A lack of grip on a dirty track caused problems for the works riders in the opening MotoGP free practice session at Qatar today with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa the quickest of them in sixth place but a massive 1.1 seconds off the pace.
It didn’t, however, seem to stop Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro, who both tested here a week or so ago, and the pair were able to get close to Aleix Espargaro’s fast lap.
Pedrosa said: “We had a few problems today with grip, which is something that some of the riders who rode here at the test two weeks ago had commented about before. There isn’t much grip on the track and that means we have to try to get the most out of the bike under these circumstances.
“We’ll see if the track improves with a little more rubber laid down, giving us more traction. Today we just didn’t really have any, even though the track was in good condition. We still hope to improve session-by-session."
Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was of a similar opinion: “The track is in quite a bad condition but I think it’s quite normal for a first practice. There is a lot of sand and not a lot of rubber down. Also a lot of riders except the factory riders have been here for three days and have done a lot more km and a lot more laps so it’s normal they are stronger than us.
“Now the work for the weekend will be hard to reduce the gap. I have a lack of grip front and rear, on corner entry and also on acceleration the bike moves very much. I think the condition of the track is getting better and it will get easier.”
Jorge Lorenzo said his tyres felt like the second test at Qatar, which was not great, and he was a huge 1.5s second slower than the bike Yamaha wouldn’t let him test.
“I’m a little disappointed because hearing the comments of the riders that were here two weeks ago it seemed the tyres were working really well. Having arrived here it seems the track is a little worse, the feeling of the rear tyre is more or less the same as in Sepang, with little grip and traction.
“We didn’t have three days to test here like the top five so our problems are bigger. We must hope that the tyre gets better and we can improve the grip on the rear.”
