Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo qualified third on the grid at an overcast Phillip Island circuit for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix, while teammate Valentino Rossi will start the race from eighth position.

Lorenzo started the 15-minute qualifying heat in his normal fashion of making sure being the first rider to leave pit lane. His first flying lap of 1’29.175 saw him very briefly hold provisional pole until other riders completed their first lap, pushing him back to fourth place. Lorenzo’s second attempt saw him post a 1’28.884 lap, moving him up to third position as he headed back to the pit lane for a tyre change with eight minutes of the session remaining.

A little more than two minutes later Lorenzo was back out on the track and immediately dropped under the 1’29 mark as he posted a 1’28.650 lap for pole position, until rivals Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez topped the leaderboard just moments later. Lorenzo put the hammer down once more but was unable to further improve his time. He will start tomorrow’s race on the first row from third place on the grid.

Teammate Rossi had a challenging qualifying session in preparation for his 250th Grand Prix start. The nine-time world champion left the pits shortly after his teammate, hoping to find some clear track for his qualifying efforts. His second flying lap of 1’28.956 was enough to put him in fifth position, 0.281 seconds from provisional pole.

Following Lorenzo, Rossi quickly returned to the pits for a new set of rubber and was quickly back out with five minutes left on the clock. Rossi put on the heat once more, but he was unable to better his time. He will start in tomorrow’s race from eighth position on the grid.

Jorge Lorenzo - 3rd / 1'28.650 / 8 laps

“I’m pleased because it’s always good to be on the front row. Obviously I wanted to take pole position, but my lap was not fast enough. Being on the first row is always positive and to have Rossi and Pedrosa in second and third row is really good. During Q1 I was a little bit nervous because from the garage I saw spits of rain on the track and we don’t like to ride in those conditions, but we were lucky. The rain stopped before Q2 and we could ride a normal session and push at the maximum. There are still some corners in which I’m not quite satisfied with the set up of the bike. We will try to modify some things for the warm-up tomorrow.”

Valentino Rossi - 8th / 1'28.956 / 8 laps

“We made some mistakes during qualifying. I was quite strong on the first tyre although we knew we had to improve to start at the front, but unfortunately when we modified the bike I was a little more in trouble under braking. Because of this I also made a mistake in section three while riding on the second tyre. I was not able to improve so I have to start from the third row. Tomorrow it is going to be difficult, because a lot of riders are in front of me. Everybody is very fast so it will be hard and it will be very important that I make a good start and have a good first lap. I have a good pace and the race is long, so we have to give the maximum. For me the rear tyre is not so bad. I think it can last the whole race. For the front we still have to decide. It will depend on tomorrow’s conditions.”

Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

“We are satisfied with today’s qualifying results. Jorge rode a strong lap and Valentino also showed us a good performance on his first stint. We would have liked to be a little further up on the grid, but I’m still confident that we can get good results in tomorrow’s race. During this morning’s free practice sessions we showed that we have a good race pace. We are very pleased with the competitiveness of our bikes. We are consistently fast and the tyres are working well, but we still have to choose which compound we will use for the race. Tomorrow we will use the warm-up session wisely to test the conditions and fine-tune the set up of the bikes before we make our final decision.”

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