Fiat Yamaha rookie Jorge Lorenzo finished the three day of the Official MotoGP Test in second position overall today, after setting an impressive lap on qualifying tyres at the end of a very windy day in Jerez.

Fiat Yamaha rookie Jorge Lorenzo finished the three day of the Official MotoGP Test in second position overall today, after setting an impressive lap on qualifying tyres at the end of a very windy day in Jerez. It was a tricky three days for the youngest rider on the grid, who admits that he has struggled to adapt to riding a MotoGP bike in such changeable conditions and that he is still lacking pace on race tyres. However he proved with the Michelin qualifying tyre how fast he can be, setting a time of 1’39.252 on his 60th and final lap of the day.

Team-mate Valentino Rossi completed the day of testing at the Official MotoGP Tests in Jerez de la Frontera today, finishing fifth overall on his YZR-M1. The Fiat Yamaha rider completed 79 laps today, despite not starting until early afternoon due to a damp track in the morning. Rossi spent most of the day refining set-up and tyre testing with Bridgestone, although the tricky track conditions hampered progress somewhat. Towards the end of the day the Italian, like most of his competitors, tried a qualifying tyre and it was with this that he completed his best lap of the three days, in time of 1’39.568. The next stop for the team will be Qatar in ten days time, where they face two days of night testing in preparation for the season opener and inaugural night race on 9th March.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 2nd Time: 1'39.252 Laps: 60

“We’ve finished the three days second after a very fast lap this afternoon with the Michelin qualifying tyre, so I’m really happy about this. With the race tyre however we’re not in such good shape and we have quite a lot of work to do. We need to be faster but to do this I need to have more grip and more confidence. We need to speak a lot with Michelin in order to try to solve this, but I am confident that my team, the engineers and Michelin together will find the solution. Now the first race is very close and we don’t have a lot of time, but we are working very hard. Overall though it’s been an important three days and I am very happy that we’re so good with the qualifying tyre. I am looking forward to something new in Qatar now; riding at night!”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager

“Today was difficult in places and especially at the start of the afternoon when the track conditions were still quite bad. It was also quite windy which didn’t help! We’ve done some good work but we’re still lacking some rear grip and have too much spin, so improving this is our key target at the moment. At the end with the qualifier things were very good and all the team had fun watching Jorge go so fast. Thanks to Jorge and the team for working so hard, now we will use the remaining time before the first race as best we can to be ready.”

Valentino Rossi - Position: 5th Time: 1'39.568 Laps: 79

“At the end of today it was quite cold which made things difficult, and generally the conditions have made our job harder for the whole three days. Despite this I think we’ve done some good work; I have a good rhythm and I am having a lot of fun riding the bike. I’m quite excited now about the start of the season! We have things to work on, especially our speed in the exit of the corner, which was worse today because we had less grip on the damp track. Overall though it’s been good, and I think we’ve learnt a lot both about the bike and the Bridgestones, plus I have been quite fast both with the qualifier and the race tyres. I didn’t use the qualifier I like best here, so I am confident that when we use it in Qatar we can be faster. Now there’s just one test left, which will be in the dark and therefore something quite strange! We will focus on our final days of preparation and be ready for the first race.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“Looking at the three days of the test, we can draw some good conclusions. We were pretty fast on Saturday, made some good progress in the wet yesterday and then today we tried some different things and made another important step in our preparation. The bike is good and it seems that the engine is too, but of course we need to wait and see how our whole package performs in Qatar in different conditions. We’re looking forward to the first race but we have more work to do before then and only two days of testing left, so we will be working at the maximum!”