Spies improved consistently over the weekend, coinciding with an increase in grip level on the Spanish circuit. A small crash in the extended final practice this morning resulted in no injuries, the Texan finishing in sixth place 1.104 seconds from first. A set up change mid-qualifying brought another step, enabling him to deliver third place and close the gap to pole to 0.704 seconds.
Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo left his fastest times to later in the session, battling a lack of rear grip to deliver fourth place for tomorrow’s race, 0.819 seconds from Championship rival Casey Stoner on pole. The Mallorcan rider was less then happy with the final result and will continue to work overnight with his crew to make another step for morning warm up.
Ben Spies:
“The whole weekend has been pretty good for me, I’m pretty happy with it. We struggled a little bit this morning but the bike’s working really well. We looked over a bit of data and tried to find the best compromise. We found it with 30 minutes to go in qualifying and with the race tyres we were about third or fourth quickest. When we put the softer tyres on we were able to go quicker and get on the front row. The crew has done an amazing job to get the bike where it is, we’re just lacking a bit of speed from the front two guys. We’re going to try and challenge for the podium tomorrow.”
Jorge Lorenzo:
“We struggled here last year and we are here struggling again this year, maybe even more. We have many problems with rear grip; we are not getting enough traction to be really fast. Tomorrow I think the maximum we can get is third place on the podium unless something very strange happens so that is the goal we have. The long straight is not the best for us but in the corners we are also a bit slower than the others so we must find something.”
Yamaha Factory Racing press release
Source: http://www.motogp.com