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MotoGP, Lorenzo: At Mugello Honda and Yamaha are not superior to Ducati

The Spaniard is convinced, despite his third row in qualifying: “We have a fast pace, we have everything it takes to stay with the best in the race”

MotoGP: Lorenzo: At Mugello Honda and Yamaha are not superior to Ducati

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Jorge Lorenzo had a clear goal in mind – to ride his Ducati to the first two rows at Mugello. The Majorcan did not succeed in the task, but he has absolutely no intention of giving up, because the GP17 is in no way inferior to the competition in terms of pace.

This afternoon the Spaniard got on the Red gripping a knife between his teeth.

I am a very explosive rider who likes to start strong straight away on a time attack – he commented – I decided to do three attempts straight away with the medium tyre. I knew that I would struggle to do a flying lap, especially because of the poor grip at the rear.”

And there is more.

Maybe I was not as competitive on the flying lap with a used tyre, plus the engine seemed a bit twitchier than usual on that last attempt.”

Lorenzo prefers to see the glass as half full.

“This is the best performance in qualifying since Austin, plus I know that I have a great pace to stay close to the fastest. We have everything it takes to stay with the best in the race.”

You said that in the last attempt you went out with the new engine. What is different compared with the previous one?

“They are the same, we simply used the new one and it was a bit twitchy, that’s all. I must say that we have a lot of power, but we need something more on the corners.”

At the end of free practice yesterday, the Majorcan had revealed that the Ducati can win and he still believes so.

“The win is not impossible, but definitely difficult. Yamaha has improved a lot, both with Rossi and Viñales. However, right now there is no superior bike like what happened in Jerez or Le Mans, since there are a lot of fast Ducatis. We will need to see what happens in the second part of the race, since there is a risk that we will struggle with the temperature. The warm up will be important to take a step forward.”

What is your final assessment of this Saturday?

“We worked on the chassis architecture, not only for tomorrow, but also for the coming races. We need to stay on this path, trying to be competitive with the temperature changes.”

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
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