Jorge Lorenzo starts 2016 season at the front
After positively concluding pre-season testing a fortnight ago, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team‘s Jorge Lorenzo returned to the Losail International Circuit today to officially start the 2016 MotoGP season.
As if the winter stop never happened, Lorenzo instantly fell back into his old groove and placed his YZR-M1s 1st the ranking order.
Jorge felt confident and in a good physical shape after completing pre-season testing and his eagerness to get back into ’racing mode‘ didn‘t go unnoticed at this evening‘s free practice session once he hit the track.
Having given the field a ’head start‘ to be guaranteed some clear space on track, he left his box as the second to last rider and immediately shot to the top of the leader board with his first flying lap. The Majorcan continued to set the bar high, dropping a 1‘55.693s, more than 0,6s faster than all his rivals, around the midway stage of the session.
As the pace picked up during the end of the session, the reigning World Champion responded almost with ease and wrapped up the proceedings with a best lap of 1‘55.440s for the provisional lead in the standings.
As Sunday‘s race will be held at 21:00 (GMT+3), the format of the race weekend has been changed to enable the riders to be fully prepared for the night event. There will be a second and third free practice session held tomorrow evening.
JORGE LORENZO
I had a good start. From the first run I was able to have the best lap time and probably also the best pace, but we still have a margin for improvement both in lap time and pace. We will keep working on the setting and the electronics to improve in some areas for tomorrow. The track will also be better with more grip level tomorrow and the lap times will be faster.
Source: Yamaha Racing