Yamaha set the pace at Silverstone

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo started the weekend as the fastest man in Silverstone after day one. Teammate Valentino Rossi was also on the pace during the first practice session ahead of Sunday‘s British Grand Prix, but suffered from a lack of rear grip in the afternoon and finished tenth in the combined standings.

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo made a strong start to this weekend‘s British Grand Prix in today‘s free practice sessions at Silverstone. He wrapped up day one as the fastest rider overall, 0.033 seconds clear of his closest rival. Valentino Rossi also needed little time to adjust in the morning, but faced a lack of rear grip in the afternoon. His fastest time of the day took him up to tenth in the combined practice times, 0,989 seconds off his teammate.

We still need to improve our pace a little bit...

Jorge Lorenzo

True to his usual form, Lorenzo‘s name could be found at the top of the standings early on in the first 45 minutes free practice session with a 2‘04.817 lap. He put in some great effort in the British sunshine to improve his time by more than a second throughout the morning practice, taking second place with a best lap of 2‘03.499s.

The afternoon saw more of the same from the Majorcan. He was quick to top the timesheets, dropping the first 2‘02 lap of the weekend on his first lap. His fastest time of 2‘02.338 followed soon after and remained unchallenged for the remainder of the session, allowing him to take the lead in the combined practice times.

Determined to position himself as a key protagonist early on in the weekend, teammate Rossi was also on the pace right from the start of FP1. He took the top spot with his first flying lap and continued to progress. He was one of just three riders who dipped under the 2‘04 mark in the morning practice, posting a 2‘03.967, finishing in third place.

The Doctor worked hard to make another step forward in the afternoon. He shaved 0.640 seconds off his fastest lap in the morning session, but was unable to gain in terms of ranking and finished tenth in today‘s combined timesheets.

Jorge Lorenzo: "The feeling has been good from the beginning. I didn‘t expect to improve so much in the afternoon session on my first run, but my lap time was suddenly a second quicker and was fast enough for me to stay in first position. We still need to improve our pace a little bit, because the track is very cold and this made the tyre go down a little bit after every run.

We need to work on the bike to make it easier on tyre-life to be able to keep up a higher pace. The car racing at Silverstone is making the asphalt very bumpy, especially on braking, and I think it‘s a bit slower compared to last year, but the bikes seem to be faster, making the lap times similar."

Valentino Rossi: "This morning wasn‘t so bad, but we had some more problems this afternoon because we tried to modify the bike to improve the tyre-life but I wasn‘t fast and strong enough. I didn‘t feel very well on the bike and lost some positions. The practice in the afternoon was a bit difficult, but we were able to try some different things and now we will check the data and try to put it all together to be stronger tomorrow.

Here in Silverstone the weather is always a big question mark and just like everybody else we would prefer all practice sessions to be dry, but that might not be possible because the weather is becoming worse. Fortunately I‘m in the top ten, so it‘s not a big problem if we have a wet practice tomorrow, but we all hope for a dry session so we can improve the setting."

Massimo Meregalli - Team Director: "It was a much better start compared to last year, especially for Jorge, who has been the fastest and delivered very consistent times since the beginning of the weekend. After a good outing in FP1, Valentino had a more challenging FP2 session. He had problems stopping the bike in the beginning and suffered a lack of rear grip towards the end, but was still able to better his time. We have some ideas for further improvements for both riders that we would like to try tomorrow. The weather conditions for this weekend remain a bit of a question mark, but we are fully focused on the task ahead of getting another good result and are looking forward to qualifying tomorrow."

Yamaha MotoGP Racing