Lorenzo third fastest in Motegi FP1 and has one hand on the title after Pedrosa breaks collarbone

The Fiat Yamaha Team made a flying start to the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi today in a close-fought practice session, with Valentino Rossi making a welcome return to the top of the time sheets and Jorge Lorenzo finishing the day in third.

Championship leader and last year’s race winner Lorenzo also made a good start to the weekend, putting in a consistently fast performance despite not yet having the engine upgrade. Lorenzo has one less engine left from his allocation than Rossi at this stage of the season so he is likely to wait until later in the weekend to use the new one. He is hopeful that he and his crew can make some small improvements to their rear traction tomorrow but he is already in good shape and finished the day three-tenths off his team-mate. The Mallorcan’s only championship rival, Dani Pedrosa, fell during the session and is expected to undergo surgery tomorrow to fix a broken collarbone.

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 3rd Time: 1’48.474 Laps: 27
“We are much better here than in Aragon, which is a relief! I don’t have the new engine yet like Valentino, I hope we can use it soon, but anyway here we lose much less in the straight here compared to at the last race and we have better acceleration. We can improve the traction a bit in some parts of the track but in general this was a good day and we are not so far off Valentino. I hope the rain stays away so we can continue to improve tomorrow. I don’t want to think for now how Dani’s situation will affect me, but I am sorry for him, it’s very bad luck to be injured at this stage of the season.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“Firstly I want to say that we are really sorry for Dani and we wish him all the best. Today we tried two different settings and Jorge was able to ride fast with both, so tomorrow we will continue in the same way and try to find the best package. Valentino was using the new engine and it looks very good, so we are looking forward to being able to use it soon as well. Tomorrow we need to find a little bit more rear grip but all in all we have a good rhythm and the bike is feeling good for Jorge.”

Source: Yamaha Racing