorrow.
JORGE LORENZO (48):
Free session: 1st-2.03.106 (19/21 laps)
Qualifying session: 1st-2.02.261
“I am convinced that I will do well tomorrow. We will
race hard and see what happens because it is the race that
matters, not qualifying. However, I feel proud and happy to
get my third pole of the year. I feel very comfortable on
the bike and I am very happy with my team and also life in
general. It’s obvious that if I’m happy I’m
capable of going faster than if I’m not happy. It could
be tomorrow I get my first victory in two and a half years
but I could also not end up winning a race all season. We
will see. If I keep being up there, first or second, that
first victory will come at some point. I hope it’s a
good race for the crowd tomorrow although I think it will
be disputed by a big group of riders.”
HECTOR BARBERA (80):
Free session: 28th-2.08.800 + 5.694 (3/3 laps)
Qualifying: 12th-2.03.973 + 1.712
“The fall this morning disrupted my preparations for
the race. This afternoon the injury was hurting a lot and
prevented me from concentrating completely. We were trying
lots of things with our set-up but were only able to complete
three laps this morning. We must use the warm-up tomorrow
to try and finish our work. We will see how the injury reacts
during the race and, what happens with it tonight.”
DANI AMATRIAIN, team manager FORTUNA HONDA:
“The Jorge who took pole today is the same one that
fell in Germany, the same one who took his first 250 pole
at Mugello and the same one who won at this track at the 125
race last year. Lorenzo has not changed at all as a person
and he has hardly changed at all as he has developed as a
rider. The result of today came from hard work and sacrifice
and nothing else.”
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