Lorenzo leads the way as final pre-season test begins at Jerez

Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo kicked off day one of three of the final pre-season test of 2013 at the front, leading the MotoGP field by over a second in the time sheets. Following a successful team launch yesterday, today’s first day of action was a disappointing affair for the MotoGP riders with black clouds, heavy rains and a waterlogged track hampering testing efforts. Despite the adverse weather Lorenzo managed to achieve 33 laps whilst working on the wet set up of his YZR-M1, achieving a competitive set up fairly quickly.

Valentino Rossi

Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo, 1st; Best lap time 1'47.423 - 39 Laps
“We stayed on the track the whole day in the wet conditions and it was good to see how the bike performed. We improved a little bit but then the rear tyre dropped so we have to calm the bike down a little bit in the acceleration. We are quite good in the wet here in Jerez. It’s the first time we are in these conditions so its important to understand what our levels. It’s important to be competitive in this situation. We proved when the track was drying up that we could keep the performance of the rear tyre over distance, it doesn't matter how fast you are in one lap, if you cant keep the level over the whole race you cannot win.”

Valentino Rossi, 6th; Best lap time 1'49.443 - 36 Laps
“The conditions today were very bad so we had to work on the wet. The feeling with the bike was not so bad but we had some problems with the life of the tyre, after some laps we started to spin a lot. It will be hard in a wet race to do 27 laps in a row. We also have an issue with the quantity of wet tyres as we have only two today, we have four in total so we keep two for tomorrow but we hope tomorrow will be dry!”

Yamaha Racing