First session throws up issues for Lorenzo

lorenzo unhappy after third position in FP1 of misano

Lorenzo with plenty to do

Friday, 3 September 2010

The World Championship leader was third fastest in FP1 at Misano and was not overly satisfied with how his session went, but is targeting a range of improvements on his bike ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

Jorge Lorenzo was not satisfied with third position in the first practice of the Gran Premio Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini at Misano on Friday, as he struggled to find a comfortable set-up on his Fiat Yamaha M1 machine.

The Spaniard, who felt the physical demands of the previous round at Indianapolis keenly, lacked a secure feeling on board his prototype in the opening run in San Marino. The task ahead of him was underlined by the pace of Dani Pedrosa, who as the fastest rider was 0.672s ahead of Lorenzo on the timesheet.

"Today was quite difficult for us, more so than we expected,” said Lorenzo, who leads Pedrosa by 68 points in the standings going into this round. “It's not my physical condition, I feel completely recovered from the hard weekend in Indianapolis, but we really struggled today and I didn't have enough confidence in my bike or in the tyres.”

He added: “We have some small problems in braking, corner speed and acceleration so I don't feel like I can ride how I want to at the moment.”

Lorenzo is still confident that Saturday’s second session provides enough time in which to bridge the gap and prepare for a strong qualifying. “We are still third so it's not too bad but we have some time to make up if we are to match Pedrosa,” he said. “I have great confidence that my team will find the right way to improve and I hope we will be in better shape tomorrow."