Fiat Yamaha start the new MotoGP season pretty much how they ended last season, with both riders on the front row.

Lorenzo managed to ride through the pain caused by his injured hand to secure 3rd position, behind his team-mate Valentino Rossi.

Rossi was unable to displace Casey Stoner from pole position despite a couple of late laps on soft tyres that looked to be promising.

Valentino Rossi – Position: 2nd Time: 1’55.362 Laps: 25
“I’m really happy about the work we’ve done today on our set up and now we have a good race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres. With the soft one the rear is still sliding a little bit too much, but I think for the race we are okay. My final flying lap was very fast but then I had to pass a couple of riders in the final sector and I lost some time, but anyway we have a good grid position so I am happy. A strong start is going to be very important and we will have to push hard on the first lap to try to stay close to Stoner, who is always very strong here. Honestly I think it will be tough to beat him but we will try our best!”

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 3rd Time: 1’55.520 Laps: 24
“Considering my situation I am really happy about my grid position and I think we can be proud of our work. Unfortunately today though we have lost some feeling on the rear and it was difficult to go as fast as yesterday. My hand isn’t perfect and I still have some pain in braking but I am less worried about that than about the bike. We will use the warm-up to try to make some improvements and then I will just do my best in the race and try for the podium.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“We’ve done an okay job in this practice! We made some adjustments to the bike and it’s a lot better than yesterday so Valentino’s pace is much stronger now. The starting position is good and tomorrow we’ll just try from the start to stay with Stoner and see how the race develops. It will be interesting!”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“We’re happy to be on the front row after Jorge’s injury, it’s a great achievement by him to be so close to Rossi and Stoner at this stage. We’re not 100% happy with the bike set-up and we can still improve it for the race, even though it’s going to be a tough challenge to match the leaders. Anyway we will make the most of the remaining time and try to be there.”

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