Lorenzo zeroes in on debut win

Posted by Dono

Saturday, 12th April 2008

Jorge Lorenzo made it an incredible three poles from three MotoGP attempts after another masterful qualifying display in Portugal on Saturday afternoon.

Estoril is one of only two circuits on the calendar at which the young Spaniard never claimed a 125 or 250cc pole position, but that - and the absence of any previous MotoGP Estoril experience - proved insignificant as Fiat Yamaha's new star dominated much of the hour long session.

The 21-year-old's first Michelin qualifying tyre lap saw him take provisional pole and he then improved on both of his next qualifying runs, despite a near miss with a slow moving Chris Vermeulen.

On his final soft tyre attack Lorenzo produced a record-breaking 1min 35.715secs lap to seal a perfect hat-trick of MotoGP pole positions by 0.233secs over Jerez winner Dani Pedrosa, while the Bridgestone-shod factory Yamaha of Valentino Rossi was 0.484secs behind the #48 in third.

Those two riders are likely to be the main men standing between Lorenzo and a debut MotoGP victory on Sunday but, having been coy about making any pre-race expectations at the first two rounds - where he finished second and third, Lorenzo admits he will 'hopefully fight for the win'.

"Each pole position has felt like a dream and I can't believe I am here again!" said Lorenzo, the youngest rider on the MotoGP grid. "I am very proud to have a record like this and in fact I'm especially happy to have qualified in front here because this track has always been quite difficult for me and I've never been on pole at it before.

"Our race pace is quite good and now the aim for tomorrow will be to make the most of my starting position, stay at the front and hopefully fight for the win. It's going to be a hard race and there are many strong riders, but I am looking forward to it.

"Our aim is to try to win but if that's not possible then the podium will be okay; it's still only my third race and I am still learning all the time! Anyway, I feel good on my bike and tyres, the team have done a great job and now we just have to cross our fingers for good weather tomorrow!" concluded Jorge, who has suffered arm pump problems in his first two rides.

"Once again it's been another very exciting qualifying session to watch this afternoon and Jorge has done another fantastic job," added team manager Daniele Romagnoli. "We made some small changes from yesterday to improve our base set-up and today we've had a fast and consistent race pace. Then this afternoon Michelin gave Jorge the chance to fly and he took full advantage! It's great to be on pole as it gives us the best chance at the start and we will do our very best to maximise this chance to produce a good result tomorrow."

From : www.crash.net

• at 11:22 AM