Solid start for Lorenzo in France: “We are now ready for a dry race”

Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies took to the Le Mans circuit today for the first two practice sessions of the French Grand Prix. Although dark clouds threatened to dampen the sessions, the riders were lucky to enjoy dry track time throughout. Lorenzo started the day missing some rear grip from his YZR-M1 on corner entry but was able to make some set up changes and improve in the second session to finish the day third in the combined times.

Jorge Lorenzo 3rd “This morning we had some difficulty entering the corners, I didn’t trust the bike so much. This afternoon we made some changes to the rear and it improved the feeling and the lap time a lot. I did a half race simulation and we had a good pace. We are now ready for a dry race but everyone says it is going to rain which will completely change the conditions.”

Wilco Zeelenberg “Not an easy first day of practice, this morning we struggled a bit with rear traction, especially during braking. We had the same issue in Estoril and we learned quite a bit there so we were able to make it a lot better. The handling improved a lot as a result in the afternoon. I think we need to make another step tomorrow but we are happy with the pace from the second practice.”

Source: Yamaha Racing