On Wednesday, Yamaha Factory Racing completed their second day of pre-season testing at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. The team consists of 2012 MotoGP World Champion Rider Jorge Lorenzo and six-time World Champion Rider Valentino Rossi (aka "The Doctor).
The testing days proved to be quite helpful as the riders got used to the "long and technical" track on their Yamaha YZR-M1s. In a recap, Yamaha said their riders were able to shave "several seconds off their first times but were still looking for more grip at full lean." This is evident as Lorenzo's best time on Tuesday was 2:05.291 and 2:04.664 on Wednesday; Rossi's best was 2:06.507 on Tuesday and 2:05.518 the second day of testing.
Jorge Lorenzo, No. 99, Yamaha Factory Racing Team
Lorenzo shared: “I feel better today, especially in the last run before the lunch break, we changed the set up of the bike and we improved some tenths so we are closer to the fastest riders, but not as much as we would like. We were too soft in the suspension to start with, we made it harder and in this track it works.
These two days that we are here I think is enough to get a good idea of set up and riding style. The fans will like MotoGP here, it is going to be a great show.
We have been trying different set ups of the bike, no new parts, just playing with the set up, changing the suspension and forks and in the last run I improved half a second with set up changes.
We still don't have enough grip on the rear so we can’t lean over with confidence which is why we are further behind than in Sepang.
I am adapting my riding style every lap a little for the track. In the main straight we are at 340kmh/h which is an amazing speed; when you have to brake and put your helmet up the wind is very strong so it’s difficult to be stable.”
Valentino Rossi, No. 46, of Yamaha Factory Racing Team
Valentino was also positive: “The feeling with the track improved today, we started to work on the bike to improve the difficult points, especially in the three very hard braking areas where it is important to have good stability. It’s also very important to have grip on the edge through the hairpin to have speed along the straight.
It looks like you can make a big difference in the slow parts here. The chicane part in turn two is very technical and difficult as it is blind; you have to go a bit with memory.
Step by step we improved a lot from yesterday but have some disadvantage compared to the other guys so we need to put all the sections together.
The target was to come here and try to understand the track and try to be ready for the race.
Our competitors are able to accelerate faster than us from the hairpin and they have a bit more grip on the edge compared to us so these are the areas where we have to work, in the flowing parts we are not so bad.
The track is good, a very classical ‘Tilke’ track, I like the fast parts, turn two and turn ten especially. There is lots of hard braking and it is very wide so good for overtaking. The long right before the last two lefts is also good. It's fun and not too hot like it is in Sepang so it's a good place to make a motorcycle race.”
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