  |  | MOTOGP SPAIN - ROUND 4 |  |  Jerez Circuit | | MotoGP | Free Practice Report - 01/05/2015 | | | Lorenzo Sets the Pace in Scorching Jerez Practice | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo is the fastest man of the first day in Jerez. Teammate Valentino Rossi started the weekend focusing on his race set up and finished ninth in the combined standings.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi rode on European soil for the first time this season during today's free practice sessions ahead of Sunday's Gran Premio de España.
The teammates needed little time to re-familiarise themselves with their YZR-M1s at the Circuito de Jerez de la Frontera. Posting a 1'39.174 lap, Lorenzo was quick to take the top spot on the leaderboard during the morning session, with Rossi not far behind in sixth, 0.698s off today's fastest time.
During the afternoon practice the teammates had to deal with scorching hot weather, making the track more slippery. This slowed down the times, but didn't faze Lorenzo. After getting used to the warmer track temperatures, the four-time World Champion quickly returned to his pace from this morning and wrapped up FP2 with a fastest session time of 1'39.300.
Rossi used the session to focus on the set up of his YZR-M1 using the harder tyre option. He was unable to improve on his time and finished thirteenth, 1.094s from the front.
Today's results put Lorenzo and Rossi first and ninth respectively in the combined free practice times. |
| | | | "My mentality from this morning was to go for it and don't think too much, just try to ride according to my instinct and it worked very well, especially in the morning. In the afternoon we tried the hard rear tyre that was very bad, with lots of spinning for everyone and I decided to go back to the softer one, since that one is much better in cold but also in warmer conditions. Yamaha and I did great things together in the past. In the last two years I felt less good, but we focused on the year and now it seems we're coming back stronger. We will have to demonstrate it tomorrow and especially on Sunday. Yesterday was a great day for me and I am very grateful that Yamaha has faith in me even in very hard moment. I want to show my form again on the track tomorrow with my speed." | |  | |
 | | | | | "It was a difficult practice, especially this afternoon. I think I could have gotten a better position but I decided to use just the harder option and work with just that tyre, because we thought that was the best tyre for the race. Unfortunately the performance is very low and the lap time isn't good enough, so I think that also the soft can be an option too, but it will be difficult. With the high temperature in the afternoon the track makes you slide a lot and it's very difficult to control the bike. We had a lot of troubles in acceleration, because we suffer from wheel spin and the bike isn't stable. We are not good with the setting yet, so we have to try and improve for tomorrow morning. We have a lot of things to do; a different balance of the bike, different tyres and other options." | | |
| Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director "We did a good amount of work today and we were able to collect a lot of information for tomorrow. Compared to the morning session, the track conditions changed a lot in the afternoon. Jorge started really strongly and led both practice sessions. This will give him a good basis to work on this weekend. Valentino worked on his set up with the hard rear tyre, especially during the second practice, and didn't focus too much on lap times. So far the hardest compound didn't work as we expected. The weather forecast for tomorrow is good so this gives us two entire practices to further improve our bikes." | | Espargaro kicks off proceedings brightly under the Andalusian sun | Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Pol Espargaro opened his Jerez account with a firm finish of 8th place in the combined practice times on the first day of action at round four of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship in Jerez. The young Spaniard took off at full speed straight away in front of his fans as he lapped the legendary 4.4 kilometre circuit 19 times whilst establishing a setup for the race on Sunday. He closed the opening practice in 5th with a time of 1'39.871 that was only one tenth of a second back from third which left him primed to carry on the encouraging start in the afternoon. Here, the 2014 MotoGP rookie of the year continued his work, yet unfortunately a technical issue halted his run in the second half of free practice 2, which caused him to pull over. Nevertheless, he audaciously sprinted straight back to the pits and jumped on his second bike. He still was able to improve in the session and his time of 1'39.953 was strong enough to clinch 8th. Tomorrow the Spaniard will aim to make the most of the perfect riding conditions in Andalusia and he then will intend to seize a strong qualifying position ahead of the 27 lap race on Sunday.
Meanwhile Britain's Bradley Smith began the Jerez round of the MotoGP World Championship with a finish of 16th place overall in today's free practice sessions. Smith completed FP1 in 16th position as he started to refine and adjust the setup of his Yamaha YZR-M1, in preparation for race day on Sunday. In the afternoon, the young British rider pushed onwards as he aimed to cut his time further and set his quickest lap of 1'40.293 on the 17th out of 20. This performance saw him finish the first session in 11th place and three tenths of a second behind his teammate. The 23 year old rider remains fully confident of progressing and undertaking the positive setup work with the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team, in tomorrow morning's FP3 session ahead of the all important qualifying shootout. |
| | | | "It was a strong start to the weekend and I'm pleased with our efforts and how the first day went overall. The morning session was really positive and I was happy as we had a good feeling on the bike as soon as the wheels started moving. The lap times came quite easily too as I was comfortable and content with my Yamaha. Yet in the afternoon our plans were disrupted by a technical issue. As a result, we had to change the bike which altered our working plan that we had in place for the session and this especially impacted upon the tyre situation as we didn't want to use too many new tyres today. So, we didn't extract the full potential of the session however, we were able to improve the lap time and we remain close to the top riders. It was a good start to the weekend even if I had to sprint back to the pit box after my bike stopped!" | |  | |
 | | | | 16th / 1'40.293 / 40 laps | | "All in all, today has been quite a challenging one for me, yet despite the final position, we managed to gain a lot of valuable information which leaves me positive of improving for the rest of the weekend. The team and I tried the different front and rear tyres as well as a new setting on my second bike. Although we didn't discover anything hugely promising with the setup, we definitely have a clear direction to head towards tomorrow in order to have a good qualifying. Of course it will be vital to get into the top ten in the morning so that we can advance to QP2. We still have a lot of work to undertake, but I feel optimistic of a strong race this weekend as we know which areas need to be amended, so we will be ready to do better tomorrow." | | | Athina Forward Racing close to Top15 at Jerez | Under the scorching sun of Jerez de la Frontera, the first European Grand Prix of the 2015 season took off today for team Athina Forward Racing and its riders Stefan Bradl and Loris Baz.
After a positive free practice session in the morning, with Bradl in 11th position and Baz in 13th, the riders of the Swiss team have fazed a sudden change of temperature in the afternoon and were not able to improve their times.
The German ended in 13th place in the combined standings, as the second Open behind Barbera, with a time of 1.40.037. Despite a big crash at the start of the second round, fortunately without consequences, Bradl is confident he will be able to approach the lead of his class in qualifying tomorrow.
His teammate, Loris Baz, also had a good start and ended up 14th in the ranking. The Frenchman, who was also the victim of a small fall in the first round, posted a good 1.40.092, which puts him closer to the leading Open bikes. |
| | | 13th / 1'40.037 / 38 laps | | "It was a difficult session this afternoon. I fell in the warm-up lap and that affected our work schedule. I had little grip on the rear and, when I started to push, I fell. We have to analyze the data to understand what happened in order to improve. I came back on the track on bike two, but it had a very different setup as we planned to try different things. The track temperature between morning and afternoon has risen significantly and this made the work even more difficult." | |  |
 | | | | 14th / 1'40.092 / 37 laps | | "Jerez is a very special track. The track conditions change rapidly from morning to afternoon. This morning the feeling was good and I was able to push. In the afternoon session the confidence was not the same and I was not so comfortable while riding. We must continue to work to get ready for qualifying. We can improve." | | |
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | ESP | 1'39.174 | | 2 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | ESP | 1'39.223 | | 3 | Marc Marquez | Honda | ESP | 1'39.428 | | 4 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | ITA | 1'39.511 | | 5 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | ITA | 1'39.535 | | 6 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | ITA | 1'39.718 | | 7 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | GBR | 1'39.737 | | 8 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | ESP | 1'39.871 | | 9 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | ITA | 1'39.872 | | 10 | Maverick Viñales | Suzuki | ESP | 1'39.909 | | 11 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | ESP | 1'39.937 | | 12 | Scott Redding | Honda | GBR | 1'39.967 | | 13 | Stefan Bradl | Yamaha | DE | 1'40.037 | | 14 | Loris Baz | Yamaha | FRA | 1'40.092 | | 15 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | GBR | 1'40.114 | | 16 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | GBR | 1'40.293 | | |  | | | Circuit Length:
4423 Lap Record:
1'39.731
(Daniel Pedrosa, 1-1-2010) Fastest Lap Ever:
1'38.120
(Marc Marquez, 4-5-2014) Last Years Winner:
Marc Marquez | |  | | |  |
