Jorge Lorenzo has added to his teammate’s praise of Yamaha’s 2015 YZR-M1 and claims he is stronger “physically and mentally” ahead of the upcoming season. The two-time champion was fastest of all on the second day of pre-season testing at Sepang and feels he has everything in place to challenge for a third, especially given how comfortable his quickest laps were.
“1’59 is a good lap time. The other riders couldn’t do it because the track seems to be a bit more slippery and bumpy and that makes it more difficult to achieve good lap times. Our bike improved a lot over this last year and I feel ready both physically and mentally. Altogether, we’re in a good shape. In the first four hours in the morning I was quite comfortably riding 2’00’s. In the afternoon it seemed that the track condition was a bit worse and I couldn’t ride as many fast laps. The goal for tomorrow is to repeat the pace that I had today and maybe do even better.”
By contrast, Valentino Rossi endured a tougher day as he failed to match the blistering pace he had set on day one. The Italian was sixth quickest and complained that the YZR-M1 wasn’t as easy to ride and thinks the changes tried on Thursday didn’t pay off.
“Today was more difficult for us. In the morning we had chattering of the bike in the corner, because we tried something different. The braking was not so bad, but the bike was very difficult to ride. There were hard vibrations with a high frequency. The morning was the right moment to ride good lap times. The conditions were right to push, but I couldn’t ride at 100 per cent. In the afternoon we modified the bike and we fixed the problem with front vibrations. My pace was not so bad but it was also nothing special. I’m not very happy with what we tried today. We have to continue tomorrow, try something else and continue in a good way.”