MotoGP news

Encouraging second day for Lorenzo

A second day of testing for Jorge Lorenzo with the Fiat Yamaha Team in Valencia today saw the double 250cc World Champion making solid progress throughout, as he gradually got to grips with his new bike. The 20-year old Spaniard, who will officially join the team in January as team-mate to Valentino Rossi, completed an impressive total of 86 laps on a 2008 prototype YZR-M1 and his times improved constantly, as he gradually gained more confidence in his new machine.

Lorenzo's best time of the day came on a qualifying tyre, a lap of 1'32.68 putting him sixth in the unofficial standings. His best lap on a race tyre, a time of 1'33.57, was nearly a second faster than his best lap yesterday and for the second day running he was the fastest of the three MotoGP rookies, all of whom are joining the premier class from the quarter-litre category. Lorenzo will work with his his new team again next week in Malaysia, for a three-day test in Sepang.

"Obviously I'm feeling much more comfortable and relaxed on the bike than I did yesterday, when everything felt very new!" exclaimed Lorenzo. "It's been good to have a full day to really concentrate on getting used to the bike and I've been feeling better and better throughout the day. The set-up we used today was more or less the same as yesterday, but today we worked mostly on tyres, because these are also new for me. I'm happy with what we've done at this first test and I very am pleased to be here. Now I am looking forward to next week when we will go to Malaysia and I will have another chance to learn more about the bike."

Daniele Romagnoli, Jorge Lorenzo's team manager commented, "We started today with yesterday's setting and a reference tyre, just to check what we found yesterday. Then we began to work a bit with tyres, mainly rear, and we found some improvements. His riding is improving as he gains more confidence on the bike and the lap times are already quite good. We have seen him learn a lot about the MotoGP bike in just one and a half days and he's made some very good progress. It's been a good first test for him and now we will keep going like this next week in Malaysia."

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