Grand Prix of Germany Free Practice - Lorenzo
Ambient temperature: 30 degrees
Track temperature: 41 degrees
Humidity: 31%
LORENZO MAKES IMPROVEMENTS AS SUN SHINES AT SACHSENRING
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo made the most of the
sunshine at the Sachsenring today to make some good progress
on the set-up of his YZR-M1, finishing the first day of practice
for the German Grand Prix sixth in the combined standings.
The 21-year-old has finally been able to return to his full
training schedule following his recent spate of injuries and
proved he’s feeling fitter and more confident by improving
his lap times steadily throughout today.
Lorenzo, who has never won at this track, struggled a little
in the cooler morning practice, lacking some rear grip and
finishing tenth. This afternoon however it was a different
story and, with temperatures touching 30 degrees, the Michelin-shod
rider improved his time by nearly half a second to finish
fifth in the session and sixth in the combined standings.
His team-mate Valentino Rossi was just 0.098 seconds ahead
of him this afternoon but with a gap of over a second to the
lead rider, both Lorenzo and Rossi will be looking to make
more significant progress tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position: 6th Time: 1'22.894 Laps: 65
“I feel like I have a lot of confidence here compared
to the last few races, and this is a nice feeling because
it’s enabling me to ride much more aggressively. We
had some problems with the rear grip this morning and I was
happy about the improvements that we made this afternoon,
but the bike setting is still not perfect and I feel like
we should be going faster. The problem is that, although I
was in fifth place this afternoon, the gap to Stoner in front
is very big and it’s hard for us to understand how he
is going so much faster than us! From this it is clear, even
though I have a good feeling, that the bike is not performing
exactly as it should and therefore we need to try to improve
our package more. Of course I also need to keep building my
confidence and improving my riding as I get more used to a
MotoGP bike at this track. I hope that tomorrow we can close
the gap to the front.”
Daniele Romagnoli
Team Manager
“To start with in the morning session we had some problems;
specifically we didn’t have enough rear grip. This afternoon
however things were much better and we were able to improve
our pace by about half a second, which made everyone much
happier. We still have some work to do because we still need
to improve the rear grip; it’s not a problem that can
be attributed to either the bike or the tyres, it’s
just to do with our package as a whole. Now we hope that the
weather continues like this tomorrow and this will enable
the team to prepare some other solutions to try in order to
fine-tune things further.”
Combined Free Practice Times
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'21.582
2. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'21.993
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'22.463
4. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'22.617
5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'22.759
6. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'22.894
7. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'22.922
8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'22.975
9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'22.999
10. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'23.116
11. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'23.209
12. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'23.274
13. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'23.366
14. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'23.411
15. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'23.452
16. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'23.698
17. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'23.864
Sachsenring: Record Lap
D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2007, 1'23.082
Sachsenring: Best Lap
D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'21.815
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