Lorenzo pleased with testing performance

Added on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor

Jorge Lorenzo has more than happy with his and Yamaha’s performance as he topped the time charts on the second day of post-season testing in Valencia.

Lorenzo was the fastest man on track after day two of the Valencia test, the first opportunity for him and Valentino Rossi to put the 2010 Yamaha YZF-M1 through its paces, with a best time of 1:31.939 from 62 laps, beating second-fastest Casey Stoner by 0.256.

Yamaha concluded their Valencia testing yesterday, with only a handful of riders expected to test on day three and Lorenzo declared himself pleased with the early progress of the new Yamaha.

“I am happy that we are so competitive here with this new version of the bike,” he said. “I was able to do some very fast laps and it feels good to be the fastest on the last day of the season. There is a long time now until the next test and it is good for me mentally to know that I was fast today.

“We have worked on some electronics and the suspension, and we have compared the new chassis to the old one and taken a lot of important information for our engineers.

“I am so happy about my season, I’ve won three races, taken many podiums and finished second in the championship. I think this is a great achievement by us and now I would like to wish everyone a good holiday to recover so we all come back in February at the maximum ready to work again!”

Also in positive mood was Yamaha Tech 3 new-boy Ben Spies, who continued his transition from World Superbikes with the fourth fastest time of day two.

“I’m really happy with this test,” declared Spies. “My performance in the race surpassed my expectations and so did the test.

I didn’t touch the set-up of the bike again and continued mainly working on adapting my style. I feel like I made a lot of progress.

“My data guy could see on the computer that I was riding with more of a MotoGP style and each day I’ve made steps and gained confidence with the tyres. At the end I put on some tyres that had half race distance on them, but I was still able to lap half-a-second faster than yesterday. And where I was running 34’1s in the race I could get into low 33s consistently today.

“I’ve been making small steps but I’m a lot closer to the front than the back, so that is a good sign.”

Valencia Test: Day Two.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time	Laps
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Fiat Yamaha	1:31.939	62
2	Casey Stoner	Ducati Marlboro	+ 0.256	44
3	Valentino Rossi	Fiat Yamaha	+ 0.589	55
4	Ben Spies	Monster Tech 3 Yamaha	+ 1.003	61
5	Nicky Hayden	Ducati Marlboro	+ 1.042	84
6	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda	+ 1.086	46
7	Randy de Puniet	LCR Honda	+ 1.172	76
8	Mika Kallio	Pramac Ducati	+ 1.186	84
9	Loris Capirossi	Rizla Suzuki	+ 1.272	64
10	Marco Melandri	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+ 1.387	85
11	Aleix Espargaro	Pramac Ducati	+ 1.406	74
12	Andrea Dovizioso	Repsol Honda	+ 1.607	44
13	Hector Barbera	Aspar Ducati	+ 2.267	100
14	Marco Simoncelli	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+ 2.291	79
15	Alvaro Bautista	Rizla Suzuki	+ 2.601	74
16	Hiroshi Aoyama	Scot Racing Honda	+ 3.322	88
17	Xavier Simeon	Gresini Moto2	+ 5.340	58
18	Joan Olive	Promoracing (Moto2)	+ 5.942	86

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