Seagull wedged in fairing can't keep Jorge Lorenzo off pole position

A SEAGULL wedged in Jorge Lorenzo's fairing couldn't stop him from securing pole position in the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.  

Lorenzo

THE feathers flew at Phillip Island on Saturday with Spanish star Jorge Lorenzo securing pole position for Sunday's Australian MotoGP despite having a seagull wedged in his Yamaha.

Lorenzo broke Aussie Casey Stoner’s lap record to qualify fastest in a sizzling time of 1’27.899 ahead of world championship leader Marc Marquez (1’28.120) and Valentino Rossi (1’28.647).

But the day will be remembered for when he collided with an unlucky seagull at the top of Lukey Heights.

The seagull somehow became wedged in the right fairing of his machine and stayed there for another few laps before the Spaniard was forced to pit to have it removed. 

"I saw so many birds during the first lap of the practice," he said.

"I was thinking maybe I hit one.

"At the top of Lukey Heights I saw one bird come very close to my bike.

"I put my head down to avoid the bird, but the bird went down into my bike."

Lorenzo said he was unaware the seagull was wedged into his machine.

"I kept going because I didn’t know it was in the bike," he said.

"It didn’t actually seem to affect my speed too much.

"But then without the bird I was faster.

"Probably because I was lighter.” 

He recovered to upstage Marquez – becoming the first man to break the 1min 28sec lap time barrier at Phillip Island.

"We’ve done our best to be competitive," Lorenzo said.

"This lap (we did) is a lap you can only do with a PlayStation.

"Today we made it – we  improved seven tenths (of a second) from our first ride here.

"It’s impressive how much faster we can go with new tyres.

"We’re very proud of pole, but our most important thing is tomorrow."

Lorenzo’s record-breaking lap wiped Stoner from the record books.

Given Stoner is a six-time winner of the event, Lorenzo was admittedly chuffed to notch up the hot lap.

"It was really fun," he said.

"With the new surface here it does make it more fun.

"You enjoy it much more because it is more grippy and it was getting worse and worse every year until now.

"It makes it easy to ride here and that is always a good thing."

Lorenzo knows he must win today's grand prix if he is to keep alive his chance of reining in Marquez.

He insists there is still plenty of life remaining in this title fight with two more events to come after Phillip Island.

"One thing is qualifying and we all know it's important," he said.

"But the race is a completely different thing and that's what it all comes down to.

"And with this race in particular, these seems to be a lot of things happening this weekend.

"So let's see what happens tomorrow. grid.