Jorge Lorenzo makes a solid start in Austria

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammates Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi made a solid start this morning in tricky conditions. Cold weather again proved to be the biggest challenge, with temperatures around only nine degrees Celsius as both Factory Yamaha riders focused on finding the perfect set-up for Sunday‘s race. They improved their times in the afternoon session and took fourth and eighth place respectively in the combined practice times.

Jorge had a cautious start to the weekend. With chilly weather conditions and the tyres brought by Michelin being very different from the test three weeks ago, the Mallorcan used the first 45-minute free practice session to get a feel for the track. A late charge saw him end FP1 in seventh place with a 1’26.375s, 0.509s from first.

He was quick to resume his work during FP2. Consistently improving his pace, he bettered his morning time by over a second as he continued to perfect the set-up of his YZR-M1. With the temperature rising and the times dropping, he saved his best for the last stint when he breached into the 1’24’s with a 1’24.988s, to end the day in eighth place, 1.371s from the front.

JORGE LORENZO
“There‘s a difference between us and our rivals, but you know you have to work on your own bike and your own pace to try to improve it and that‘s what we did. We tried to modify the bike and improve by some tenths and we got a good pace. We didn‘t put the softer tyre on the rear like some other riders, so we have some margin to be even closer. Especially in the morning it was very cold and it‘s only been on a few occasions that it was colder than today. It was tricky because we had to be careful in some corners to avoid crashing. In the afternoon it was a little bit better, with the temperature a few degrees higher, so we had a better feeling but we hope tomorrow the sun will shine a bit more and we‘ll have more confidence.”

Source: Yamaha Racing