Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi completed the second night of preseason testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar this evening, finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively. Beating the crowd, Jorge Lorenzo was one of the first riders to leave the pits and face the slippery circuit. Though today’s conditions were cool and overcast the competition soon heated up when he was joined by the rest of the field. Lorenzo positioned himself as a key protagonist with a 1’55.500s lap and slotted into second place in the time standings. He spent the remaining time of the session concentrating on a race set-up and finished the day in fourth place, +0.593s from the front. Teammate Rossi followed the trend and waited until just after 6pm to hit the track. He continued working on the technical setup of his YZR-M1 and posted a 1’55.983s lap. As the day progressed so did his feeling with the bike and he was able to improve his time to 1’55.581s and take fifth position in the standings, +0.674s from the front, directly behind his teammate. With today’s progress, Lorenzo and Rossi also hold fourth and fifth place respectively in the combined session time sheets.
Jorge Lorenzo
4th / 1’55.500 / 51 laps
“It was another difficult day. The conditions of the track improved not a lot, but a little bit. Even though we improved the feeling with the bike a little, we are still far from the fastest time. We tried many things, but everyone else made a bigger step in their work, so let’s see what happens tomorrow. We’ve found something important and we’ll also do a long-distance run to see how the bike works.”
Valentino Rossi
5th / 1’55.581 / 61 laps
“It was a difficult day for me, because we tried to work a lot on the setting of the bike to improve and to be faster, but we didn’t get the improvement we expected. I was in a difficult situation, but fortunately in the last hour we modified something. We did a step back and went a different way. The last part of the test was good, because I was fast with both the hard and the soft tyre and I was able to improve my position so I’m in the top five, but especially I was able to improve my pace and stay in the 1’55’s so at the end it was not so bad. We have to continue working for tomorrow and try to fix as much as possible for the weekend of the race. We have some other things to try; some different parts, settings and we have to decide on the tyres. It looks like today was hard work, a lot of laps, a lot of effort, but at the end it was a good day. We did good work and we found something good at the end.”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director –
“It has been a very busy day today for the team and the riders. On Jorge’s side they focused on electronic adjustments and settings and on Vale’s side they focused on mechanical settings. It’s definitely been a better day than yesterday. Jorge’s crew made an important learning that they need to test on a long run and in Vale’s last run he was able to get back some extra feeling and confidence and was able to provide some extra info that will help us to find more solutions. We still have some work to do to find half a second to close the gap but we are making progress in the right direction and have both riders further up the timesheets. We are confident that for tomorrow’s session when there is more rubber on the tarmac we will be able to close the gap even further.”
Tech3 pair climb up the field on day 2 in Qatar
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith showed his determination to finish in eighth position on the second day of testing at the final preseason outing. The young British rider dug deep throughout the session under the floodlights to post a top time of 1’55.648 after completing a total of 49 laps around the Losail International circuit. His result left him fractionally behind fourth position with a gap of just 0.148 as he continued to improve by cutting his lap time by three tenths of a second. This leaves the 23-year-old rider fully charged and primed to resume his performance tomorrow in the final day of testing.
Meanwhile Pol Espargaro shot to ninth position after a rapid run in the desert, leaving him with a best time of 1’55.658, which was only 0.010 behind his teammate. The 2014 MotoGP rookie of the year successfully addressed the front end issues that he faced yesterday and completed a total of 46 laps, as he set his best time mid way through his day on the 29th lap. His leap in performance was illustrated by notably cutting a whole second from his time set yesterday. In addition, his result was a blink of an eye behind fifth position by a mere eight hundredths of a second, which leaves him confident for further progress tomorrow.
Bradley Smith
8th / 1’55.648 / 49 laps
“We had a really busy day today as we had to work through a long check list that we were given by Yamaha and the task was to confirm different ideas, both positive as well as lesser ones. Sometimes when you do these kind of tests you feel as if you are losing some time, but actually it’s very important as you might discover a modification which may help in the future. I’m happy the pace was there today and I was able to improve my lap time from yesterday. I managed to save one set of tyres which will enable us to do a long run tomorrow as well as my practice sessions, so now I need a good rest and I will then go for it again. I believe my bike is 95% there, we may just need to improve the balance of the Yamaha a little bit in order to have even more corner speed which is our main strength, but all in all I’m pleased.”
Pol Espargaro
9th / 1’55.658 / 46 laps
“Today has been much more positive than yesterday because we were able to solve the issue with the front tyre which we were struggling with on day one. In addition, we manage to work through our testing schedule where we evaluated several settings that we were not able to try at Sepang 2. As soon as we put in the second tyre option from Bridgestone at the beginning of the session, my confidence with the front of the bike improved a lot and the adjustments we made afterwards increased it even more. Later on, we worked mainly on electronic setups such as the anti wheelie and I’m really pleased with how the day went. Even though we didn’t concentrate on the lap time at all, it’s nice to see that the other Yamahas are less than two tenths away which means we did a good job today and I can’t wait to get back on the bike tomorrow afternoon.”
Stefan Bradl unharmed after crashing in Qatar
Today’s testing session at the Losail track ended prematurely for Stefan Bradl due to a bad crash, luckily without consequences. The German, who had just got on the tarmac suffered a violent impact on the ground and was taken to the Medical Center of the circuit. After the doctors had excluded any possible complication, he was brought to the Clinica Mobile where he remained under observation for a while before deciding not to let him go back on track and complete the today’s test session. Bradl will almost certainly be on track tomorrow to try to make the most of the last day of testing.
It was a full day for his teammate Loris Baz who completed 40 laps with a personal best of 1.56.936. The Frenchman continued his work program in view of the season premiere, he remained focused on race pace and he tried several new solutions.
Stefan Bradl
17th / 1’56.724 / 17 laps
“Until now it has been a very difficult test for us. Yesterday I was not 100% fit because of an intestinal problem and I was forced to stop. Today I felt better and I wanted to complete the program we had but I crashed heavily. I hit my head and, as a precaution, I was taken first to the circuit Medical Center and then to the Clinica Mobile. Luckily I’m fine, but I decided not to get back on the track and rest to be ready for the final day of testing.”
Loris Baz
23rd / 1’56.936 / 40 laps
“I am quite satisfied with the work done today. Our goal was to improve the lap time and from the beginning I was faster than yesterday. Towards the end of the test we tried a race simulation: it was the first time for me riding this bike, but the feeling is positive. I shortened a little the gap with the top guys and this is pretty good for us. We stay focused for tomorrow, I can still improve my laptime.”
Test Results – Day Two
1. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA), Ducati Team, 1:54.907
2. Marc Marquez (SPA), Repsol Honda Team, 1:55.091
3. Andrea Iannone (ITA), Ducati Team, 1:55.104
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA), Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:55.500
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA), Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:55.581
6. Dani Pedrosa (SPA), Repsol Honda Team, 1:55.582
7. Cal Crutchlow (GBR), CWM LCR Honda, 1:55.624
8. Bradley Smith (GBR), Monster Yamaha Tech3, 1:55.648
9. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Monster Yamaha Tech3, 1:55.658
10. Karel Abraham (CZE), AB Motoracing, 1:55.765
20. Stefan Bradl (GER), Athina Forward Racing, 1:56.724
23. Loris Baz (FRA), Athina Forward Racing, 1:56.936
Combined Session Times
1. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA), Ducati Team, 1:54.907
2. Marc Marquez (SPA), Repsol Honda Team, 1:55.091
3. Andrea Iannone (ITA), Ducati Team, 1:55.104
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA), Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:55.500
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA), Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:55.581
6. Dani Pedrosa (SPA), Repsol Honda Team, 1:55.582
7. Cal Crutchlow (GBR), CWM LCR Honda, 1:55.624
8. Bradley Smith (GBR), Monster Yamaha Tech3, 1:55.648
9. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Monster Yamaha Tech3, 1:55.658
10. Aleix Espargaro (SPA), Team Suzuki Ecstar, 1’55.698
21. Stefan Bradl (GER), Athina Forward Racing, 1’56.724
23. Loris Baz (FRA), Athina Forward Racing, 1’56.936
