Friday 17 May 2013

Rossi faster than Lorenzo on Friday

Valentino Rossi was upbeat following the opening day of practice for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France, although Yamaha Factory Racing teammate Jorge Lorenzo was somewhat less content with his day’s work.


Rossi, who is striving to become the fourth winner in as many races so far this season, ended the day in third place and was just over a tenth of a second off the top time registered by Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa. This also marked the first time in the 2013 season that he had finished ahead of teammate Lorenzo.
“I’m very happy with today,” the nine-time world champion told motogp.com. “Right from the morning my speed was good and in the afternoon we were working with the bike. We had two different settings and in the end I decided to follow one way; it’s been modified in order to save the tyres and not lose too much traction under acceleration.
“The modification worked because I did my best lap and the rhythm is quite good; I’m third but very, very close. I hope for a dry race because I think we can be more competitive with the Yamaha in the dry.”
Jorge finished fourth at Le Mans, just 28 thousandths off Rossi who in-turn was only four thousandths in arrears of Honda’s championship-leading Marc Marquez.
“I’m not really, really happy but I’m not disappointed because we are there, very close,” the Mallorcan commented. “We just need to work a lot to find a good way for tomorrow, but if it rains it’s going to be difficult to improve the bike for dry conditions…”
A 70% chance of rain has been predicted for Saturday and showers are also expected to be in the vicinity on race day, as they also were last year.


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