Lorenzo charges to Catalan pole, Yoshikawa makes steady improvement

23-year-old Lorenzo was fastest once again in morning practice but spent most of the qualifying session a little further down the standings, as he concentrated on perfecting his race set-up and gathering as much information as possible about the two available Bridgestone tyre compounds. With just under ten minutes to go he leapt up the leader board to take pole, surrendering it briefly to Stoner before improving again on both of his next two laps to ensure himself a hat-trick of pole positions from the last three races.

Having learnt the track yesterday, Yoshikawa was able to spend a little more time today working on the set-up of his M1, finishing 17th. He made a significant improvement and is hopeful of gathering some useful information and improving further still during tomorrow’s race.

With more soaring temperatures today, tomorrow’s 25-lap race looks like being a scorching affair when the lights go out at 1400 CET.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 1stTime: 1’42.046Laps: 29
“I’m really happy with this third pole position, it seems we’re doing a very good job and it’s very special to get it at my home round. It was a hard session but finally I was able to do some quick laps at the end with the soft tyre. It is so hot here and I think it’s easy to say that tomorrow will be the hardest race so far this season. I will have to concentrate extra hard in this weather and also make sure that my physical condition is the best it can be. The tyres are going to be very important and we still have to make a final choice; before the practice we thought we had chosen but we’re not so sure now so we will have to make our final decision tomorrow after warm-up.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“It’s our third pole in a row and we’re really happy about this. Jorge was once again very mature today, not getting distracted with an early fight for times but concentrating on finding the best set-up and managing to improve his race-pace before putting in some fast laps at the end. We still need to decide about the tyres because at the moment our choice keeps changing, especially on the rear. They’re both good but we will have to wait for tomorrow to make the final decision.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Wataru improved his lap time a lot today. It’s very difficult for him here; it’s a new track, it’s very hot and he’s been away from racing for a long time, so he’s not used to pushing hard in a short time. He has made a big effort and is getting quicker, so tomorrow we will see what happens. We know he will try his very best.”

Spies and Edwards prepared for tough battle in Spanish sauna

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Ben Spies and Colin Edwards are gearing themselves up for potentially the hardest race of the 2010 MotoGP world championship campaign at the Catalunya circuit tomorrow.

Today’s qualifying session at the 4.727km circuit near Barcelona took place in sweltering heat, with the American duo preparing to start from fifth and 11th on the grid for the 25-lap race.

Scorching hot conditions at the fast and technical circuit are likely to be repeated tomorrow, with Spies and Edwards putting in tremendous effort all weekend to get their YZR-M1 machines set-up to cope with the extreme weather.

Spies will start from fifth on the grid, the Texan disappointed he couldn’t improve on his best time of 1.42.710 having encountered a slower rider while pushing hard on his last soft compound Bridgestone tyre.

The 25-year-old though remains confident of extending his outstanding form in his first full MotoGP season after completing an endurance run of 20-laps this afternoon.

The long run, five laps short of full race distance, gave Spies a wealth of information on Bridgestone’s hard tyre in the extreme conditions often only experienced at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Air tempera ture peaked at 35 degrees and track temperature a sizzling 53 degrees, but Spies was able to lap consistently in the low 1.43s bracket in full race trim.

He missed equalling his best premier class qualifying result of fourth by just 0.118s, but is confident he will be a strong contender for a third successive top four finish.

Edwards will start from the fourth row having set a best time of 1.43.059. Edwards called on all his vast experience to try and improve turning performance on his YZR-M1 machine while also fine-tuning suspension settings to gain maximum tyre endurance in the intense heat.

His hard work though was only rewarded with 11th, Edwards missing a top six grid position by less than 0.3s in another closely fought and exciting session.