Lorenzo looking forward to Le Mans, “A good track for me”

 In MotoGP, News

Gran Premio de Espana, 5th May 2013

Yamaha Factory Racing heads to France this week for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France at the historic Le Mans circuit on Sunday, 19th May. The classic French track has a history littered with the victories of both Yamaha riders, Jorge Lorenzo can claim three premier class wins and one 250cc GP victory whilst Valentino Rossi also claims three premier class victories and one 125cc GP win.

The Yamaha pair arrive in France hoping for track conditions that are kinder to the tyres than in Jerez where extremely short tyre life made for a complicated race day.

The YZR-M1 motorcycles of both Lorenzo and Rossi will have a special logo in tribute to Yamaha legend Jean Claude Olivier who passed away tragically earlier this year in a road traffic accident. Known to all as ‘JCO’, Olivier was a Yamaha icon and loyal employee for 45 years until his retirement in 2010. JCO competed in the Dakar Rally for Yamaha from 1979 to 1989, finishing second in 1985. A former President of Yamaha Motor France, he was a guiding light in numerous classes of motorcycle racing for Yamaha Motor France. There will also be a display of images inside Yamaha’s Hospitality depicting highlights of Yamaha Motor France’s story in road racing.

This year will be the 56th time the Grand Prix has run at the Le Mans circuit and should as always guarantee a bumper crowd of racing fans. The major challenges of the team will be to set up the YZR-M1 to provide Lorenzo and Rossi with optimum balance and control under hard braking whilst retaining the bike’s class leading balance to tackle the tight chicanes and hairpins and short straights.

Jorge Lorenzo
“Now we travel to France, to Le Mans, a special circuit which is a very different track to Jerez. I am looking forward to racing there. I arrive with a lot of motivation after the Jerez results. Perhaps we expected better there but we struggled much more than we expected because of the extreme heat on the track. Fortunately we worked a lot on the test day afterwards to solve little problems. That session helped us to understand what the main problems had been on the Sunday. I’ve always had very good results at Le Mans and it brings me good memories. Last year in fact, I got a victory in the wet by a great distance over the rest. I rode a perfect race, without making a single mistake and in terrible track conditions. I have won many times in France and think it’s a good track for both me and the Yamaha M1.”

Source: yamaha-racing.com

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