Movistar Yamaha MotoGPs Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi will start tomorrows Grand Prix České Republiky from the second and third row after taking sixth and seventh place respectively in todays qualifying session.

Lorenzo was eager to start the 15-minute qualifying session and the first one out of the pits to ensure a free track for his first stint. His first flying lap of 1.56.318, took him to provisional pole, before being pushed back to sixth place when the pace quickened. With a little more than seven minutes to go he came into the pits for a fresh set of rubber front and rear. With three minutes of the session left Lorenzo had only one lap to show his pace with the softer compound front tyre and rode a 155.815 moving him up from eleventh to sixth.

It was an eventful day for teammate Valentino Rossi. The nine-time World Champion was right on the pace during Free Practice #4, setting the fastest lap of the weekend thus far before suffering a crash and injuring his left little finger. Rossi had an X-ray at the Clinica Mobile and was declared fit to continue.

During qualifying he took his time to get out on track, giving the other riders a head start. During his first stint, the Doctors best lap of 156.708 saw him move to tenth place before he came in for new tyres with less than seven minutes remaining. Two minutes later he was back and, despite the pain, set a personal best lap of 155.821, shooting him up to the top five before being demoted to seventh in the last laps.

Jorge Lorenzo - 6th / 1'55.815 / 6 laps

The lap times are not bad. I had some pretty fast laps even on used tyres. Some days if you cant go a little bit faster it makes a big difference. It could have been worse, because also the riders in seventh, eight and ninth place are very close to my lap times. When we put a soft tyre on the front it gave me much more confidence. Unfortunately it wont be possible to use this tyre for tomorrows race, so we have to work on the bike to give me more confidence with the harder front tyre. I swopped bikes during the qualifying session because we put a special brake on the number one bike and the braking was good, but we lost a lot of time with speed and acceleration, especially on the last corner. We concentrated on the normal bike with our last try and it was better.

Valentino Rossi - 7th / 1'55.821 / 7 laps

I was pushing a lot and my pace was fast but unfortunately when entering turn eleven I was a little bit too wide. I was braking hard, trying to enter the corner anyway but I lost the front and damaged my little finger. Its very important for tomorrow that there is no fracture. It seems like there wont be any problem. My finger is not broken; its just a little bit damaged. I think and hope that it wont give me problems during the race. Using the soft front tyre for tomorrow is not an option for me. I think using the hard tyre on the front is better.


Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

Jorge has run a good pace for all the sessions however we were unable to make the most of it in the qualifying session and take full advantage of his pace. We will work to make a step for him to improve his feeling with the bike tomorrow morning and he should be ready for the race. With Vale we made a good improvement with the bike and he was pretty satisfied. We are still looking for some more improvements but the level is good. Unfortunately he crashed in free practice otherwise Im sure he would be further in front. He really put in a lot of effort as he had a big, deep abrasion on his hand. Its a shame that we lost the second row for almost nothing.


2014 MotoGP Czech Republic - Brno 16/08/2014

1 Marc Marquez Honda ESP 1'55.585
2 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 1'55.714
3 Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 1'55.726
4 Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 1'55.730
5 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'55.812
6 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'55.815
7 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'55.821
8 Stefan Bradl Honda GER 1'55.871
9 Pol Espargaro Yamaha ESP 1'55.899
10 Aleix Espargaro Forward Yamaha ESP 1'56.090
11 Cal Crutchlow Ducati GBR 1'56.129
12 Yonny Hernandez Ducati COL 1'56.622
13 Michele Pirro Ducati ITA 1'57.093
14 Alvaro Bautista Honda ESP 1'57.428
15 Scott Redding Honda GBR 1'57.557
20 Alex De Angelis Yamaha SMR 1'58.948


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