Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has been struggling during both MotoGP free practice sessions at Silverstone today. Tyres are still proving to be problematic for the former champ, but he hopes the issue will be sorted in time for qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Lorenzo started the morning session on an extra soft option, then moved to a harder tyre, but that didn’t work too well as he felt that it wasn’t absorbing the bumps out on the track. In the end the Spanish racer ended FP2 in eleventh on the timesheets, after his best time of a 2’03.500.
He was nearly one second under the time clocked by current championship leader, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, but the rider is still at a loss as to what he can do to up the pace on Saturday, and qualify on the front row.
“We have front [tyre] problems, and the tyres are absorbing the bumps on track, and we are losing grip. We have tried a few things and if I can imagine solving all my problems tomorrow then that would be magic. I want to be closer to the front bikes, and I hope to be on at least the second row tomorrow,” said Lorenzo, at the track.
“A new tyre would be perfect, and I think it could help me be half a second faster. Yesterday I didn’t ask which tyre we would have here, before free practice they said I would be using a number one, and then I felt something strange out on the bike.
“I tried to ask my Bridgestone technician, Peter why they brought these tyres, and they didn’t want to take a risk as last year bit of pieces were going off the tyre, so that is why we [have the softer option]. With had extra soft on for the morning session, and we went a little bit harder in the afternoon, but it didn’t absorb the bumps on the track. It is difficult to fight with Marc at the moment and his bike is going very well, and with the rear tyre were are having a lot of problems this year.”
