In the heat of Sepang, the factory Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies kicked of Day 2 of the 2nd test with yet more strong performances as they look to squeeze every ounce of performance out their new M1 machines. Almost as soon as the session had begun, both riders managed to get under the 2:01 barrier and constantly matched those times.
At the end of the session, it was Spies who was the better of the pair, despite having a crash near the end of the day. Finishing 4th on the timesheet, Spies was upbeat “I think we had a really successful day” said the Texan
“We tried a little bit of a different chassis set up to try and improve the rear grip and we definitely succeeded in that. We did a few long runs and were quite fast on a hot track so it has been really productive finding how to be consistent in the heat. It’s a pity I made a small mistake at the end of the day however I think we’ve gained a lot, especially with the rear grip of the bike.” he concluded
As for Lorenzo, he was more philosophical “It was a hard and hot day today, we tried the test bike as well as my 2011 bike to reconfirm a number of new developments. We confirmed that the direction is right so we will continue tomorrow with this direction on my M1. We’ve definitely improved the traction a lot, although we could still do with some more power.”
