Record-breaking Lorenzo heads Friday’s practice at San Marino MotoGP
Jorge Lorenzo utilised winglets on his M1 and set the fastest ever lap by a motorbike around Misano ahead of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa at the GP TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini.
For the fourth race in a row it was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez who filled the top two places on the combined timesheets on Friday. This time it was Lorenzo who finished on top of the pile as the Spaniard took advantage of the new track surface and glorious conditions (Track temperatures reached 38˚C) to set the fastest ever lap by a motorcycle around the 4.2km Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Lorenzo set a 1’32.871 in FP2 whilst utilising a medium front and medium rear tyre on a day that saw nearly all riders improve in the warmer conditions of the afternoon. The Majorcan – who is currently second in the championship standings – broke Marquez’s 2013 Pole record in the process (1’32.915). FP2 also saw Lorenzo debut ‘winglets’ on his Yamaha M1 and they seemed to have a positive affect as he immediately went quicker.
Jorge Lorenzo – P1 – “We have been fast since the beginning of this morning‘s session and I like the new surface of the track, I think it suits my riding style. We tried some different settings in the afternoon that I wasn‘t quite satisfied about, but even with a less than perfect set-up we still managed to have a fast and constant pace with both tyres. We first rode with the hard rear and used the soft at the end and finished in first place. I think that, if we can improve the bike and try the hard tyre, we can make another step forward tomorrow. We are still trying out the winglets to understand the benefit.”
Lorenzo ended the day just 0.053s ahead of Marquez, who had earlier topped FP1. Marquez preferred a hard front and hard rear combination for his flying laps at the end of FP2 in a session that once again saw the Spanish duo a cut above the rest.
Marc Marquez – P2 – “I think it has been a very positive day. The track has changed quite a lot from when we came here for the test, because it has much less grip and we have had some problems arise that we didn’t have back then. We can be happy, because we obtained a lot of data today and we tried a new swingarm which has helped Honda to understand the direction to take next year. We will not use it because there are some negatives, but there were also some positives to take from it.”
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa (+0.387s) completed the provisional front row but was over three-tenths off the pace of his teammate Marquez.
Dani Pedrosa – P3 – “This first day at the track was not as good as the test we did here. It was a lot dirtier, we had less grip and it was more difficult to find a good feeling with the bike, which is a surprise as I expected with the lower temperatures than the test, the grip would be better. Today we worked well and pushed hard but tomorrow we need to continue working and focus on improving further.”
Andrea Dovizioso (+0.420s) on the Ducati Team GP15 was in fourth ahead of the man who leads the championship standings by 12 points, Valentino Rossi (+0.598s). Rossi did not sport the ‘winglets’ on his M1, but expect to see them make an appearance in FP3, as he preferred a hard front and rear tyre combination like Marquez.
Andrea Dovizioso – P4 – “Today was a good day, even though I didn’t have an optimal feeling with the bike. I just didn’t feel good on it, but for the moment I am unable to explain why. Maybe after doing the tests here at Misano my expectations were different and I thought I could establish a good feeling straight away. There’s nothing to be alarmed about however because in any case my performance was good. Now we have to understand if there is something strange in our settings or if it was simply due to the track conditions seeing as today the times were much higher than those we set in testing.”
Valentino Rossi – P5 – “Misano is always special and already today there was a great atmosphere. All around the track there were lots of people and this is good for the whole sport. The new track surface was quite difficult and I suffered in the morning, but we worked a lot on the bike and fortunately we improved in the afternoon. During the practice we were able to make a step forward, which is good, but it‘s not enough because I still don‘t feel a 100 per cent and can‘t ride at the maximum, so we have to improve for tomorrow. It‘s possible that I will give the winglets a try this weekend. We already rode with them during the private test and the first feeling wasn‘t so bad, it helped a little and could make a small difference.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro (+0.681s) was the leading Satellite rider in 6th, just one-thousandth of a second ahead of the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.
Pol Espargaro – P6 – “Today was a positive opening to our Misano account. I felt good when I jumped on my M1 and went out on track so we have been competitive as soon as the wheels turned today. We still had to face a few issues but we were able to get around these and with the setup up that we had on the second bike, we found a solution. Nevertheless, we can see that with the lap times improving, there are some areas that we will need to adjust and enhance for qualifying. At the moment I have one bike that works well in certain areas and the other one is great for the remaining aspects so all we need to do now is find the perfect mix between the two in order to be able to have a strong performance tomorrow. I definitely want to give my compliments to the Misano World Circuit for the new surface because there is an obvious improvement and it’s a pleasure to ride on.”
Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished the day in 7th, with Ducati Team’s test rider Michele Pirro (wildcard) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) completing the top ten, despite the latter crashing at the start of FP2.
Bradley Smith – P8 – “It was a good start overall today here in Misano and there are plenty of positives to think about tonight. One of the main plus points is that the Yamaha YZR-M1’s are strong here even though we were the only manufacturer who missed the test here earlier this year. I must admit that I was a bit nervous about this, but having said that, after the performances from Vale and Jorge last year we knew that our bike would be competitive. Today we tried all three front tyre options and both of the rear compounds and now we have a clear indication of which direction we want to head towards for the rest of this weekend. The front of the bike is the most critical area at this track due to the nature of the circuit and the hard braking, therefore the front compound choice will be vital for the race. In addition, we need to continue our work as there is a compromise to be made between braking stability and turning of the bike. Yet overall, the new surface is an improvement and not quite the step up that everyone was talking about but for sure it’s a lot better for performance and for the safety of riders, which is the most important point. For tomorrow, I hope to continue this positive form and clinch a top grid position for the race on Sunday.”
Michele Pirro – P9 – “It was a bit of a complicated day for me, because in the morning we had some new things to try and so I couldn’t do many laps. Despite this we managed to do a good session. Unfortunately in the afternoon I was unable to take advantage of the work we did in the morning because of a technical problem on my bike, but I am optimistic because it has good potential and today I was always one of the fastest riders on the track. So tomorrow I will try and remain in the top 10 and immediately get into Q2.“
Cal Crutchlow – P10 – “Honestly I’m quite pleased with the day. I know tenth as a result looks quite bad, but I only made about four fast laps in the second session as I crashed after about three laps. I think we made a mistake as I kept the front tyre from this morning’s session as we thought there wasn’t much wear, and I had a new rear tyre – so when I pushed we overloaded the front end a bit. It wasn’t a big crash, but that was a small mistake I made. After having to change between bikes, we didn’t get proper benefit of the softer rear, so we didn’t put in too many fast laps times. But I’m confident we can go significantly faster tomorrow and be more consistent as in this morning’s session I felt great and was in ninth without any problems.”
EG 0,0 Marc VDS rider Scott Redding was 11th, with Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in 12th and less than a second behind Lorenzo, while Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) had to settle for 13th after also crashing during the session.
Scott Redding – P11 – “It was a strange day because I feel good with the bike but there’s a lot of small areas that we need to improve. It’s not really about the feeling with the bike; it’s more about finding improvements in the lap time. This will come not with one big change, but a series of small changes so this will be our focus in FP3 tomorrow. We will also give the hard rear tyre a go, which could also bring an improvement. The surface is different to last year here, so it’s taken me a little bit of time to get used to that, but it’s the same for everybody and already we can see that there is more grip available now.”
Aleix Espargaro – P12 – “Today is not as good as I expected: This track is one of the few where we use first-gear three times with stop-and-go corners and this puts us in a little bit of trouble. In the last races, with long straights, I thought we lacked in speed but it was not so bad and here I’m suffering a lot in acceleration instead. In the afternoon we did improve, I feel more comfortable now to brake hard and the pace is not bad – less than one second from the top – but we still need to work hard. The weather since the test is very different, the track seems different, we started from the set-up we had in the test, but we need to adapt it to the different temperatures I think.”
Andrea Iannone – P13 – “It wasn’t a positive day for me and we now have to understand what to do to improve the situation. We did some tests, trying to find something that can help us to go better, but in FP2 I crashed at Turn 10. Unfortunately as soon as I got on the gas the steering closed in on me and I was unable to stay upright. When I got back to the pits I used the second bike which had a different set-up. At that point we decided not to fit a new tyre but to use the same ones as the first bike, to try and get an idea of the wear. At the moment the main issue is grip, which is really scarce and which is making me struggle a lot, but I am sure that when the track conditions improve tomorrow we will be able to resolve them.”
Maverick Viñales – P14 – “Unfortunately it is not the start we were expecting. In the test the bike was working very well, while now I can’t find the same feeling. We still have a lot of work to do, the bike slides a lot, I don’t have grip on the rear as much as before and there’s a lot of spin. I can’t understand why the bike is behaving so differently: I was so enthusiastic following the test, while now it feels like a different bike. Maybe the track is different also because the temperatures are much lower, but we definitely need to work further to improve.”
Davide Brivio – Team Suzuki Manager – “This day has been harder than expected for us. We believed that having tested here we would have already had a good base to start from, but actually both riders struggled to find confidence. To tell the truth, they both made improvements from the morning session to the afternoon, but they weren’t as effective as we expected. With Aleix, we are not so bad; we found a good set-up and gained a good feeling, but we are paying for this in acceleration and engine-performance where we still lack a little, so we hope to receive some updates soon. Maverick is working on his feeling with the bike, we are trying to find a good set-up, we still have some work to do; and we’ll try to make things better tomorrow.”
Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) ended the day in 15th as the leading Open class rider, with Jack Miller (LCR Honda) and Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) in 19th and 22nd respectively.
Eugene Laverty – P15 – “We have been progressing over the last few rounds, we were strong at Silverstone and we have started out in the same way today. I am a little surprised because I thought that we would suffer more with the characteristics of Misano, so it was a nice surprise to finish as the top Open. We have had a new swingarm since Assen and it took a few races to set it up but now the bike is really effective. The lap times were good today and so was the consistency, so hopefully we can continue to improve tomorrow. The soft tyres worked well for us today so we will continue testing tomorrow to get the best out of them. We were fast in three sectors today so we have one we need to improve in and I need to adapt my riding to the characteristics of the bike. Anyway, I am happy today, we have been consistent.”
Loris Baz – P16 – “It was a good day of work. We tried different settings and we are going in the right direction. My best lap time is quite good and I am confident for tomorrow. We are not far from the other Open bikes. I’m happy, we should continue this way, our potential is high.”
Alvaro Bautista – P19 – “From the first session we tested two bikes with decidedly different settings and we found a few positive solutions. In the afternoon I continued working on the comparison even using a shorter bike but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Maybe it gave me a bit more grip but the bike became twitchier. That’s fine for a flying lap but thinking about race distance, even for tomorrow, I’ll make different choices.”
Miller admitted afterwards that there is still plenty of room for improvement after posting a fastest lap of 1’34.856. However, the Australian felt comfortable on his Honda at the tricky Rimini circuit and feels there will be more to come as the weekend progresses.
Jack Miller – P20 – “I am happy with today, it was a pretty decent result. We produced our best time on a hard tyre and I’m really happy with that because it’s very important for the race. In general I’m quite happy with how the bike is working, we can find a little bit more in our set-up, but for a Friday I’m reasonably happy. It would be nice to get a little bit closer to the front, but we are doing fine and I am hopeful we can build from here.”
Stefan Bradl – P21 – “This afternoon in the second free practice session I tested the new frame for the first time and I immediately found some benefits going into turns. The bike is more precise going in and although there isn’t much difference in performance in the turn compared to the frame I’ve been using until now, that is definitely positive. With this frame the bike needs to be ridden differently because it performs differently, especially in braking, so today I still wasn’t taking full advantage of it. I’ll need to adapt my riding style a bit, after which we’ll be able to improve more. Today we also made some changes to the electronics, moving in the right direction, so now we’ll carefully analyse the data in order to be even faster tomorrow.”
Nicky Hayden – P23 – “We didn’t have a good feeling today, we are a long way off our best set-up and a long way off the pace. The times are not coming easy and I was trying to make up on the brakes but that didn’t help. I was braking harder and later but there are a few points on this track where you need to flow more and not brake so much. I didn’t have good grip and we need to work hard to improve this. The positive thing is that it’s only Friday and we have time to make it right. I didn’t ride here last year and I don’t know what the track was like but I have to say that I still noticed the bumps. Obviously not as much as the last two circuits but there are a few.”
Rabat rules opening day in Moto2
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Rabat smashed Pol Espargaro’s 2013 Pole Record (1’37.666) by setting a 1’37.457 in FP2 to end Friday on top of the combined timesheets at the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. The reigning Moto2™ World Champion set a consistently quick pace in the afternoon, putting in lap after lap under the old record to send out a signal to his rivals. He finished 0.158s ahead of Technomag Racing Interwetten’s Aegerter.
Aegerter – like most riders – improved in the warmer conditions this afternoon to secure second overall. Forward Racing’s Lorenzo Baldassarri (+0.159s) was just one-thousandth of a second further back in third on a day that saw less than a second separate the top 17.
Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes (+0.173s) recovered from a crash at turn 10 in FP1 to end the day fourth fastest ahead of Paginas Amarillas HP40’s rookie Alex Rins (+0.304s) in fifth.
Forward Racing Simone Corsi (+0.353s) had earlier topped FP1 but had to settle for sixth as he could only improve his time by 0.1s in the afternoon. Moto2™ championship leader Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) crashed out of FP2 at turn 4 after setting a time good enough for seventh.
Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten) and Jonas Folger (AGR Team) completed the top ten. Wildcards Xavi Vierge (Tech 3) and Valentino Rossi’s half-brother Luca Marini (Pons Racing Junior Team) finished the day in 23rd and 28th respectively.
Anthony West – P19 – “This morning was good, I was much faster than I was here last year. The re-surfaced track is less bumpy, but the biggest difference were the improvements that we made during our recent test at Aragón. I had the same good feeling again in the afternoon and I did my best time with the hard tyre. Towards the end, we put in the soft tyre, but we couldn’t improve. The tyre maybe had too many laps already and I also didn’t get a very good run, because there was a lot of traffic in the end. Every time I tried to go fast, there was someone in my way. I think I could have done the same time as this morning, possibly better, but I just didn’t have a clean run. Hopefully tomorrow we won’t have problems in qualifying and I can try to get a good tow and make a good lap like this morning. In some fast corners I am losing the front, so we also have to fine-tune the set-up. The bike is a little bit unbalanced, but it’s much better than it has been in the last races. It is not so risky in the corners any more!”
Last-gasp Kent tops Friday’s Moto3 practice
Leopard Racing’s Moto3 World Championship leader Kent made the most of the new track surface and ideal conditions at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli to set a 1’43.097. The British rider set his time on his very last lap of the day in FP2 to top the combined timesheets, as a number of the top riders failed to improve their times from FP1 in the afternoon.
Despite the improved grip levels at Misano, Kent’s time was surprisingly three-tenths off Jonas Folger’s 2013 Pole Record (1’42.707) on a day that saw less than a second separate the top ten riders.
Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Enea Bastianini (+0.036s) topped FP1 with a time that was good enough to secure second overall ahead of Sky Racing Team VR46’s Romano Fenati (+0.074s), who completed the provisional front row.
Ongetta-Rivacold’s Niccolo Antonelli (+0.182s) finished in fourth, ahead of the Red Bull KTM Ajo duo of Miguel Oliveira (+0.233s) and Brad Binder (+0.234s), who were separated by just 0.001s.
Kent’s teammates Efren Vazquez and Hiroki Ono finished in seventh and eighth respectively, with Andrea Migno (Sky Racing Team VR46) in ninth.
It was an awful day for the Estrella Galicia 0,0 team. Jorge Navarro (34th) crashed out of FP1 at turn 12 and was taken to the Cesena Trauma Centre for treatment on an injured shoulder. Then in FP2 his teammate Fabio Quartararo (10th) also crashed, this time at turn 15, and was declared unfit after fracturing his right ankle.
Scotsman John McPhee (SAXOPRINT RTG) ended the day in 19th overall, while wildcard Adrian Gyutai (Turvital di Vitali Ordeo) crashed out of FP2 and finished in 35th.
Remy Gardner – P23 – “I’m satisfied about my progression and performance. I feel comfortable and my Mahindra is working well. Obviously the goal for tomorrow is be as close as possible to the top but I’m sure that we are in the way to do it. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. If I’m able to do just few things just a little better and improve a bit the bike settings the qualifying result will be even better”.
