Yamaha starts action at Sachsenring

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi showed a competitive pace during the first free practice sessions ahead of this weekend‘s Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland. Both riders were fast to find their rhythm in the quite cool conditions to take fourth and seventh respectively in the combined times.

Lorenzo was calm and collected as he prepared for this weekend‘s German GP. He was quick to find his pace in the morning session, taking over the provisional top spot from his teammate ten minutes into the session. He continued to post lap times within the 1‘22s, to conclude the morning in seventh position with a 1‘22.445.


To start from the front is fundamental for Sunday, but we are confident that we will be ready.

Massimo Meregalli

The Spaniard again displayed his determination in the afternoon session. He was one of the first riders out on track and led the session until the pace quickened a little less than ten minutes into the session. Lorenzo continued to work hard on his setting and soon dropped under the 1‘22 mark. His fastest time of 1‘21.886 puts him in fourth place in today's combined times, 0.265s from first.

Sticking to the same approach he had at the previous GP weekend, teammate Rossi was quick to position himself as a key protagonist in Free Practice 1. He rode his YZR-M1 to the top of the time sheets on his first flying lap. As the session progressed he focused on improving his setting and ended the morning practice with a best time of 1'22.102 for second place.

Rossi used the second session to further improve his set-up and test the asymmetrical front tyre brought by Bridgestone to match Sachsenring‘s layout of ten left and three right corners and the expected temperature variations for this weekend. The Italian rider didn't improve on his morning time and ended the first day of practice in seventh position in the overall standings, 0.481s from first.

Jorge Lorenzo: "In the first practice I found some problems, especially in sector one. The electronics weren‘t perfect going into the first corner and we improved it. I had a much better feeling in this sector after that in T1, and also in general all over the track, so we are much closer to the top guys. Tomorrow we have another session to try, so let‘s see if we can improve the bike even more."

Valentino Rossi: "Today wasn‘t so bad because we started quite strong this morning. In the afternoon it became a bit more difficult, because the temperature rose and that made it harder to control the bike that started sliding more. We worked well and were able to improve the setting. I did the best time for the last section with a tyre that had already done more than twenty laps, considering this we‘ve made a good step forward.

I‘m happy because we start with a good setting but now we have to improve a lot of small details. My pace isn‘t so bad, but it‘s also not fantastic so we have to try to do better. I decided to use the asymmetric tyre for the entire afternoon session and the first feeling was good. It had good grip, both left and right, and the performance of the tyre is consistent for 25 laps."

Massimo Meregalli - Team Director: "Considering that Sachsenring is one of the most challenging tracks on the MotoGP calendar, today‘s results are quite good and we are feeling comfortable. We identified areas were we have to improve and we will try to prepare something for tomorrow‘s Free Practice 3 with the intention to improve both the speed and the consistency. These amendments will be very important to prepare ourselves for the race and qualifying. To start from the front is fundamental for Sunday, but we are confident that we will be ready."

Yamaha MotoGP