Lorenzo: ‘I'm very happy with Michelin'

Rather unsurprisingly, reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo says he’s delighted with the performances so far of the Michelin tyres, as he leaves the opening test of 2016 the fastest man on the grid by a second.

The Movistar Yamaha rider was always tipped to be – alongside fellow former 250GP star Dani Pedrosa – one of the riders who would make the adaption to the more-rear, less-front balance of the new French tyres after a decade on Bridgestones.

But, after an impressive few days at Sepang, where even the removal of the soft option after Loris Baz’s high speed crash wasn’t even enough to slow the three-time world champion, Lorenzo was left full of praise for Michelin.

“The lap times speak for themselves, they were very good lap times set with new electronics and a hard rear tyres, because we can’t use the soft rear because of what happened yesterday. I’m very happy with Michelin, because they made a very big step with the feeling with the new front tyres.

They did a great job, because now the feeling is closer to what we had with last year. Anyway, I felt very comfortable and fast during these three days, I’m still recovering from this illness that I have and for sure in Phillip Island we will be stronger and able to do a race simulation.”