| Losail (Qatar), 18th March 2016 |
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After yesterday‘s strong results,
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino
Rossi were keen to get down to business today in the second and third
free practice session. They‘re main goal for the sessions was to improve the
tyre life, while gaining more experience on the YZR-M1s with
Michelin tyres, crucial for the tyre choice come Sunday‘s race. In the afternoon
they moved their attention towards setting a fast time to promote directly to
tomorrow‘s Qualifying 2 session and the riders finished the day in second and
seventh respectively.
Lorenzo started FP2 with the same approach as he tackled FP1; he waited for the entire field to head out of pit lane before mounting his YZR-M1. Though the start to the session was similar, his target for the session was different. Yesterday the Majorcan aimed to show off his blistering pace, today he spent the earlier evening session adapting his setting to his personal preferences. Despite windy conditions somewhat slowing his pace, he ended the first Friday session with a fastest lap of 1‘55.934s, 0.494s slower than his time from yesterday. The triple and reigning MotoGP World Champion improved in the second 45-minute outing of the day when he battled for a top ten position in the ranking order. After getting a feel for what the track will be like during Sunday‘s race, he put his head down with ten minutes to go and rode a strong stint, securing second place with a incredible lap of 1‘54.776s, just 0.137s behind today‘s leader. Rossi had a very similar experience to his teammate. When he took to the track it soon became clear that finding front end grip will play an important role in the preparation for Sunday‘s race, which was highlighted when the Doctor skillfully pulled off a big save in turn nine. He completed three runs, trying multiple tyre options and turned up the pace at the very end. He finished FP2 in seventh position with a 1‘55.883 lap, but was unable to improve on yesterday‘s time. Although the nine-time World Champion faced some technical issues later in the evening, he pushed on in the FP3 session. In sync with the rest of the pack, he headed out on track to do a time attack in the final ten minutes of the track action. He ended the incredibly close third free practice session, that finished with the complete top10 finishing within 0.837s of each other, posting his best lap of the weekend so far. His 1‘55.175s lap puts him in seventh place 0.536s off the front. Tomorrow the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammates will be back on track from 19:55 to 20:25 local track time (GMT+3) for Free Practice 4, followed by the Qualifying 2 session from 21:00 to 21:15. |
MASSIMO MEREGALLI TEAM DIRECTOR
Today was a little more challenging than we
initially expected, but overall we did well. We focused on working on the front
tyre and compared two specifications with both riders and they both chose the
one for the race. We compared also different bike balance set ups, finding
improvements throughout the day in braking and in stability. Jorge and Vale‘s
pace were very consistent today and also their final times were quite fast, but
as the margins are so small here, there is still some work left for us to do. So
far I feel positive about our performance, but we will need to make another step
tomorrow for the time attack.
JORGE LORENZO
In the first practice there was some wind and
we struggled a lot to be competitive compared to the other riders, it looked
like the wind affected them less. In the evening, especially in the last laps,
there was no wind and we were able to be competitive and try different tyres.
Finally we have an idea of which compound is better for the race, but I would
like to improve my pace a little bit more. We are in the top group, but I would
like to have an advantage. Let‘s see if we can do it tomorrow before
qualifying.
VALENTINO ROSSI
Today was a bit more difficult, especially in Free Practice 2. We tried
something else, but we expected the tyre to be a bit harder. Unfortunately it
didn‘t work, I didn‘t like it, so we had to come back and we worked a lot on the
bike. Free Practice 3 was a bit more positive for me. Unfortunately I had a
problem with my first bike with the engine, so we had to change bike, but with
the second bike I felt good. I had a good pace, especially with the medium tyre
on the rear and I think we are quite competitive. After that we put on a softer
tyre, but I wasn‘t able to do the perfect lap so this means we‘re not OK with
the setting and we have work to do, but we‘re in the top ten, this is important.
We have Free Practice 4 tomorrow to improve the setting to better the bike,
because it will be very important to start from the front and not too far
behind, if not, things will become very difficult
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