Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was able to achieve his goal of a better qualifying performance at the GP Monster Energy de Catalunya, securing a second row start.

A 1’41.290s lap in the closing minutes of Q2 shot the Italian up to fifth on the grid, far better than his tenth in Mugello.

This lap time was just 0.190s slower than teammate Jorge Lorenzo’s time in second and 0.506s off Dani Pedrosa’s (Repsol Honda) pole time of 1’40.985s.

Rossi commented,

“I’m quite satisfied with this afternoon’s result because the target was to stay in the top 5 and I am there at last. For sure the front row is always better and makes things easier but the three Spanish guys in front have shown to be very strong. They have a great pace whilst mine is not at their same level at the moment.”

“We’ll still try hard to improve the bike and stay with them, hopefully closer than we are today. As for the tyres for the race, I guess everybody is going to use the medium rear tyre, while the choice for the front is still open and will depend on tomorrow’s temperature and weather conditions,” he added looking ahead.


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