Lorenzo takes fifth pole of season

From motogp.com

Jorge Lorenzo maintained the pressure on his championship rival and team-mate Valentino Rossi at Estoril by taking pole position at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal.

Last year’s race-winner at Estoril, Lorenzo showed his strengths at the Portuguese track again on Saturday as he followed up his free practice dominance with his fifth pole position performance of the year in qualifying.

The Spaniard has not won from pole this year, but he will hope to do so on Sunday as he seeks to reduce the 30-point advantage Rossi enjoys at the top of the standings. Lorenzo’s best Saturday time of 1:36.214 on the 27th of his 29 laps was enough to put him at the front of the grid for the round 14 contest.

After taking his first pole since Laguna Seca Lorenzo was pleased with the work he and his Fiat Yamaha crew had undertaken on Saturday.

“It's been quite a few races since I've had a pole,” Lorenzo stated on Saturday evening. “I was getting a bit worried because doing one fast lap has always been one of my strong points but lately we haven’t been able to be quite competitive enough with the soft tire. This weekend however everything is working really well and the setting with both tyres is great, so I was able to go out and do some very fast laps.

"I feel great on the bike and in every practice I have finished first, so I think we will be fine. I hope that several riders can be fighting for the victory because we know the fans love that.

“The championship is a complicated question for us because of the 30 points, which is a big gap. Only a failure from Valentino can really give me more of a chance.”

On the other side of the Fiat Yamaha pit-box Rossi reminded his colleague that he will be in and around him on Sunday whatever happens, the Italian lapping a quarter of a second behind Lorenzo.

“I’m happy because it is our best result so far this weekend and it will be very important to start from second in Sunday’s race," Rossi said. "We improved the balance of the bike a lot this afternoon and the braking performance, now we have some traction problems on exiting from the slow corners so we have to improve on that on Sunday morning. We hope to be more competitive in the race.”

A commendable effort by Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro), on his return to GP action after two months away due to illness, saw the Australian former World Champion bounce back with a front row result – courtesy of a best time just 0.054 secs. slower than Rossi’s fastest.

“Yesterday it looked as though a front row start was a long shot but at the end of the qualifying session today I was actually disappointed not to be on pole!” joked Stoner. “This morning we came out and everything felt good and this afternoon was the same. My body’s sore because I haven’t been on the bike for so long but so far I haven’t struggled with any of the symptoms that had bothered me before the break.

“A front row start is nice for us and I want to thank my whole team and everybody else who has stuck by me lately. We’ve had a lot of critics while I’ve been away and I’ve had to laugh at some of the things I’ve read. Tomorrow is the race, which is the big one, but it’s nice to come back in this way and I think we’ve already shown that it was the right decision to take the time off.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) has been close to the front in all three sessions so far and is likely to be a threat from the front of the second row on Sunday. The Catalan rider was around half a second off Lorenzo’s pace.

In fifth place again was the best performing satellite rider of the year so far, Colin Edwards, who has looked consistently fast throughout the weekend on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine.

Completing the second row is Randy de Puniet who no longer appears to be suffering from the ankle injury he picked up in the summer and is doing a great job for the LCR Honda team in 2009.

The third row features Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), while the QP top 10 was rounded off by Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing).

Héctor Barberá followed the examples set by his compatriots Jorge Lorenzo and Julián Simón earlier in the day at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal, to follow up on his free practice dominance and secure pole position at Estoril.

The Pepe World Team rider, who will compete in MotoGP next year with the new Aspar Ducati team, was the race-winner in the last round at Misano and could be set for another victory in an intriguing 250cc season - if his form so far this weekend is anything to go by.

Behind Barberá on the grid in second place Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar) will be trying to make up points on championship leader Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) who completed a front row - which was separated by just 0.283 secs. – behind World Champion Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera).

As he kept up determined charge towards the 2009 125cc World Championship Simón continued his dominance of the Estoril weekend on Saturday afternoon by taking pole position by a 0.540-sec. margin.

Getting away just behind Simón on the grid will be Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team), while Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) produced a good late lap to qualify third – as the Englishman tries to prevent his championship leading team-mate from wrapping up the title at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal on Sunday.

MotoGP Qualifying Results
1. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1:36.214 (326.804 km/h)
2. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +0.260
3. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati +0.314
4. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.488
5. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +0.928
6. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +1.234
7. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +1.275
8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +1.327
9. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati +1.440
10. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Racing Ducati +1.599
11. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1.608
12. James TOSELAND (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +1.609
13. Toni ELIAS (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1.697
14. Niccolo CANEPA (ITA) Pramac Racing Ducati +1.828
15. Chris VERMEULEN (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +2.128
16. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki +2.324
17. Gabor TALMACSI (HUN) Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda +3.106