The historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway had its first taste of MotoGP action on Friday as the inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix got underway, but it was a rain-hit debut for the sport at this most famous of racetracks.

The historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway had its first taste of MotoGP action on Friday as the inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix got underway, but it was a rain-hit debut for the sport at this most famous of racetracks. Nonetheless Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi made an encouraging start and is optimistic for the weekend, should the weather not become even worse.

After having some initial concerns on first sight yesterday, the Italian was pleasantly surprised with his first foray onto the track and found it more enjoyable to ride than he had expected, despite the areas of new asphalt lacking some grip. He was 11th fastest this morning but improved considerably this afternoon and finished the second session, which was much wetter, in fourth. Fastest on track today was Anthony West, whilst Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was also happy with his first outing, finishing seventh in both sessions

Valentino Rossi - Position: 11th Time: 1'54.795 Laps: 59

“So, after some worries yesterday it seems that the track is not so bad and in fact it’s a lot more fun to ride than I expected; it’s like Rio in places. There are some parts that have a few problems and we can definitely improve them for the future, especially turn five and turn one, but for now I think it is okay. The biggest problem is the difference in the asphalt, which changes too much, and the new asphalt doesn’t drain so well; if this weather becomes worse things will be very difficult. I am really sad about the rain because it’s fantastic to be here and I felt quite a strong emotion leaving the garage for the first time this morning, at such a historic place. I really hope that the weather improves so that we can have some crowds here on Sunday! I think we have good potential here and I feel like if it was dry then I could be quite fast as well, but it looks like this won’t be the case at the moment. Anyway, the situation is okay, my bike and tyres are working well so far so we will try to improve again tomorrow.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager, Rossi

“It’s a great pity that the weather is so bad on our Indianapolis debut! We had hoped for better conditions but it’s the same for everyone and we’re working as hard as we can to find a good set-up for these conditions, because it looks like it may stay like this all weekend. This afternoon we improved our bike and in general things were much better, so now we will just continue like this. Being a new track there are many things to adjust, but I think it’s fair to say that we have had a good first day in difficult conditions.”

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 7th Time: 1'53.850 Laps: 50

“I am happy today because the track is much better than I expected and a lot less dangerous. Some walls are quite close to the racing line but in general it’s not too bad. The first part, with the new tarmac, is difficult because it’s very slippery and there’s a lot of standing water, so you have to ride very carefully and very straight. The other part has better grip. We need to find a balance between tyres, which is the biggest issue we have to deal with. The back part is flowing and fun to ride, I think it suits my riding style so this is an unexpected surprise! Anyway, the situation is the same for all the riders, the weather is bad, it’s a new track – we will do our best!”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager, Lorenzo

“Overall it’s been a positive day for us. We have started at a new track, about which we had little information, but our pace has not been so bad all day. We need to improve our performance in section one quite a lot, where Jorge has some problems entering the turns because there is a lot of water on the track. It seems like we need to prepare a wet race set up because the forecast is more of the same, so tomorrow we will continue to try to improve our set-up and see what we can do.”