GRAND PRIX OF JAPAN
JORGE LORENZO EQUALS THE LEGENDARY ANTON MANG WITH
HIS TENTH POLE OF THE SEASON
Jorge Lorenzo set his tenth pole position of the season this
afternoon to equal a 25-year old record set by German legend
Anton Mang, on a 250cc Kawasaki in 1981. The Fortuna Aprilia
rider produced a breathtaking finale to the qualifying session,
defending the provisional pole he set yesterday after being
briefly knocked off the top just moments before the end. The
250cc World Championship leader set an incredible time of
1.51.374, making him the fastest ever 250 rider around the
Twin Ring Motegi – breaking Hiroshi Aoyama’s previous
record of 1’51.843 by half a second. The Mallorcan’s
next goal is to beat the record set by Dani Pedrosa in 2005
for the most wins in a season by a Spanish rider, with the
pair currently tied on eight. Héctor Barberá
improved his best lap time today but was unable to move any
higher than eighth on the grid and as such will start from
the outside of the second row, having suffered from suspension
problems all weekend. The Fortuna Aprilia pair are now hoping
that weather forecasts predicting a 70% chance of rain do
not materialise, with Jorge Lorenzo defending a 24-point lead
at the top of the championship over Andrea Dovizioso, who
starts from second place on the grid.
JORGE LORENZO, 1st - 1.51.374.
“I wasn’t expecting to lap so fast and I even
surprised myself. This result shows that by working hard you
can overcome your own limits. I’m expecting a hard race
because setting a fast lap is one thing but riding so hard
for twenty laps is completely different. There are also a
lot of Japanese riders near the front and they are not going
to make life easy. I’ll be checking the weather as soon
as I get up but I can’t worry about that because it’s
something we can’t control. I’m happy to have
equaled the record number of poles but the points get shared
out in the race and that is where we have to be at the front.
In any case the pole shows we are working well and gives us
confidence for tomorrow.”
HÉCTOR BARBERÁ, 8th - 1.53.344.
“We’ve improved a little from yesterday but we
need much more if we’re going to be at the front, as
you can see in the lap times. I ran into traffic on my fast
lap and I’m sure that cost me a couple of places on
the grid. The top speed of the bike is good but I’m
losing out on acceleration. Tomorrow we’ll work to improve
the feeling and see how we get on in the race”.
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