Difficult day for Jorge Lorenzo sees him finishing 8th

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo faced a difficult and very close second and third free practice session ahead of the Grand Prix of Qatar.

Lorenzo and teammate Rossi were keen to hit the Losail International Circuit at the start of the morning session. They lined up their YZR-M1s side by side, impatiently waiting for the pit lane light to turn green. However, it soon became apparent that finding the right combination of set-up and tyre would be today‘s biggest challenge.

Jorge Lorenzo showed a quick and consistent pace at the start of FP1. He held fourth place for most of the morning session with a fastest lap of 1‘55.609, but was pushed back two places after a final flurry of activity.

At the end of the second 45 minutes session, the double MotoGP Champion claimed eighth place with a fastest lap of 1‘55.108, less than three-tenths from the leader.

Jorge Lorenzo
“It was difficult today, but I feel great on the bike with the soft tyre. We also tried the harder tyre, which is very consistent. I could maybe do around a hundred laps of 1‘56.1 on it, but this is too slow, so, for the moment, I prefer the soft option. We found some problems with the electronics this afternoon that were a little strange. We need to investigate what‘s going on. We‘ll keep working to increase our pace to a high 1‘54, which is our goal. It will be a hard fight for the front row tomorrow, because many riders have the extra soft tyre, that gives them four-tenths of a second. They are also stronger than last year, so it will even be difficult to get a position on the second row, but you never know what will happen. Maybe we can find something that will give us half a second and even let us fight for pole position.”

Source: Yamaha Racing