Day one of the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit started with an incident fuelled free practice this morning as four riders crashed out on turn 11 of the twisty circuit. Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies managed to avoid the mayhem and spent the morning getting reacquainted with the track.
Lorenzo picked up speed quickly in the morning session, rising to second midway and holding in the top three for the duration of the heat. As the track temperatures rose for the afternoon session so did the Mallorcan’s speed; only being denied the top spot at the end of the second practice by a gap of 0.095 seconds.
Team mate Spies was still looking for the best set up for the Sachsenring track by the end of the afternoon session. The American was fighting off a head cold and struggled to find a perfect pace in either the morning or afternoon practices. He made an improvement of over half a second from the morning but will be looking for a bigger step in the third practice session tomorrow morning.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position 2nd – Time 1.22.320 – Laps 45
“I am pretty satisfied because I have improved my lap times today. I am almost faster than last year and I look forward to making another step tomorrow. We have made some changes and I feel much better on my M1; faster and more competitive! The slow corners are tough, but in the faster ones I take some tenths, especially T3 and T4. I hope tomorrow the temperature can be even hotter and we can fight for the first row.”
Ben Spies
Position 7th – Time 1.22.894 – Laps 42
“I didn’t get my best shot at the track today, I’ve got a head cold which has left me a little fuzzy and makes it kind of hard to give it 100% and be on top form. The changing temperature from the morning to the afternoon also meant the track conditions were pretty different to set up for. I’m aiming for lots of sleep tonight and I’ll be ready to come back stronger in the morning.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager
“This afternoon went quite well compared to this morning. The track temperature was much higher and that helped set up and especially the tyres. Jorge was very consistent and we managed to improve stability and turning so we are quite satisfied. We did everything on the hard tyre so let’s see if tomorrow we are able to make another step.”
Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director
“We are not so satisfied on Ben’s side today, the set up is not perfect and the different temperatures from this morning to the afternoon didn’t give us enough opportunity to work as we wanted. We did improve a little this afternoon and now we will check and understand what we need to make it better for tomorrow. Jorge rode very well in both sessions; he seems very confident and has found a good set up quite quickly for the circuit.”
Edwards and Crutchlow target big improvements in Germany
Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow are confident they can make major improvements after the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders experienced a difficult start to the German MotoGP round today.
Edwards was 10th and Crutchlow 13th in cold and blustery conditions this morning, and while they were able to improve their lap times in more favourable conditions in this afternoon’s second session, both slipped down the rankings by one position.
Experienced American spent the majority of the opening day working on trying to improve rear grip with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine and he set a personal best time of 1.23.431 to f inish 11th on the combined timesheets. Edwards was less than 0.5s away from the top eight and he is confident overnight set-up changes will help him lap at a significantly faster pace tomorrow.
With track temperatures only reaching 21 degrees this morning, British rookie Crutchlow adopted a steady approach to learning the Sachsenring track, which is the second shortest on the MotoGP World Championship calendar at 2.281 miles.
He concentrated on improving his confidence with the front-end of his YZR-M1 machine, the former World Supersport champion trying a range of different set-up options to gain more turning performance on the undulating, tight and twisty Sachsenring track.
Crutchlow was able to lap 0.4s faster than his best pace from this morning as the track temperature increased by 15 degrees and the strong wind eased slightly. But a small crash with just over 15 minutes remai ning prevented him from bettering his time of 1.23.760. The 25-year-old finished in 14th position but he was less than 0.5s from the top ten and with more track experience he is aiming for a strong performance in tomorrow’s final practice and qualifying sessions.
This weekend’s 30-lap race marks the halfway point of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship and comes before a trip across the Atlantic for next weekend’s US Grand Prix at the spectacular Laguna Seca circuit.
Colin Edwards
Position 11th – Time 1.23.431 – Laps 41
“I’ve definitely had easier Friday’s than this that’s for sure. I don’t really know why but I never seem to get on with this track. My relationship with this track didn’t exactly get the best start back in 2003 with the barbecue at the bottom of the hill, and since then I’ve always found it difficult here. I always seem to have to end up turning the bike inside out to get a setting that works. This morning was pretty difficult because I couldn’t generate enough heat in the right side of the front tyre and I guess I just wasn’t willing to push that hard and risk crashing. We saw what happened to the likes of Valentino and Dani and I felt that was going to happen to me with the way the right side of the front felt. But it was cold and windy and definitely not ideal conditions. I used the hard front and rear compound this afternoon for the whole session and we made the bike better. But I still need more rear traction. That’s been my biggest struggle. It feels like I’m just skating on top of the tarmac but we’ve got some ideas to try tomorrow and I know we are going in the right direction to be closer to the front guys.”
Cal Crutchlow
Position 14th – Time 1.23.760 – Laps 43
“It doesn’t look good at all on paper but it is a lot better than it looks and I’m not too concerned. The times are pretty close and I was consistent at the end of the session when I was running a really old rear tyre after the crash. I lost precious time with the crash, which I can’t really afford when I’m trying to learn the track. I went slow at the start of the lap and then I saw Stoner in the distance and tried to follow his line but just ran a bit wide in Turn 9. It is pretty fast and I ran onto the grass but hit the biggest pothole I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t hold on. At least I tested the left shoulder out that I broke at Silverstone and it survived with no issues. This track is really tight and twisty and not that easy to learn, even though it is one of the shortest on the calendar. We worked a lot on improving the front-end feel today and we are making some progress but you always want more. Finishing 14th is not our usual position because normally I’ve been around eighth to sixth, but I know with some more improvements we can move higher up the timesheets.”
2011 MotoGP Germany
Sachsenring 15/07/2011
1 Marco Simoncelli Honda ITA 1’22.225
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1’22.320
3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1’22.432
4 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 1’22.542
5 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1’22.654
6 Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 1’22.882
7 Ben Spies Yamaha USA 1’22.894
8 Randy De Puniet Ducati FRA 1’23.037
9 Alvaro Bautista Suzuki ESP 1’23.261
10 Karel Abraham Ducati CZE 1’23.352
11 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1’23.431
12 Valentino Rossi Ducati ITA 1’23.533
13 Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 1’23.625
14 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1’23.760
15 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda JPN 1’23.906
Circuit Length:
3671
Weather:
Dry
Lap Record:
1’22.126
(Daniel Pedrosa, 1/1/2009)
Fastest Lap Ever:
1’21.067
(Casey Stoner, 7/13/2008)
Last Years Winner:
Daniel Pedrosa
