Movistar Yamaha Factory Racing's Lorenzo & Rossi End MotoGP Practice Day 2 in Qatar in Top 10

	Grand Prix of Qatar Lorenzo leaves it late to find form in third Qatar practice 18:00 Local time GMT+3 Night Cloudy Air 22°C Track 25°C Humidity 65%
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	Losail Circuit (Qatar), 21st March 2014 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo left it to the last minute in today’s final practice, taking seventh to secure a spot in tomorrow’s second qualifying session within the top ten riders for Sunday’s Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar. Lorenzo continued today where he finished yesterday, battling a severe lack of grip on the Losail circuit as he struggled to set up his YZR-M1 for Sunday’s race. Having completed the second practice of the weekend in 11th earlier in the evening the double MotoGP champion came in to the third session sitting outside the top ten and so provisionally relegated to the first of tomorrow’s two qualifying sessions. As the minutes wound down a mid-session smattering of rain threatened to complicate matters further. In the final moments Lorenzo rose to the occasion under pressure, pulling out a 1’55.495 lap on the medium rear tyre to climb several places and take seventh at the end of the practice, securing a place in the second qualifying session. Although also finding the lack of grip a real challenge, teammate Valentino Rossi spent most of today’s two practices one step ahead of Lorenzo. The nine-time world champion was working hard to ride round the grip issues the Movistar Yamaha riders were facing, and finished the first session of the day in ninth position, just under a second from the front. The final session of the day initially saw more of the same with the Italian pushing his M1 hard to stay in the top ten. With 25 minutes to go he had moved to ninth and looked able to hold the position until the last moments when Lorenzo’s late surge from 11th to seventh dropped him to tenth. The final combined times mean both Lorenzo and Rossi will go through to the second qualifying session tomorrow to fight for their grid positions for Sunday’s race.
	Jorge Lorenzo 7th / 1'55.495 / 13 laps “We had the same feeling today with little grip on the rear with the soft tyre. We tried to adapt to the situation and the positive thing is that we are closer to the faster riders with race pace, maybe three or four tenths instead of one second so let’s see if tomorrow we can improve a bit more.” Profile
	Valentino Rossi 10th / 1'55.702 / 16 laps “The bigger problem for us is the new tyre from Bridgestone that provides a lot less grip on the edge of our bike so it’s difficult. I’m just tenth which is the minimum target, to stay in the top ten. A lot of riders are on the same pace though; we are very, very close. Espargarò remains one step ahead and also with race pace he is very fast. I think on Sunday we will all use the same tyre, Open Class and Factory but he remains the favourite for the race. The target is to try to start more in front in the race because it’s very difficult to overtake so tomorrow in the qualifying I have to go faster.” Profile
	Massimo Meregalli Team Director "We are suffering more than we expected because of the fact that we did not come here to test with the other teams. We are also suffering a loss of grip on the rear, the same problem we had in Sepang. We are trying to improve the situation, especially on the rear, that is not allowing us to be as fast as we'd like to. Two sessions are missing and we are quite confident that we will be able to fix the issue. The race pace is not bad and this makes us pretty optimistic. Tomorrow, during the last free practice session we will try something new, following the analysis of our data and hopefully we'll get to qualifying ready for the best possible position on the grid. We'll play all our cards on Sunday!"
	Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “The second day of practice is gone, after three practices we are still struggling to find rear grip. The pace and the speed have improved a little bit but we are still quite far from an ideal situation. We still have one more day to find more grip and confidence for Jorge. It’s not easy but we won’t give up!”
	NOTES
	The extended imagery from today's Free Practice 2 & 3 at the Losail Circuit (Qatar) are available on www.yamahamotogp.com.
	COMBINED FREE PRACTICE (1-3) RESULT
	1. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1'54.773 2. Andrea Iannone (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'55.186 3. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1'55.240 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Ducati Team 1'55.250 5. Marc Marquez (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'55.446 6. Bradley Smith (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1'55.474 7. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1'55.495 8. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'55.562 9. Stefan Bradl (GER) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'55.676 10. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1'55.702 11. Pol Espargarò (SPA) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1'55.793 12. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Ducati Team 1'56.013 13. Colin Edwards (USA) NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1'56.238 14. Nicky Hayden (USA) Drive M7 Aspar 1'56.357 15. Yonny Hernandez (COL) Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1'56.633 16. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Drive M7 Aspar 1'56.939 17. Scott Redding (GBR) Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1'56.997 18. Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing 1'57.345 19. Brok Parkes (AUS) Paul Bird Motorsport 1'57.665 20. Mike Di Meglio (FRA) Avintia Racing 1'58.204 21. Hector Barbera (SPA) Avintia Racing 1'58.219 22. Michael Laverty (GBR) Paul Bird Motorsport 1'58.378 23. Danilo Petrucci (ITA) Came Iodaracing Project 1'58.651
	CIRCUIT INFORMATION
	Technical Informations Circuit Losail Location Doha, Qatar Length (m) 5380 Width (m) 12 Turns 16 Turns righ 10 Turns left 6 Pole position left Record Lap Time 1'55.153 Rider C.Stoner Bike Ducati Year 2008 Best Lap Time 1'53.927 Rider J.Lorenzo Bike Yamaha Year 2008 2012 Results 1st J.Lorenzo (Yamaha): 42'39.802 2nd V.Rossi ( Yamaha): +5.990 3rd M.Marquez (Honda): +6.201
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