Lorenzo expecting difficult weekend as he’s looking for more stability under braking

The first MotoGP practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Japan got underway today at Motegi with contrasting results for the two Yamaha Factory Racing riders. Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo made a solid start to the first session, wrapping it up in fifth place just over six tenths from first. The Mallorcan rider came away from the session hunting for further stability from his YZR-M1 under braking and was also looking for more edge grip. The second session saw improvements in set up bring his time down by seven tenths of a second, reducing the gap slightly to first to just over five tenths of a second.

Jorge Lorenzo Position: 5th Time: 1’47.310 Laps: 12
“We improved the lap time quite a lot from the morning to the afternoon session but it’s still not enough, the competition is very strong here. It is going to be a very difficult weekend to fight for the podium and the victory. We are trying some things on the bike to improve the stability on braking and into corners. We found a little but still need to find some more! We are fifth which could be worse today.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager: “The first day is not really that bad, we look worse on the time sheets than we really are. Jorge’s consistency is good which is important. We are missing a little on braking stability and edge grip. We are looking forward to tomorrow, we need to solve these two things but we have a good pace. We need to improve but there is space to do that.”

Source: Yamaha MotoGP