Today’s qualifying session for The Monster Energy Grand Prix de France proved to be a challenging one in mixed weather conditions. Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies were faced with a wet, damp and then drying track as they fought to finally deliver fourth and sixth on the grid respectively for tomorrow’s race. Lorenzo made a step forward from yesterday’s sessions but was unable to complete a perfect lap to get on the front row. Team mate Spies made the best of a tricky day having lost a set of the new Bridgestone tyres in yesterday’s crash which hampered the final set up of his M1 in this morning’s practice. The final grid sees four Yamaha YZR-M1s in the top six positions.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position : 4th Time: 1’34.104 Laps: 22
“I’m not happy, I wanted to be at least on the front row but it was not possible, Andrea was very fast today. I didn’t make one perfect lap, maybe three or four tenths could be improved with a perfect lap but the track conditions were very difficult today and it was very easy to crash and get injured. We are in fourth position and tomorrow I think we can fight for the podium and the victory. I will try to make a very good start.”
Ben Spies
Position : 6th Time: 1’34.669 Laps: 23
“Today was a tricky session for everybody, kind of risky. Finally the track started to come good but the guys who did the better lap times were a little bit more brave than others. With this tarmac it’s hard to see if it’s wet or dry in some places. We did the best we could and put together a decent lap to get on the second row. It was pretty hard to commit to 110% when the track is like that so the result is good.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“A very weird practice and very tricky! In the beginning it was quite wet then began to dry up so it was difficult to know what to do at what time. Finally to not be on the front row is disappointing as we had a good pace yesterday. We improved a little bit but it was quite risky as some of the curbs were still quite wet.”
Massimo Meregalli – Team Director
“To start from the second row is a good achievement for Ben considering we had some difficulties this morning because of yesterday’s crash. Because of that he couldn’t run the new tyre in this morning’s session so we couldn’t work properly on the set up. Now, if the race is going to be dry we are ready. We’ve done a good job so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a dry race. Jorge made another step forward from yesterday but also struggled to secure a front row start in the difficult track conditions.”
