Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo positioned himself as a key protagonist for the French Grand Prix as he rode his YZR-M1 to first place today in the combined free practice session times.
Teammate Rossi worked hard to find the right setting to suit the technical French track and ended the day in tenth place.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo was quick to display his consistent pace today as he prepared for Sunday's Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. The just turned 29-year-old dominated the second free practice session and was the only rider to dip under the 1'33s mark.
Valentino Rossi also put in a solid effort, but struggled to find a good stability. He was able to better his time throughout the day to take tenth position in the combined timings.
Lorenzo was looking strong in the morning and gradually improved his lap times in the cooler first 45-minutes free practice session. As he focused on finding a set-up to suit Le Mans circuit's stop-and-go nature he clocked a best time of 1'34.086s for second place, just 0.044s from the first.
The Spaniard continued to shave off time of his provisional best lap in the afternoon. Having found a good basis for his YZR-M1 in the morning, it only took a couple of minutes for him to take over at the top the timesheets with a hot lap of 1'33.572s lap. Though already in the lead, he had one more trick up his sleeve. With the expectation that tomorrow's conditions might not be as good as today's, he gave a final push in the final minutes of the session to be assured of a spot in Q2 and set a brilliant 1'32.830s lap for first place, with a 0.339s lead over his closest rival.
Teammate Rossi also was eager to start work at the beginning of the morning practice in France. He topped the provisional standing just a few minutes into the FP1 session, but was later held back due to stability issues on his bike. He went on to look for a good tyre and settings combination and booked progress throughout the session to finish in fifth place with a 1'34.452s lap, 0.410s from the front.
He continued to focus on improving the balance of his bike in the afternoon and was able to better his pace. Having found his rhythm at the end of the session, he was riding laps under the 1'34-mark with a best lap of 1'33.974s but was unable to climb up in the ranking order and wrapped up the day in tenth place, 1.144s behind his teammate.
Source: www.yamaha-racing.com
