LORENZO LACKING CONFIDENCE AT ASSEN
Despite an impressive ride through the field to sixth from
the back of the grid at Donington just four days ago, it seems
that Jorge Lorenzo’s recent trials are not completely
behind him and the Fiat Yamaha Team rookie underwent a difficult
opening day at the Dutch TT. The Spaniard is struggling with
front-end feeling but worst of all is lacking confidence and
trust in his bike, and could only manage 14th in the combined
standings today.
Lorenzo started off the day 11th in morning practice and
hoped to improve further this afternoon. However this was
not to be as he was only able to better his morning time by
0.027 seconds and slipped back through the order. With this
being one of his favourite tracks he is doubly frustrated
and is now hoping that a good night’s sleep can result
in a clearer head and a more relaxed frame of mind tomorrow.
His team-mate Valentino Rossi fared better today and finished
second but a gap of 0.732 seconds to Casey Stoner, in first
place, means that he too has work to do tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position: 14th Time: 1'37.960 Laps: 54
“It was a bad session today and I was not expecting
to be so slow here, at a track that I love. We need to do
more laps in order to improve and try to find a way to change
things; I am suffering a lot on the bike because I don’t
have enough confidence in the front. I am losing time in all
areas, we know the bike can be faster but I can’t find
the way to ride it like this. I need to have more trust in
the bike, but at the moment I think the problem is me and
I am just not riding as I should be.”
Daniele Romagnoli
Team Manager
“Today was quite a difficult session for us. We struggled
all day to find a good feeling with the front and at the moment
we have too much understeer. At the same time the bike is
unstable under acceleration. This afternoon we stayed on just
one set of Michelin tyres for the whole session in order to
just concentrate on the bike setting without worrying about
the tyres. We have tried some different solutions but they
didn’t work. It’s clear that Jorge still needs
more time and more laps in order to get his confidence back
and for sure tomorrow the team will do all they can to help
him to enjoy riding again.”
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