Jorge Lorenzo felt positive at the end of day one at Jerez after going second fastest in testing. The Yamaha rider was a quarter of a second slower than Casey Stoner but was only usurped in the closing minutes of the day.
With Jerez posing a different challenge to Sepang, host of the previous two tests, Lorenzo was encouraged to see the YZR-M1 being so competitive and reliable, having completed 76 laps.
“Today was a very long day because we started at 10am and finished at 6pm. We did a lot of laps and it was very interesting to see how different the bike was compared to Sepang because it's a different track. Here it is much slower and more corners, not so many straights. The 1000cc is not so easy compared to the 800cc here. At the end of the day we were able to be very fast and stay in the first three positions so we are satisfied.”
Teammate Ben Spies was fourth fastest and completed 71 laps himself, allowing Yamaha to get through their intended programme. In fact, the American admitted the team achieved more than they thought they would.
“Today was a positive day; we actually got more than we thought accomplished. We were able to look at the two tyres Bridgestone wanted us to test and also went through a couple of different settings on the bike. We did a race simulation to get one out of the way and we might do one more before the end of the test just get me and the bike in tune for that many laps. Today's was to test the fuel consumption and we were happy with that. We can now focus pretty much on going fast and trying to improve the bike lap time wise and also improve me around the track! This isn't a strong track for me so I'm quite happy that we've shown some decent pace around here. We've got a lot done and it's been a good day.”