Considering that the Indianapolis circuit traditionally does not favour the Yamahas, Jorge Lorenzo is more than happy with his front row start and even with his race pace.
Lorenzo may still lack something in pace compared to the Repsol Honda wonderkid, but the reigning world champion, despite his recovering collarbone believes he can give the Honda riders a real chase and even fight for the victory.
“I’m happy with the pace, it’s not bad. We still don’t know how well our rivals are prepared for the race but I think I have a constant pace to finish the race with a good speed. The bike has improved by some small details every session so I’m happy with that also. I’m happy to be back on the first row and confident we can fight for the podium. You can see that Marc, Dani and Stefan are really strong, normally we are with them but it’s clear that this track is not so suitable for our bike, but it’s much better than it was in 2011. I am confident that we can fight to be not far from first position or maybe to fight for first,” said Lorenzo.
If Lorenzo is happy, team mate Valentino Rossi is suffering once again with front end issues under braking, something that he expected had gone away after the Aragon test, which allowed him to win at Assen and podium at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca.
Rossi’s race pace at Indianapolis is nothing to write home about and it will be very difficult for him to even see the podium, considering that Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow are much faster than he is and are able to ride around their eventual issues.
“I’m disappointed because in the practice we weren’t fantastic but better than we were this afternoon. Unfortunately in the fifteen minutes of the qualifying practice the other guys were able to improve more. Especially they are able to improve in braking and corner entry. Jorge did a fantastic job! I tried but when I put on the soft tyre I have more problems with the front and I cannot push a lot. I just managed to improve my time a bit from the used tyre when we had done already fifteen laps. Anyway, we have to look forward and try to improve tomorrow. My pace is nothing fantastic but it’s better than 9th position so I have to try to recover some positions and make a good race.”
Talking about his issues, Rossi also said, “I have very much problem especially brake and entry. I can arrive to one level but after when I try more I have too much movement on the front and did some mistake, I have two moments with the front so I lose a lot of feeling and at the end the position and also the distance to the top guy is very high Here is a little bit more like the beginning of the season. This track I think for me is the worst. I am always struggling a lot. During the fourth practice we tried everything but at the end was not enough. Is a bad result today and tomorrow will be a hard and tough race. For me tomorrow in the race, about the pace, we are not very far. There are a lot of people that are fast and also constant so we have to try to improve. It depends also on which setting we decide to use and which tyre.”
from TWOWHEELSBLOG
