Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi endeavoured to use the hardest compound Bridgestone available during the entire second MotoGP free practice session at Jerez in order to get a setting for Sunday’s race but found the increasing track temperaure caused too much wheelspin.
The Doctor was again opting for the tactic he employed so well at Argentina but he hasn’t yet managed to find a setting with the red-banded tyre that will allow him to drop his laptimes sufficiently for race-winning pace.
“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,” said Rossi.
“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.”
