It was an ecstatic Jorge Lorenzo at the parc ferme after today’s excitiong battle to the wire between himself and rival Casey Stoner. The Yamaha rider ended Stoner’s three year pole position dominance in Qatar (2009, 2010 and 2011) and grabbed his 45th career pole position and his 19th in MotoGP.

It wasn’t easy as it seemed for Lorenzo who had to use the ‘martillo’ on his Yamaha M11 and take it over the limit to top Casey Stoner. The M1 is extremely well balanced, it may be lacking a little something in top speed which has never been its forte - Stefan Bradl grabbing a tow from Lorenzo nearly bumped into him a couple of times on the straight - but the Spaniard is extremely effective in corner entry and exit that makes up for the rest.

“I am really happy with tonight’s result. I had to push more than 100% to make pole position but I pushed to the limit and managed to make a perfect lap. We still have to improve the power on the straight and our maximum speed but in the rest of the track the bike is working really well. Tomorrow will be a tough race and tyres will be very important I think. A big thank you to Yamaha and my team for giving me such a good bike!” said Lorenzo.

Two crashes in two day’s would dent anyone confidence especially the spectacular and scary one (reminiscent of the late Marco Simoncelli’s) that Ben Spies had tonight, but that’s not worrying the American, it’s trouble with his front end that he says he’s been having - which he never mentioned before.

“We were on a good lap until the crash, I just lost the front. I’ve been complaining the last couple of days that the front end just didn’t have the right feeling that I wanted. As I was trying to get away from the bike when I was sliding something got caught up and I went with it. I was looking at the front wheel for a while and thought about trying to get back on when I couldn’t get away from it! We’ll try to make the bike better now, I know if we can fix it we can be up front. The M1 is clearly going round the track fast and I feel good on it apart from that. We’ve got some good ideas to try in warm up so we’ll see.”

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Tonight’s MotoGP qualifying session saw Jorge Lorenzo take the magical pole position sceptre away from Casey Stoner in Qatar. The last time that the Yamaha rider was on the pole at the Losail circuit was four year’s ago in his MotoGP debut year in 2008.

Casey Stoner hit the top of the charts early on as usual, it was his third lap out and with hard tires blasted out a 1′55.415 leaving the rest of the field gasping for almost half the session, but when it was time to mount the softer tires Jorge Lorenzo put the hammer down and was the first rider to dip under the 1.55s to then put in a blazing flyer in 1.54.634, more than enough to keep both and Stoner and Cal Crutchlow easily at bay.

Stoner was slightly upset with his second place as he stamped out 1’54″855 three minutes before the chequered flag, but on the softer tires his performance was slightly less convincing than his rival’s, but that was due to the return of chatter problems, but tomorrow’s race will be on hard tires and on those Stoner is devastatingly fast, despite his issues.

Cal Crutchlow has completely gelled with the Yamaha M1 1000 with some spectacular flying laps. The Brit will be closing the front row in third and he was just a little more than three tenths from his Yamaha factory counterpart.

Ben Spies took fourth and closed the qualifying session with a front end crash that he desperately tried to save with his knee and holding on, but finally and sagely decided to let his Yamaha go into the gravel pits. Next to Spies will be Ducati’s best rider of the evening, Nicky Hayden. The American may be a second from Lorenzo, but he’s on the second row and not Valentino Rossi. The Italian had one of the most disastrous qualifying sessions ever. He not only qualified in 12th, he was also the last MotoGP rider before the all the CRTs a just head of Colin Edwards on the BMW-Suter was just 0.831s from him. You can bet Rossi will be getting a telephone call from Gabriele Del Torchio this evening as well as one from Marlboro’s Maurizio Arrivabene.

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar: Jorge Lorenzo grabs the pole position

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HRC’s Shuhei Nakamoto may have been joking when he said “that the overall package” of the Yamaha is currently better, but he didn’t expect that his team would be facing not only the likes of factory riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies, but also Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso on the satellite bikes.

This evening in Qatar, Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets, albeit he did it on the softer spec Bridgestone tires and would have gone even faster if he didn’t find a slower CRT bike in his path, but the Spaniard admitted that they may still have some room for improvement which could shake up some of the predications that Casey Stoner, who has won more than anyone at Losail, is going to run away with it on Sunday.

“I am very happy with today because we improved a lot on yesterday’s lap time. I’m also happy for Cal in second, the bike seems much better than last year for us. I think we have even more potential for improvement tomorrow. We still have a few issues to solve, especially corner entry, but we managed to keep a good pace. I’m going to try my hardest for qualifying tomorrow and see what we can do,” said Lorenzo.

Ben Spies would certainly been higher up on the charts if he didn’t the lose the front on his Yamaha during FP3 and crash out. The Texas Terror was caught out by a cold tire early in the session and an electrical problem on his spare put him out of action for the remaining part of the session.

“It was a rough session tonight, we’ve had a good weekend up to now, unfortunately tonight was the most important session for us. I went out to do a race simulation and I think I didn’t let the front tyre heat up properly. I need to check the data to confirm it but I put the blame firmly on myself for it. Unfortunately the second bike just didn’t run right so a wasted session for us.”

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Jorge Lorenzo saved his best run for the final minutes of FP3 at the Losail circuit in Qatar. The Yamaha factory rider dipped under the 1.56 mark three consecutive times and with his third lap - using a soft rear tire -posted the best time of 1.55.032 that took him to the top of the timesheets and for the first time this long weekend finished ahead of his rival Casey Stoner.

This practice session showed off more the Yamaha’s than the Honda’s, as Cal Crutchlow grabbed the second spot on the grid and he was just 0.154s from his factory counterpart, which bodes very well for tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Casey Stoner lead most of the session when he posted a 1.55.674 on his fourth lap out, but when he tried his very last flying lap found a slower Alavaro Bautista - who was probably looking for a last minute tow - in his way and had to settle for third giving the Spaniard the famous Australian head shake of displeasure.

Andrea Dovizioso put his Yamaha Tech3 into 4th and was the last rider to break the 1.56 barrier. They’ll be an unhappy Dani Pedrosa this evening. The Spaniard was fifth and with his former Honda team mate in front of him and Ducati behind him and both riders on satellite bikes to boot.

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar: Jorge Lorenzo topples Stoner in FP3

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If the Repsol Honda riders are suffering chatter at the Losail circuit in Qatar, the same can’t be said for Yamaha who is not suffering from the 4kg weight increase and is working well with the tire options that Bridgestone brought for the first race of the season while Casey Stoner is complaining that they are too soft.

Both Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies with the addition of Yamaha Tech3s Cal Crutchlow all lead the top of the timesheets during the first practice session, before being pipped by Casey Stoner in the finale, but they have a very strong base set-up which allows them to be fast with small tweaks.

“A quite good start, the track seems pretty dirty though, we are very far from the lap times of last year but that’s the same for everybody. I feel good, we are in the top close to Casey and we have improvements to come tomorrow from the bike, the track and myself. At the end we made a small change to gain some rear grip on all the corners which helped drop the lap time,” commented Lorenzo who finished the session just 0.174s from Stoner.

“I was happy with tonight, we were generally pretty close to the top,” said Ben Spies who took 4th. “The bike seemed to work pretty well; we made just two small changes to it and kept the same set of tyres on the whole time. We made our fastest lap when the tyre had dropped off with almost race distance on it. I’m quite pleased with how the bike performed. We’ve tested at Sepang, Jerez and here and the bike has been good at all three so I’m happy with the bike, the team and myself. We’ve just got to keep rolling and keep the momentum going.”

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Casey Stoner may have pipped Jorge Lorenzo for the top spot on Day 3 at Jerez, but the Mallorcan rider can head to Qatar for the first race of this 2012 season with a Yamaha M1 that is in the same league as the Honda’s RC213V in both types of weather conditions, wet and dry.

Lorenzo put in 84 laps today of which 26 were a full race simulation and banging out constantly laps in the low 1.40s with a best 1.39.952 set on the 25th the remained the best of the day until Stoner’s final flyer.

“I’m really happy because we tried to make some good lap times so we put new tyres on the rear this morning to make the 1’38.9 which is a good time,” said Lorenzo. “This afternoon we improved the bike for a race simulation which went really well. In general we are very happy, it’s not just me, Ben is also very close to the competition as are Cal and Andrea. We need to improve our braking a little, if we can do that we could gain some more tenths of a second.”

Ben Spies finished the day in 4th and 0.715 seconds off pace but seems content with his position, and with the new Bridgestone tires that drop off much sooner this year, the Texas Terror who always seems to ride better on worn out tires could reserve a surprise or two for the two other ‘aliens’.

“I’m happy with how the Test went. Both Jorge and I worked really methodically on getting through a number of different things, I think we’re quite happy with the bike going to Qatar, it’s been good here and good in Sepang. A couple of the areas where we had problems last year seem to be a lot better. We can’t say if they are completely fixed until we go to more tracks but we are happy with the balance of the bike and I think we have a very competitive bike for 2012,” said Spies.

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On a fully wet Jerez track Jorge Lorenzo was second fastest rider on the second day of testing, putting in a full 28 laps on his Yamaha M1, but opting not try to ride when the track improved in the final half hour of the day and ended up in an unrealistic 13th place.

“Today we started late because of the weather so we only managed to do 25 or 30 laps in wet conditions,” said Lorenzo. “Now we know that the bike is working quite well and is competitive, we were in second place in the wet behind Dani and the next rider, Cal, was a second behind. We still need to work on our electronics as we haven’t got the perfect solution for Qatar. For tomorrow we haven’t got anything new but we need to decide whether to put away some parts.”

In the wet Ben Spies was 9th, but at the end of the day when the track was almost fully dry he placed the third fastest time.

“It’s been a tough day but it’s been like that for everybody. Luckily we got a lot of stuff done yesterday, a simulation and most of the test settings,” said Spies. “Today we just tested some wet set up stuff. I was quite happy with that, we didn’t get on the track when it was in prime condition for wet but good enough. As the track dried out we needed to wait a little to try one thing in the dry. We know what we need to do for tomorrow so we’re hoping for good weather.”

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Jorge Lorenzo was the first rider out on track this morning at 10am sharp and the Spaniard put in a massive 76 laps on the first day of MotoGP testing at Jerez and once he broke the 1.40 mark was able to set that pace for five times and stayed on top the timesheet until Casey Stoner set a final lap flier that left Lorenzo in second and 0.273s off pace.

Lorenzo believes he is already more competitive this year than last season. Since the Yamaha team has no new parts to test they will concentrate on race simulations for the next two days, as the Spanish rider admitted that he has a little more rear tire wear than he’d care for, but likes the new front tire which is coded with #21, as it gives him better corner entry and is more stable on braking.

Here’s what the two Yamaha riders had to say at the end of the day:

“Today was a very long day because we started at 10am and finished at 6pm,” said a tired Jorge Lorenzo. “We did a lot of laps and it was very interesting to see how different the bike was compared to Sepang because it’s a different track. Here it is much slower and more corners, not so many straights. The 1000cc is not so easy compared to the 800cc here. At the end of the day we were able to be very fast and stay in the first three positions so we are satisfied.”

“Today was a positive day; we actually got more than we thought accomplished,” said Ben Spies. “We were able to look at the two tyres Bridgestone wanted us to test and also went through a couple of different settings on the bike. We did a race simulation to get one out of the way and we might do one more before the end of the test just get me and the bike in tune for that many laps. Today’s was to test the fuel consumption and we were happy with that. We can now focus pretty much on going fast and trying to improve the bike lap time wise and also improve me around the track! This isn’t a strong track for me so I’m quite happy that we’ve shown some decent pace around here. We’ve got a lot done and it’s been a good day.”

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The Yamaha Factory Team has officially revealed its 2012 racing livery and they’ve stayed with their handsome corporate blue and white livery and there’s barely a smudge of orange that indicates oil sponsor Eneos corporate color, but the main sponsor’s name is well in sight.

Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies will debute the new livery on their YZR-M1s during tomorrow’s last pre-season test at Jerez de la Frontera, where the two riders will try to put a dent into Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa’s super fast Honda’s.

More pics and video interviews with Lorenzo, Spies and Lin Jarvis after the jump.

Continue reading: Yamaha Factory 2012 livery and interviews (w/videos)

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Jorge Lorenzo has had a very busy schedule of late. After taking part in the first edition of the TT Off Road Experience organized by his fans at the Catalunya circuit, doing PR for his Yamaha team at Monza, the former World Champion is at Valencia today to test drive a GP2 car for the Barwa Addax Team.

The Mallorcan rider received this opportunity from Barwa Addax team owner Alejandro Agag who arranged the test after speaking to Lorenzo’s manager and decided to see for himself what Lorenzo could do with this type of racing car.

The GP2 is the feeder series for F1 and features a Dallara chassis powered by a V8 Renault engine and Pirelli tyres and Barwa Addax team will once again be fielding Johnny Ceccotto Jr. and Josef Kral.

Lorenzo has already experienced the headiness of four-wheel racing competitions, but so far has limited himself to endurance car races, while most of his MotoGP colleagues seem to be more interested in rallys, except for Casey Stoner who seems to be more into V8 Supercars.

Photo source | lockerz.com via lorenzo99#twitter.com

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If Ducati is hyping the presentation of the Desmosedici GP12 next Monday, Yamaha is doing the same for the 2012 YZR-M1 livery, that will be officially presented during the last pre-season MotoGP tests at Jerez de la Frontera March 23-25, with this brief teaser video.

The 2012 livery has already been exclusively revealed to sponsors and partners on Monday evening at Monza by Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies.

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The past weekend Jorge Lorenzo’s official Fan club held the first edition of the TT Offroad Experience at the Montmelo circuit in Barcelona ahead of the start of the 2012 MotoGP season.

More than 200 people showed up for the event with 50 Spartans (as Lorenzo’s fans call themselves) and leading Spanish motorcycle journalists taking part in free practices and the qualifying heats, with the fourteen best riders facing off against the 2010 World champion in the main event, and Lorenzo won the race riding a 125cc Yamaha TTR beating amonst others Javi Garcia Vico, a former Spanish motocross champion.

Lorenzo later handed out trophys to the partecipants and there was also a barbecue for fans and the press and he Garcia Vico also delighted everyone with these donuts. Too bad we don’t see MotoGP riders having this type of fun of late, because those scanty 21 liters of fuel leave the GP machines sucking on fumes at the end of race and they don’t want to be towed back to the parc fermé.

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