Lorenzo: Win not impossible at Sachsenring

Jorge Lorenzo feels breaking Marc Marquez’s Sachsenring domination is a realistic goal ahead of the German MotoGP, while he concede ending his rival’s run of pole positions slipped away due to a mistake during his best qualifying lap.

The Ducati rider lines up third on the front row alongside pole-sitter Marquez and Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci for the German race but felt pole positon was his until a mistake under acceleration out of the final corner saw him lose a vital tenth of a second.

With the top three split by just 0.057s in qualifying, while all free practice sessions have also been tightly contested, Lorenzo feels despite missing out on ending Marquez’s run in qualifying – the Repsol Honda has claimed nine consecutive poles at Sachsenring – he can target victory this weekend despite Marquez looking extend his winning run to the same number.

“Third place and the front row is very good, a pity to miss second place and to lose after a small mistake I made in the last acceleration place which meant I lost some little tenths which could have given me pole position,” Lorenzo said. “Anyway third place is a good position to start tomorrow for a good pace and we expect a good race.

“I’ve been very close to winning here in the past in 2009 and 2011 when I finished second and in both races I was very close.

“Obviously it is not one of my favourite tracks or a track I can make a difference at, while it is the opposite for Marc who has won but I think we are close.

“I am riding better here at Sachsenring compared to other years and Ducati is competitive so the win is not impossible, podium is quite possible, so we are going to fight for it.”

Lorenzo says the medium rear tyre is likely to be his favoured option given the hot temperatures forecast for the race but is aiming to try ‘some ideas for warm-up’ to continue to improve his Ducati GP18 despite already being impressed with his pace.

“I am really happy about this position and our speed because coming here if somebody told me to be in the 1m 20.3s with the Ducati at Sachsenring it would have been difficult to believe,” he said.

“But we’ve arrived here with a more competitive bike than last year and some other Ducatis are also competitive too so I think we have made a strong job in the box to improve the bike little by little, practice by practice and now we have a good bike for the race.”

Marquez has claimed victory at Sachsenring in every MotoGP race he’s contested while his unbeaten record stretches back to 2010 including his Moto2 and 125cc days.