Petrucci: Lorenzo ‘target’ helped me to front row

Danilo Petrucci has admitted using Jorge Lorenzo as a rider to chase during his best qualifying lap helped him power to second place on the grid at Sachsenring.

The Pramac Ducati rider grabbed provisional pole position from the Spaniard seconds after Lorenzo had produced a new lap record, with Petrucci setting a second track record in the process, but both riders were bumped back a spot when Marc Marquez grabbed top spot with his final flying lap.

Petrucci says he used Lorenzo ahead of him as a marker to produce his qualifying lap and concedes he would have struggled to reach the front row without the factory Ducati rider ahead of him.

“I have to be clear, I used Jorge for my target in that lap and it helped me a lot as tomorrow the starting position will be important,” Petrucci said. “Our target was to be in the first two rows as the second part of the race will be very, very difficult as the tyre consumption will be very high.”

Petrucci has placed huge doubt on being able to make the soft option rear tyre supplied by Michelin last the entire 30-lap race distance for tomorrow’s German GP due to the hot track temperatures forecast combined with the flowing circuit layout but hopes a similar issue will also hamper his main rivals.

“I don’t know how many riders know which are the possibilities [for tyres]. For me it will be tough and a little bit harder for my weight,” he said. “We are working a lot on electronics to make the bike very, very smooth because here we only have two or three hard braking areas and not so much acceleration so you have to be very flowing on the track.

“My fear is I don’t know what to expect in the second part. It will be good to stay calm in the first lap and starting from the first row will be helpful.

“The problem with the format of this weekend is from the first free practice sessions they time them for qualifying so you never complete a lot of laps with one tyre.

“It is difficult to understand how the bike will be after half of the race. At the moment the two tyres are very similar, both some positive and negative points, but at the moment I don’t know as I haven’t seen any data.”