Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi faced a difficult and very close second and third free practice session ahead of the Grand Prix of Qatar. The teammates finished in eighth and ninth place respectively in the combined session times.

Lorenzo and Rossi were keen to hit the Losail International Circuit at the start of the morning session. They lined up their YZR-M1s side by side, impatiently waiting for the pit lane light to turn green. However, it soon became apparent that finding the right combination of set-up and tyre would be today‘s biggest challenge.

Jorge Lorenzo showed a quick and consistent pace at the start of FP1. He held fourth place for most of the morning session with a fastest lap of 1‘55.609, but was pushed back two places after a final flurry of activity.

At the end of the second 45 minutes session, the double MotoGP Champion claimed eighth place with a fastest lap of 1‘55.108, less than three-tenths from the leader.

Teammate Valentino Rossi needed a little more time in the morning session to find his pace, as he tried both tyre options. He found a solution towards the end of FP1 and finished right behind his teammate in seventh place with a 1‘55.618 lap.

The afternoon session saw an improvement in time from the nine-time World Champion. He posted a fastest time of 1‘55.192, 0,370s off the front, but was unable to improve his position in the time sheets. He ended the session in ninth place.




Jorge Lorenzo - 8th / 1'55.108 / 18 laps 

“It was difficult today, but I feel great on the bike with the soft tyre. We also tried the harder tyre, which is very consistent. I could maybe do around a hundred laps of 1‘56.1 on it, but this is too slow, so, for the moment, I prefer the soft option. We found some problems with the electronics this afternoon that were a little strange. We need to investigate what‘s going on. We‘ll keep working to increase our pace to a high 1‘54, which is our goal. It will be a hard fight for the front row tomorrow, because many riders have the extra soft tyre, that gives them four-tenths of a second. They are also stronger than last year, so it will even be difficult to get a position on the second row, but you never know what will happen. Maybe we can find something that will give us half a second and even let us fight for pole position.”

 Valentino Rossi  - 9th / 1'55.192 / 17 laps 

“I am satisfied about today because the minimum target that I set for myself was to be inside the top ten. The last practice session was unbelievable because there are ten bikes within three-tenths of a second. I‘m not happy about my position, but I‘m not far from pole position. To get the pole tomorrow will be very hard, but I want to start a little more in front of the field. We improved the bike and the setting a lot today and my pace is not so bad, it‘s very similar to that of the other top guys. We have to keep working on the tyres, especially the rear. I might be able to use the softer option, but maybe I can also use the hard tyre, so tomorrow will be a very important day to understand which tyre I should use for the race. Right now it‘s 50/50.”


Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director 

“Even if the position is not what we expected, we still made a step today and saw some improvements. The bike is starting to work better and also the track is improving and provides more grip. Both our riders spent most of the session using the hard tyre to see if this is an option for Sunday. Though their pace was consistent it wasn‘t very fast. When they moved on to the softer tyre the improvements were quite significant. We still have work to do, but we are quite optimistic that tomorrow we can make another step. Considering the amount of work we did in not a lot of time, I think we did quite a good job.”