Jorge Lorenzo dominates Brno MotoGP test

A new electronics package on his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 helped Jorge Lorenzo dominate the Brno MotoGP test yesterday.
Shrugging off the bitter disappointment of crashing out of the lead in Sunday’s Czech Republic GP that effectively killed off his world title hopes, Lorenzo clocked a best time of 1.56.171 in his 37-lap stint.
Only Dani Pedrosa and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi were able to lap inside of a second of the double world 250GP champion.
Lorenzo said: “It was a profitable day and we worked on a lot of different things, especially electronics. I felt comfortable and I could ride in the 56.1’s, which was good. In the last hour I worked on my starts because this is something I need to improve. I’m not thinking about the championship now because it’s very difficult unless something strange happens, but I want to try to be back at the front and I’m looking forward to the next race.”
Pedrosa was second quickest with a best lap of 1.56.747. That left him 0.576s off Lorenzo’s pace as he got his first chance to assess Ohlins suspension on his Repsol Honda RC212V machine.
A further 0.291s adrift was Rossi though the reigning world champion only completed 17 laps with the day badly disrupted by heavy afternoon rain.
Rossi was 0.867s away from Lorenzo as he conducted early tests on a prototype 2010 YZR-M1 chassis and a front brake for Brembo.
The 30-year-old said: “It’s always hard to go back to work after a great win but it was an important chance to try some things for the future. Before lunch we did a run with the new chassis, it has some good points and some bad ones and we were able to collect some data. Unfortunately it rained in the lunch break and so we couldn’t ride for a lot of the afternoon because of the wet rack, but it dried enough for us to do some more work at the end. This time we could really concentrate on doing a proper job testing the chassis and the new engine specification, and I was quite fast.”
Loris Capirossi was fourth quickest with a best time of 1.57.543 as he carried out a more in-depth analysis of a new Suzuki’s GSV-R chassis designed to improve edge grip at maximum lean angle.
British GP winner Andrea Dovizioso also tested Ohlins suspension on his factory Honda but he was over a second off Pedrosa’s pace.
Casey Stoner might not be fit enough to ride his factory GP9 machine at present, but just how weakened Ducati are without was evident.
Mika Kallio was only ninth quickest with a best lap of 1.58.351 and American Nicky Hayden trailed down in 11th. The 2006 world champion posted a best time of 1.58.567 but both were over two seconds off Lorenzo’s pace.