Jorge Lorenzo making quick progress in Spain

New 2008 Yamaha signing Jorge Lorenzo continued to impress as he carried on with his YZR-M1 testing programme in Jerez today, despite a fall in the morning. The 20-year-old was luckily unhurt and was able to continue almost immediately, eventually improving nearly 0.4 seconds on his time from yesterday.

Lorenzo and his new team carried on with set-up work, looking to perfect his position on the bike in order to make him as comfortable as possible. After 49 laps, the Spaniard’s time of 1’40.883 put him tenth today, whilst new team-mate Valentino Rossi was second on the time sheets with a best lap of 1’40.134.

Jorge Lorenzo (10th, 1’40.883, 49 laps)
“Today it went even better than yesterday, despite my fall this morning, which was due to the fact that I entered turn 11 too fast and I slid out. Fortuna I did not hurt myself at all and I immediately got back on the track. Today we improved in the hard Braking areas: now I feel that I am Braking later and riding more cleanly. Today we also tested a new front tyre and I found it to be quite good, so I think we will keep working in that direction tomorrow. Today I only tested race tyres and I am quite satisfied with the times, but I am sure we can improve further tomorrow.”

Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager
“Unfortunately today’s fall slowed down our working schedule a little, but despite this we used all the information we collected yesterday in order to improve the bike set-up even more. For sure we improved the bike stability in Braking and going into the turn, working on the overall set-up and particularly on suspension and bike geometry. Day after day Jorge is more and more the “owner” of his bike, he gets more confidence and now we need to improv h raction a little bit, but we have some good ideas and information for tomorrow. We also found a good front race tyre and we will keep on working on that tomorrow. Generally speaking it was a positive day for us and we look forward to making further improvements tomorrow.”

Lap Times
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’39.993
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’40.134
3. Shinya Nakano (Honda) 1’40.251
4. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1’40.332
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1.40.650
6. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1’40.692
7. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1’40.820
8. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’40.833
9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’40.838
10. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’40.883
11. John Hopkins (Kawasaki) 1’40.939
12. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1’41.278
13. Marco Melandri (Ducati) 1’41.424
14. Anthony West (Kawasaki) 1’4172
16. Tadayuki Okada (Honda) 1’43.143
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (Ducati) 1’43.399
18. Shinichi Ito (Bridgestone) 1’43.869