MotoGP, Lorenzo: The title? First I need to beat Marquez

Considering the fact that lately the rain makes Lorenzo about as happy as finding a tarantula in his underwear, the Majorcan is more pleased than usual at Silverstone. His confidence on the Michelin rain tyres is far from perfection, but he has taken a step forward.

“In FP4 I was able to improve consistently - he points out - When there is not too much water, the Yamaha does well.”

In qualifying, on the other hand, what happened?
“It started raining harder and I didn’t have the grip at the rear. The traction control did not intervene properly, but I think it was also a problem with the setup. I moved a lot of weight onto the front and the bike was a bit unbalanced.”

Does the 9^th best time satisfy you?
“I was lucky to get a fast lap in straight away, when the rain was lighter. Then the others improved a lot but I was unable to.”

You also had the best time, did you think about  Pierer’s criticism?
(he laughs) “To be honest, no. As I said, I don’t think I have anything to prove. My only thought is to improve my confidence with the Michelin rain tyres and today I took a step forward.”

It would seem that the forecast calls for sun tomorrow…
“We also need to improve on the dry and the main problem is the difficulty the Yamaha has absorbing bumps. The M1 moves around a lot on the bumps and I am not able to hold the right line. If I could get the bike sorted I would be able lower my times by as much as half a second.”

And aim for the podium?
“Yes. We’ll try to do it in the warm up; otherwise I will have a very complicated race.”

Succeeding would be important for the championship…
“I can’t think about the championship right now. I am too far behind Marquez. I need to finish ahead of him in a few races first and then I can begin to think about it. If I lose more points, hoping for the title will definitely become impossible.”