Positive second day for Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo at Sepang

2011-02-02 20:42
Day two of the first official MotoGP test at Sepang saw Yamaha Factory Racing Team riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies again up to speed quickly. Both riders were on the pace from the outset as they took advantage of the good weather conditions. The cooler morning session provided an opportunity for the riders to set their fastest times of the day before the track temperatures increased from noon onwards. 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year Spies was clearly at home on his 2011 YZR-M1, lapping the Sepang track as the second fastest rider for the majority of the day, only dropping to third in the last moments. Team mate Lorenzo was just 0.05 seconds behind him in seventh at the end of the session as he worked through some different chassis and engine settings.

Tomorrow is the final day of the test, both riders will continue to test developments of the 2011 M1 along with new Bridgestone tyres to provide some data for the MotoGP championships sole tyre supplier.

Ben Spies, 3rd 60 laps 2'01.508
"Today went really well. We started out and got right up to speed. We worked pretty much just on electronics and also evaluated a couple of different engine configurations, both of which worked really well. The lap times were pretty similar so we need to work out which direction we want to go. We got a lot accomplished today, tomorrow we've got a couple more things on the engine to look at and we're going to try some tyres for Bridgestone."

Jorge Lorenzo, 7th 35 laps 2'01.563
"Today we continued to work on the bike, we found some positive things and some not so good. I think we have found more traction but maybe a little vibration we need to resolve. I'm happy with the day, but it was very hot and I'm pretty tired. We've improved a lot of little things, I have to continue to work on improving my riding as well and to give the team the best explanations I can on the developments to help them move forward."

Massimo Meregalli, Team Director
"We tried some different things today and we got some good feedback. Ben had consistently good pace for the entire session today so I'm pleased. What gave us great confidence is that he had a long run with very positive results. He was satisfied with the changes we've made today so we'll see what progress we make tomorrow when we test the new tyres. In general for the team it's been quite positive, we had no problem and got good information from both sides of the garage."

Wilco Zeelenberg, Team Manager
"The second day of testing today and some mixed results, not everything was positive. There were no big dramas and the base setting we discovered yesterday continues to be good. Lap time wise we missed something this morning, but we also tried some good things on the bike over the session. It's normal in development to find some things that don't necessarily work so well and today we found one. At the end of the day it has been positive and we have more valuable information for tomorrow."

Pictures of today's test are available at www.yamahamotogp.com

Source: Yamaha MotoGP

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