After his first ever wet-weather podium in Indianapolis, Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo continued with his newly-found liking for riding in the rain with a strong performance in this morning’s wet first practice session. However he ran into problems once the track dried out this afternoon and finished the first day in Japan in 15th position.
The young Spaniard spent time at the top of the time sheets this morning before finishing the session in fourth, but the rain stopped soon after and the track had dried out by the time second practice began. Lorenzo immediately felt he was lacking in rear grip on his M1 and, despite trying a range of Michelin tyres, he was unable to improve the situation enough to be able to set the fast times he wanted. Together with his team however he is confident that he will be able to improve the situation tomorrow. His team-mate Valentino Rossi meanwhile made a strong start to his weekend, finishing second this morning and third this afternoon.
Jorge Lorenzo (Position: 15th Time: 1'49.505 Laps: 42):
“Today has been strange because usually I’m not so fast in the wet but fast in the dry; today was the opposite! I don’t really know what happened this afternoon but I felt like I didn’t have enough grip in the rear on the entrance to the corner and so I didn’t have enough confidence to go fast. It felt a bit like in Donington and Assen. We’re working hard now in the team and together with Michelin and we gathered a lot of data so I hope that tomorrow we will be able to find a way to improve it. I know that I also need to work on my riding style a bit for this track. Anyway, it seems that tomorrow it will be hotter so I think this will help us as well."
Daniele Romagnoli (Team Manager):
“This morning was good but unfortunately this afternoon was more difficult for us, and we have some problems. The main issue is with the rear grip and so we need to make a detailed check of the data to try to understand where we’re going wrong. It’s disappointing after the last two races but it’s only Friday and we have a long way to go and some time to improve. The last run this afternoon was very important because we were able to gather a lot of information and now we will study this and use it to help us tomorrow.”
Combined practice times: 1.
| Casey Stoner (AUS)
| Ducati Marlboro
| 1'48.121 |
| 2. | Dani Pedrosa (SPA) | Repsol Honda | 1'48.194 |
| 3. | Valentino Rossi (ITA) | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1'48.510 |
| 4. | Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) | JiR Team Scot MotoGP | 1'48.770 |
| 5. | Loris Capirossi (ITA) | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | 1'48.779 |
| 6. | Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) | Alice Team | 1'48.794 |
| 7. | Nicky Hayden (USA) | Repsol Honda | 1'48.800 |
| 8. | Marco Melandri (ITA) | Ducati Marlboro | 1'48.945 |
| 9. | Toni Elias (SPA) | Alice Team | 1'48.974 |
| 10. | Randy De Puniet (FRA) | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1'49.149 |
| 11. | Shinya Nakano (JPN) | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1'49.190 |
| 12. | John Hopkins (USA) | Kawasaki Racing | 1'49.197 |
| 13. | Colin Edwards (USA) | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1'49.424
|
| 14. | James Toseland (GBR) | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1'49.424 |
| 15. | Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1'49.505 |
| 16. | Chris Vermeulen (AUS) | Rizla Suzuki
| 1'49.664 |
| 17. | Anthony West (AUS) | Kawasaki Racing | 1'50.131 |
| 18. | Alex De Angelis (RSM) | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1'50.158 |
