Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
Grey skies and a damp track made a washout of today’s first practice sessions for the Grand Prix of San Marino with only a few riders taking to the track.
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies covered just six laps in the morning session and four in the afternoon. The Texan’s efforts were simply to test the track conditions as no valuable data could be gained for Sunday’s race, which is forecast for sunshine.
Teammate Jorge Lorenzo decided to stay inside today, conserving valuable kilometres of engine life and again wisely choosing to avoid any unnecessary risks to gain little valuable set up data.
An otherwise dull day was brightened by not just one but two MotoGP legends from Yamaha’s racing past arriving in the garage to chat with the riders.
15 time World Championship winner Giacomo Agostini was the first to appear, soon followed by Yamaha’s first ever world title holder Phil Read.
Ben Spies: "We didn’t really get anything from the few laps we did, it’s been pretty much a waste of a day for everybody. We can’t control the weather and unfortunately it was just too mixed conditions to do anything.
We did a couple of laps to check everything was ok just in case qualifying is like that so we have a feeling for it. Other than that we just sat around, drank coffee and watched everybody!"
Jorge Lorenzo: "I’m so tired, we did so many laps today and now I need a big rest and a massage! Seriously though, we didn’t even go out, it just wasn’t necessary for us, we wanted to save the engine life and also save some energy.
Tomorrow we will see what happens with the weather. Today was not completely wet or completely dry so useless."
Source: Yamaha Factory Racing
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Jorge Lorenzo joins Porsche Supercup grid for 2023
Marquez: Lorenzo “almost unbeatable” in his “sweet moment” in MotoGP
Why Yamaha won't have a Hulkenberg moment with Lorenzo
Quartararo stresses ‘quality over quantity’ with upcoming Yamaha MotoGP update
Quartararo: Marquez's Honda exit "woke a lot of people up" at Yamaha
Why Yamaha has just six months to safeguard Quartararo's future
Mercedes taking action to cure F1 car's “underlying balance” problem
Quartararo: Yamaha MotoGP satellite team "must be an extension of the factory"
Pedrosa says 'unexpected' MotoGP return pushed by "interesting" testing data
Lamborghini not concerned over Le Mans reliability despite rain-interrupted test
Can anyone stop "changed" Bagnaia as Ducati tightens its grip on MotoGP?
The signs that MotoGP's Japanese powerhouses are changing
The other Suzuki signing that could transform Honda's MotoGP form
How the MotoGP paddock has offered refuge to Suzuki's former team
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments