Jorge Lorenzo says Ducati's strong Sachsenring pace would have been “difficult to believe” prior to the MotoGP German Grand Prix weekend, and believes he has a “more complete” bike this year.
Sachsenring has typically been one of Ducati's weaker circuits, with only one win to its credit back in 2008, while both Lorenzo and teammate Andrea Dovizioso both finished outside of the top seven in last year's German race.
However, Ducati occupied the top four on Friday's combined times with its three GP18-mounted riders, with Lorenzo leading Pramac's Danilo Petrucci.
Both Lorenzo and Petrucci both sat in provisional pole towards the end of qualifying on Saturday, though were both pipped by Marc Marquez by just under a tenth of a second, with Lorenzo shadowing his satellite counterpart.
Lorenzo praised the “strong job” Ducati has done to make the GP18 competitive this weekend, and feels there is still more to come with “some ideas” for set-up to be tried on Sunday morning.
“Im really happy about this position, about this speed, because coming here if somebody told me I would be in 1:20.3s bracket with a Ducati at Sachsenring [it] would have be difficult to believe,” he said.
“But we arrive here with probably a more complete bike than last year. Some more Ducatis are very competitive too, so I think we make also a really strong job in the box to improve the bike little by little and practice by practice, and now we have a good bike for the race.
“I have some ideas still for the warm-up, and if it works I can probably improve a little bit more the bike.
“But third place, first row is very good. Pity to lose also with the small mistake I make in the last acceleration, I lose a little tenths that could probably give me pole position.
“But third place is a good position to start tomorrow, [we have] good pace and we expect a good race.”
Lorenzo is yet to taste victory at the Sachsenring, but feels he is riding “better than in previous years” and still believes fighting for the win is not “impossible”.
“Well, I've been very close to win here before in 2009 and 2011, I finish second in both races,” he added.
“I was very close, but for some reason I couldn't take the victory. Obviously it's not one of my favourite tracks, or tracks that I can make the difference.
“It's the opposite for Marc, he is winning all the years. But I think we are close, I am riding better here at Sachsenring than in previous years and the Ducati is competitive.
“So win is not impossible, podium is quite possible so we're going to fight for it.”
