During the morning sessions Yamaha Factory Racings Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies spent the morning session working through a base set up to try and improve rear grip issues at a number of corners.
The afternoon’s second free practice proved to be useless for most of the MotoGP riders with early rain leaving a half wet, half dry track. The Yamaha Factory riders decided to abandon the session as the conditions made it easy to cause a crash and little useful data would have been gained.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position: 3rd Time: 2'01.934 Laps: 14
“This morning was great, from the beginning I was competitive and more or less at the same pace as Dani and Casey. Casey especially is much stronger than he was in Japan. This afternoon unfortunately we couldn’t practice because of the weather. We need to improve the behavior of the bike in acceleration for tomorrow, it’s a little nervous so we need to make it a little easier."
Ben Spies
Position: 6th Time: 2'02.358 Laps: 16
“This morning was pretty normal, the track wasn’t so great and we had some electronic issues that hindered us a little but the bike was working pretty well. We were hoping to get a good session in this afternoon but the rain was against us. It wasn’t worth taking any risks with the track being half dry and half wet so we’ll wait for tomorrow and see what happens.”
Wilco Zeelenberg
Team Manager
“Overall it’s been a disappointing day because we missed a complete practice this afternoon which is a shame because I think everybody was ready to step up the game and improve things. There were four corners wet and the rest dry so a useless second practice. Let’s see tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have better weather.”
Massimo Meregalli
Team Director
“As has happened a few times this year, we have had almost a completely useless Friday. Fortunately we were able to get some data in the morning session as we could get nothing in the afternoon. We prepared some changes from the first session so we hope that tomorrow will be dry so we can test them. It could be that Sunday is mixed like today so tomorrow is very important to complete some laps and get as much information as possible.”
Combined Free Practice Times
1.Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 2'01.621
2.Casey Stoner (AUS) Repsol Honda Team 2'01.773
3.Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha Factory Racing 2'01.934
4.Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Yamaha Tech3 2'02.236
5.Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha Tech3 2'02.266
6.Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha Factory Racing 2'02.358
7.Stefan Bradl (GER) LCR Honda 2'02.617
8.Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Team 2'02.754
9.Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Honda Gresini 2'02.872
10.Hector Barbera (SPA) Pramac Racing Team 2'03.221
11.Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati Team 2'03.274
12.Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing 2'04.624
13.Randy De Puniet (FRA) Power Electronics Aspar 2'05.029
14.Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Power Electronics Aspar 2'05.077
15.Colin Edwards (USA) NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2'05.387
16.Michele Pirro (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 2'06.058
17.James Ellison (UK) Paul Bird Motorsport 2'06.452
18.Roberto Rolfo (ITA) Speed Master 2'06.470
19.Yonny Hernandez (COL) Avintia Racing 2'07.257
20.Ivan Silva (SPA) Avintia Racing 2'07.291
21.Danilo Petrucci (ITA) Came Iodaracing Project 2'07.818
