Braking issues leave Lorenzo struggling to keep up with Hondas

As the short summer break comes to an end the MotoGP paddock got back to business today in Brno with the first and second free practice sessions of the Czech Republic Grand Prix.

Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies blew off the cobwebs after their holidays and spent the morning and afternoon sessions making the first steps in set up for the Brno circuit. World Champion Lorenzo and his crew were focused on improving the stopping ability and turning ability going into corners over the two sessions. He finished the morning session in fourth, 1.259 seconds from first and improved in the afternoon, remaining fourth but reducing the gap to first to 0.720 seconds.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position 4th – Time 1’57.174- Laps 27
“Today’s sessions have not been exactly as we expected. We are struggling a bit on braking and we lose too much time over the lap. Tomorrow we will work hard to improve the bike in the morning to be ready for qualifying because at this moment we are pretty far from the front.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager
“The afternoon free practice went a bit better than the morning but still we are lacking a bit of confidence in the front. It’s difficult to say why but it looks like a lack of grip over the front. Turning ability has improved a bit but not enough from the morning so we need another step for the next session. For tomorrow we need to find a clearer direction to improve. P4 is not so bad to start but we have three bikes in front of us and some work to do.”

Source: Yamaha Racing