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Hot and humid weather gave way to heavy rain at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon, bringing back memories of last
year’s hurricane-struck race as the riders splashed through puddles of standing
water. Yesterday’s bad weather looks like being a one-off however and the forecast
for the rest of the weekend looks much better. The Fiat Yamaha pair of Valentino
Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who has just signed a one-year extension to his current
deal with Yamaha, finished the day in third and fourth respectively.
Rossi chose
to sit out the first twenty minutes of the session in order
to save mileage on his engine and only ventured out once the
track was fully wet. The victor in last year’s storm, he was
one of the fastest in the later stages on the soaking track
and moved into third position on his final lap of the
session, three tenths off Dani Pedrosa at the top.
Lorenzo
gained his first ever wet-weather podium here last year and
was happy to find that he felt just as confident this time
around in the wet on his YZR-M1, continuing to set
consistently fast laps throughout the soaking session and
finishing under a tenth off the time of his team-mate. The
22-year-old is sporting a one-off ‘Captain America’ helmet
here, inspired by the famous comic-book hero.
Valentino Rossi
“I sat out the first twenty minutes in order to save the
engine mileage and by the time I went out it was very wet.
Unfortunately the track wasn’t draining so well where there
is new asphalt and in some corners it was quite dangerous
with standing water and a risk of aquaplaning. This weather
was unlucky but it wasn’t such a bad session and our pace
and setting in the wet was quite good. We were able to
improve the balance of the bike and if the conditions are
like this again then we have some ideas to improve further.
Luckily however it looks like the weather will be much
better and so tomorrow we will start again from zero in the
dry!”
Jorge Lorenzo
“This track has
three kinds of asphalt and in some places the bikes looked
like they were at sea! The riding style was very complicated
to get right today, above all in the first two sectors, but
anyway I’m quite happy, especially because this is my first
start after confirming that I’ll stay with Yamaha next year
and I’m proud to be here. I felt quite confident today even
in the bad weather but hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine
and we can see where we are in the dry.”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager Rossi
“We did a few laps today because you never know what can
happen with the weather and even though the forecast is good
for the rest of the weekend, we need to be prepared for
anything. We were strong in the wet today with Valentino
finishing near the top so it was a useful session, but
hopefully we won’t need this data for the race. Our real
work should start tomorrow, hopefully in the sunshine!”
Daniele
Romagnoli - Team Manager Lorenzo
“Unfortunately today the rain got in the way of our plans
and it was a slightly difficult first session in some areas,
especially in the first two splits where there was a lot of
water on the track. Overall however it was a useful day and
we will be ready in case it does rain over the rest of the
weekend. Now we’re looking forward to seeing how we are in
the dry tomorrow.”
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