| FREE PRACTICE REPORT | 21/05/2010 | | Rossi fires to the front in Le Mans with Lorenzo close in third | | |  | The third Grand Prix of the season got underway in France this afternoon and Valentino Rossi started the weekend in strong form by finishing the first practice on top of the standings. His team-mate and last year's race winner Jorge Lorenzo finished third on an unusually sunny day at the famous Le Mans 24-Hour track.
Rossi and his crew had made some significant improvements to their setting during the Jerez test and they were rewarded with immediate gratification today, as the Italian felt comfortable and fast on his M1 right from the start. Le Mans is accepted as a good track for Yamaha and it looked just that today as the World Champion lapped consistently in the top three before moving into first with his final lap. This was despite some lingering pain in his recovering shoulder, which he hopes will ease as the weekend progresses.
Lorenzo, who recently turned 23, was masterful in the wet here last year and looked equally happy in today's sunshine, overcoming a small electronics problem at the start to find a good setting and turn out a string of laps in the 1'34s. He finished the session in third behind Casey Stoner and just 0.140 seconds off his team-mate.
Valentino Rossi - Position: 1stTime: 1'34.402Laps: 28
"I'm really happy about this practice and especially about my last lap, which was very quick. During the test after Jerez we got a better understanding of the problems we had and managed to improve our setting a lot, and that's where we've started from today. It's good to be this fast already. Unfortunately I still have some pain in my shoulder in the two or three hard braking areas, but I hope with the adrenaline tomorrow and Sunday it will be better and won't cause a problem. Our bike is historically very good here and it feels great in the twisty parts especially, so we're hopeful for a good weekend." |
|  | Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 3rd Time: 1'34.542Laps: 31
"At the start of the session we had a small problem on one bike with the electronics but we swapped to the other bike and things were okay from there. Little by little I found a good pace and at the end I was able to do a lot of laps in the '34s. My bike feels good here - as everyone says it is always a good track for Yamaha - and although we are still struggling a bit in the acceleration I am feeling good."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"A good first session; our job went quite smoothly. We just made a few small adjustments and the results were good, so we're working in the right way. The only issue is that Valentino still has some pain in his right shoulder, which is disturbing him a bit in the hard braking areas. Anyway despite this we were fastest so we've done a good job and now we'll look to continue with a few small improvements tomorrow."
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager
"We're pleased with our start today and we were very consistent in practice. We had a few small problems at the beginning but we solved them quickly and then worked on two different settings, comparing them and finding some plus and minus points to both. Jorge's lap time is already good and he's third and very close. Tomorrow we will look at ways to make some more small steps to hopefully gain a couple of tenths, but this is a good start."
Fast start for Tech 3 in home race
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team made a positive start to its all-important home race at the Le Mans circuit in France today.
Colin Edwards overcame an early set-up issue to impressively climb his way up the rankings into sixth position at the session's conclusion, the Texan ending with a best time of 1.35.089 in a closely contested opening practice that saw the top eight split by less than a second.
The iconic Le Mans circuit has been a happy hunting ground for Edwards with two of his 11 MotoGP podium finishes scored at the French venue. And Edwards finished just 0.100s behind Dani Pedrosa to finish top satellite team rider.
Ben Spies took full advantage of the hot conditions to demonstrate once again that he needs little time to master a new circuit and post competitive times against the world's elite MotoGP riders.
Spies has never ridden at Le Mans previously but he was instantly able to set a consistently fast pace in the 1.35 bracket as temperatures soared to 28 degrees. As his confidence grew, Spies climbed into the top six at one stage before he settled for a hugely encouraging eighth position. Spies again accomplished his first objectives to finish inside the top ten and be less than a second off the quickest pace. The 25-year-old's best time of 1.35.291 was just 0.889s away from Valentino Rossi's best pace and just over 0.2s away from a place in the top six. Spies is confident that overnight set-up changes to his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine will enable him to narrow the gap to the leading group and improve his position on the timesheets tomorrow. |
| Colin Edwards - Position: 6thTime: 1'35.089Laps: 26
"I am not as happy or comfortable as I thought I would be at this track. I know this is a good track for me and also the Yamaha, but at the moment I just don't have the comfort level to enable me to push as hard as I know I can. I don't feel comfortable going into the corner and on the exit I'm losing too much. I had the same sort of issue at the last two races and even though I've got a completely different balance on the bike now, I still seem to be struggling. I need the bike to be a bit smoother and less nervous. We can make it better and I know my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 will figure something out because they always do. I don't think the set-up is that far away but I just need to refine it. This is a massive race for Tech 3 and Monster, so I'm determined to improve and put on a good show on Sunday." |
| Ben Spies - Position: 8thTime: 1'35.291Laps: 27
"It was a pretty good session. Early on the main focus is just to learn the track and I felt good pretty much all over the track apart from a couple of points that I figured out right at the end to get in a good lap time. The track doesn't have anything super tricky to learn but I've still got to get my bearings at Turn One a little bit, but for just one hour I got a lot accomplished. We can make some changes and I'm sure we can find a bit of time in the bike. The front-end can be dialled in a little bit better. But because I don't really have the experience at this track, it is hard to know what the bike is capable of. But I feel like there's a couple of tenths in the bike and me. I'm under a second off the best time and in the top ten and that is my target right now. I don't believe in the next session I'll be running at the front, but I can certainly cut the gap and move up a bit more." |
| | 2010 MotoGP France - Le Mans 21/05/2010 | | Pos. | Rider | Manu. | Nat. | Total Time | | 1 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | ITA | 1'34.402 | | 2 | Casey Stoner | Ducati | AUS | 1'34.508 | | 3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | ESP | 1'34.542 | | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Honda | ITA | 1'34.625 | | 5 | Daniel Pedrosa | Honda | ESP | 1'34.989 | | 6 | Colin Edwards | Yamaha | USA | 1'35.089 | | 7 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | USA | 1'35.223 | | 8 | Ben Spies | Yamaha | USA | 1'35.291 | | 9 | Aleix Espargaro | Ducati | ESP | 1'35.450 | | 10 | Marco Melandri | Honda | ITA | 1'35.643 | | 11 | Loris Capirossi | Suzuki | ITA | 1'35.685 | | 12 | Marco Simoncelli | Honda | ITA | 1'35.959 | | 13 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | ESP | 1'36.009 | | 14 | Randy De Puniet | Honda | FRA | 1'36.086 | | 15 | Mika Kallio | Ducati | FIN | 1'36.292 |
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