Lorenzo ‘feeling great, better than Mugello’

As if his performance throughout Saturday wasn’t enough, Jorge Lorenzo’s words, spoken in the wake of securing a first MotoGP pole position for Ducati at the Circuit of Catalunya, will surely serve as a warning to his rivals hoping to challenge the Majorcan on Sunday.

For Lorenzo proclaimed he was feeling “great”, “with a really good pace” and “probably even better” than Mugello two weeks ago, where he won, with Ducati’s GP18 after an ominous weekend of work. He didn’t just secure pole. No one could live with his pace throughout FP3 and FP4.

The fruits of the revised fuel tank, which adjusted the GP18’s ergonomics, and allowed him to physically maintain control of his machine lap after lap, were still very much apparent at the Catalan venue. Only fellow front row sitters Marc Marquez and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso could get close.

“Obviously I’m really satisfied and really happy with the pole position,” said the 31-year old, whose fastest lap in Q2 was 0.066s faster than Marquez, ensuring he became only the eighth rider in the MotoGP era (2002-) to secure pole position with two manufacturers . “After a victory it’s the most important thing you can get.

“Especially I’m happy about the feeling on the bike. At Mugello I felt great. Here at a different track I feel probably even better. Better than the test one month ago, always with a good pace, and really comfortable with all the tyres.”

The only blip in Lorenzo’s day came early into Q2. The five-time world champion could be seen gesticulating angrily to crew chief Cristian Gabarrini after his first run, with Gigi Dall’Igna, Ducati’s technical director, eventually stepping in to calm his rider down.

Lorenzo revealed the issue stemmed from ill feeling with one of Michelin’s rear tyres. The grip was not there on the left side, he said, and he was required to breathe in a bid to relax ahead of his final run.

“In the first tyre in qualifying, I felt something was wrong," he explained. "It had no grip on the left. It looks like it could be not warming up the tyre well but it didn’t give me good confidence and I was really careful to avoid the crash because it could happen.

“I kept the calm to push with the second tyre and with the second tyre I did a very good lap time and have this first pole position with Ducati. Marc also was really quick but I’m very satisfied.”

On a baking hot afternoon, the majority of the MotoGP field complained of serious grip issues. Valentino Rossi went as far as to criticise Michelin’s tyre allocation for the race weekend, stating two of the front options (soft and medium) were not equipped to cope with the demands of the punishing 2.8-mile track.

Did Lorenzo agree with this statement? “There is not a real soft tyre, let’s say. The soft gives you more grip in certain areas of the track but the medium you can also be quick. You can be quick with the hard, it’s very similar to the medium.

“But for me it’s OK. Maybe because the bike is working really well now. The only thing that I would improve is the front. The front still has not so much edge grip for me and this should be the next step that Michelin needs to improve for next year, in my opinion.”

And is there a factor other than the revised fuel tank that has led to this renaissance with Ducati? “No, just this,” he assured us. “It’s what changed from Le Mans to Mugello. I think already in Jerez and Le Mans I was competitive. I just needed the real speed, the last piece to give me the necessary energy to keep for longer this speed and this is what happened in Mugello. Even if not everybody believes that.”