Jorge Lorenzo admits the Yamaha team are struggling to optimize their bike in wet conditions despite finishing this afternoon's practice session in third place. The championship leader was worried by the rate at which the tyres lost performance and feels that may hinder him if the race turns out to be wet.
“This morning we couldn't practice and this afternoon it was wet and then finally drying at the end. In these conditions we are not so good because the middle of the tyre is dropping a lot, after eight or ten laps we don't have any more grip so we have to slow the pace. We have to work on that for Sunday if the conditions are going to be the same as today. If it rains with a lot of water then that's one story but if it's like today we are not the fastest so we need to gain some grip on the rear.”
Teammate Ben Spies was ninth fastest and felt much happier about his prospects for the weekend. The American was encouraged with how his times compared to the rest of the field and expects to go well tomorrow.
“Today was good, we started with a wet track and we had to fiddle round with some tyre pressures for a while. We got that sorted and made some changes to the bike to the point where I was comfortable. The tyres had got quite bad by that point; the times were dropping so we were slower, but still as consistently fast as everyone out there. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to see what we can do.”
Team Director Massimo Meregalli feels comfortable with Spies' progress and refused to get to downhearted about the level of Lorenzo's competitiveness.
“Unfortunately we didn't have the perfect weather today. The first session was useless but we worked quite well in the afternoon. We found a balance that Ben liked and he seems quite satisfied with the set up so we'll see for tomorrow. On Jorge's side we are still hunting for some more grip from the rear in the difficult condition but we should make a step tomorrow.”