Lorenzo And Spies Complete First Day Of Practice At Jerez
Round two of the 2011 MotoGP Championship got underway at Jerez
today with Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies
getting their first European track time of the season.
Reigning World Champion Lorenzo spent the two free practice
sessions testing a new set up for the circuit, improving from the
mornings fifth place finish to wrap up the afternoons final session
in third, 0.522 seconds from the front. The combined times placed
him fifth today ahead of tomorrows qualifying heat.
Jorges teammate Spies spent the two sessions working on different
set ups between bikes, focusing on front end feel and differing
electronic set ups. The Texan finished in seventh place for both
sessions, unable to improve on his morning time of 140.887 in the
afternoon as a windier session slowed all riders a little. Both
Spies and Lorenzo will start tomorrow looking to find a set up that
delivers better traction for the fast corners and rapid direction
changes of the circuit.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position 5th - Time 1'40.420 - Laps 23
This morning the track was perfect with no wind but in the
afternoon it came so the riding was more difficult. Finally we
finished third, the gap to the front is less than before and we
hope to improve the bike more for tomorrow. After the good race at
Qatar we are more motivated and this is one of the special rounds
of the year so we hope to have a great race on Sunday.
Ben Spies
Position 7th - Time 1'40.887 - Laps 34
Its not been the best day today, I'm not very happy. We need to
make some changes and I'm confident we can improve. Having said
that, the feeling I'm having with the bike right now with the speed
were doing is not too bad. I'm not feeling very comfortable with
how the bike is handling but its only Friday. We have tomorrow and
we have Sunday morning and I'm confident we can get the bike
working better. I think this track can be good for the M1, we just
need to change the setting and see how tomorrow goes. Well work on
it and come back in the morning and go faster.
Wilco Zeelenberg
Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager
Jorge finished in third position this afternoon finally and which
was an ok result. We need to do more work for sure to make the next
step up so we are not happy with it. We have a couple of ideas we
want to try, especially for traction and turnability, both areas
where we need to improve for tomorrows qualifying session.
Massimo Meregalli
Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director
On Bens side of the garage we are still trying to find the best
bike set up, we tried some different solutions but after two
practice sessions we are still not satisfied. We are going to check
the data from both of his bikes and see what solutions we can try
tomorrow morning to see if they will work and help him improve.
Jorge had a better session this afternoon and moved closer to the
front guys, the team are still not satisfied though and need to
make another step forward. I'm confident that both sides can make
the necessary changes to give our riders the best opportunity in
tomorrows qualifying.
Edwards and Crutchlow make promising start in
Jerez
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team kicked off the European phase of the
2011 MotoGP World Championship in Jerez today, with Colin Edwards
and Cal Crutchlow both posting competitive times on the opening day
of practice. 


In warm but windy conditions at the 2.748 miles circuit, Edwards
set a best time of 1.41.063 to finish tenth overall on combined
times.
Edwards continued his excellent start to 2011 in this morning's
opening practice session, the experienced American once again the
leading non-factory rider in eighth position as he concentrated on
refining the set-up of his YZR-M1 machine to gain more turning
performance.
With track temperatures almost 20 degrees hotter for this
afternoon's session, further set-up experiments gave Edwards and
his crew valuable information to make further adjustments ahead of
tomorrow's final practice and qualifying session.
Today presented Crutchlow with his first opportunity to acquaint
himself with the challenging Jerez circuit. The British rider
applied himself to the task with typical determination and
enthusiasm and he posted a best lap of 1.41.854 to finish 15th on
the timesheets.
Despite his minimal experience of the Jerez circuit, the 2009 World
Supersport champion was able to demonstrate his undoubted potential
by lapping faster than circuit specialists Hector Barbera and Toni
Elias for the majority of the morning and afternoon session. He was
one of only seven riders to lap faster in hotter conditions this
afternoon and is confident overnight set-up tweaks will help him
take another step forward tomorrow.
Jerez kicks off the long-awaited European leg of the 2011 MotoGP
World Championship with a large and partisan crowd of over 100,000
expected to flock to the AndalucÃa venue.
Colin Edwards
Position 10th - Time 1'41.063 - Laps 39
We tried a bit of an experimental set-up with one bike we thought
would work to help with the turning performance but it didn't quite
give us the result we were anticipating. It worked in some areas
but it created some other issues, so we'll go back to more of a
similar set-up to what we ran in Qatar for tomorrow and we know
that works. I was actually faster using the different setting but I
just don't feel I can run that pace consistently over a race
distance. What made it really difficult today was the wind. It was
really gusting hard in some places, so you just had to be pretty
careful because it was easy to get caught out. You just had to pay
attention and get a feel for which way the wind was blowing because
at least it was consistent in one direction."
Cal Crutchlow
Position 15th - Time 1'41.854 - Laps 36
I felt like I learned the circuit pretty quickly and I was happy
with my performance this morning. But this afternoon I didn't
really make the improvement I was looking for and that was a lot to
do with the track temperature being much higher. You only have to
look at the times of the fast guys to see the hotter conditions
made it hard because nobody in the top seven was faster this
afternoon. I was a little bit quicker, so I've improved and gained
some time, but I needed to make a bigger jump than I did. With the
track temperature a lot higher it made the bike feel quite a bit
different compared to this morning. I'm sure I can improve the
front-end feel because the wind was so strong it was blowing me off
line. The front needs to be more planted so we've got some ideas to
improve tomorrow. Considering my lack of experience at this track,
I'm satisfied because the times are pretty close and I know we can
improve.
2011 MotoGP Spain Practice
1) Casey Stoner 1'39.551
2) Daniel Pedrosa 1'39.579
3) Valentino Rossi 1'40.077
4) Marco Simoncelli 1'40.176
5) Jorge Lorenzo 1'40.420
6) Andrea Dovizioso 1'40.429
7) Ben Spies 1'40.887
8) Randy De Puniet 1'40.982
9) Nicky Hayden 1'41.058
10) Colin Edwards 1'41.063
11) Hiroshi Aoyama 1'41.292
12) Karel Abraham 1'41.304
13) Hector Barbera 1'41.601
14) Loris Capirossi 1'41.810
15) Cal Crutchlow 1'41.854
