Lorenzo vows to defend Japan MotoGP, charge Rossi

Lorenzo, who set the practice pace yesterday with 1m44.731s, warmed up with a 1m44.949s early on before banging in a 1m44.770s – just his final sector was found wanting.

2015-10-09 11:05 Jorge Lorenzo arrived in Motegi complaining of a shoulder injury but it didn’t prove to be a hindrance today as the Spaniard dominated both of the opening two free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Japan, just as he did at Aragón two weeks ago. They will start the tripleheader overseas races with a home Grand Prix for Yamaha at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

Brothers Aleix and Pol Espargaro were eighth and ninth, ahead of Stefan Bradl, who crashed his Gresini-run Aprillia at Turn 11 with 90 seconds remaining. Rossi is widely held to be the master in wet conditions, while Lorenzo, by his own admission, lacks consistency when wet weather prevails.

The Italian’s mood darkened as pole position slipped away from him in the final minutes of the qualifying when Lorenzo stormed back to the top of the timesheets.

Thick cloud cover brought the temperature down at Motegi, where rainfall is expected for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Motegi is a typical stop and go circuit but for a few reason I could do great races in the past even if it may be better suited for our rivals. Japan has been very good to me in the past as I won my 2013 Moto2 title there and also the Suzuka 8 Hours, therefore I am hoping to score another result to remember, on Sunday.

“I had to work a little bit more in the electronics and in my riding so we don’t suffer so much and it has been hard to achieve the same feeling as this morning”.

Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith jumped up to fourth after the checkered flag to make it three Yamahas inside the top four, ahead of Dani Pedrosa on the lead Honda. Rider feedback indicated that the hard compound front slick exhibited excellent braking performance, but the medium front slick was deemed to be the better all-round performer.

“It’s a shame… because pole position is something that doesn’t happen very often, especially to me”, Rossi said.