Yamaha closest to the Honda in the first night – MotoGP news
Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo of Factory Yamaha Racing were riding the fast YZF-R1s and stood as the closest competitors behind the Honda RC212Vs at opening of the first night of the Qatar test, being last preseason test.
By the conclusion of the first testing night, the top-three placed riders were Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Hiroshi Aoyama all on the RC212V. The Texan was on fourth place with a delay of 0.292 seconds from the top fast seat, followed by the teammate,
2010 world champion Jorge Lorenzo on fifth place. Both the riders paid attention on the electronic and enhancing the chassis setup, in preparation for the up-coming season opener race by the coming weekend.
Spies and Lorenzo tried a few different setup changes on the same corners trying to make the bike more balanced when the M1 is pushed hard for speeding up. The results seemed fair with acceleration in all gears.
“It seems we are closer to the Honda guys than in Sepang so I'm happy. We are going to continue and try a few different things tomorrow to try and find some more grip as well,” he said.
“We made the bike go in a pretty good direction today and hopefully we can get a little bit more out of it,” Ben Spies said. “We want to try another tire tomorrow that we haven't used yet, all in all it's been a good first session.”
Spies also felt that their M1 was running closer and closer to the Honda R212Vs in the top line, as seen after he first night results. The Texan also felt that the track is also much more flowing in compatibility of the Yamaha bikes. This can prove
a benefit for the Factory Yamaha Racing riders.
“Our first test day and I'm satisfied with the results. Jorge did 60 laps and made the difference much smaller than Sepang. As we suspected when the temperatures are a bit colder we get a benefit. We did a small long run and the pace was good, a little
bit slower than last year's race pace so the track needs to be a bit cleaner. We confirmed everything we needed to test so everything is under control so far,” he added.
The last test night of final pre-season test will be on Monday, it will also be the final test day of the winter mid season testing. The practice for the March 20 season opener race will be held on coming Thursday, followed by the qualifying on a day
before the race.
In 2010, the world champion Jorge Lorenzo finished second to his team mate Valentino Rossi at the Qatar circuit while being injured. Rookie Ben Spies was riding for Monster Yamaha Tech3 last year and finished in fifth place.
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