Lorenzo caps dominant week by leading test

Jorge Lorenzo topped the times at the post Spanish Grand Prix test at Jerez. The Yamaha rider followed up a weekend of domination by leading the way again with Cal Cruthclow pleased with the progress made by LCR to solve his grip problems finishing the day third  fastest.

Lorenzo, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Monday, was pleased to have continued his progress from the race weekend and is looking forward to the coming rounds.

“I’m quite happy after scoring the first victory of the season for me and also because I turned 28 today,” began Lorenzo. “I could feel the heart-warming response from so many people. I’m back in the groove and I returned to the podium, so now I hope to keep this momentum going in the coming races like Le Mans, Mugello and Montmeló.” 

In the race Crutchlow spent the majority of the 27 laps playing with his electronics having lost ground from the podium contenders in the early stages. On Monday he was able to try and evaluate setup options to find more grip. The Englishman also was able to avail of the time to test new front forks.

“We tested a lot today, we had a few things to go through,” said Crutchlow. “We need to improve the rear grip and the floating feeling in the middle of the corner, the locking in the braking. It was over 60 fast laps and I was happy with that.” 

Valentino Rossi tested new parts and came away pleased with the progress made with his setup having struggled over the weekend to match the speed of Lorenzo and Marquez.

“This testing day was positive,” said Rossi. “During the weekend we suffered with the setting, the front, and in the race I wasn’t able to make the maximum. We didn’t have many things to try, just set-up. We focused on improving the bike compared to yesterday and I am very happy because we improved a lot. We improved the lap time, the pace, the feeling with the bike and we could also improve the time we did in qualifying.” 

Despite having initially said that he wouldn’t test Marc Marquez completed a productive day with the Spaniard testing a new swingarm that looks likely to be used from next week’s French Grand Prix with a slight improvement noted by the rider.

A change of the electronic settings gave Bradley Smith the confidence that he needed to push harder in the fast corners with the Tech3 rider joking that the improvement came 24 hours too late but given that Rossi only made the change between warmup and the race it was a positive to have found the same solution “just a few laps later than the factory team.”

Eugene Laverty had a high speed crash that saw him tumble through the gravel trap and walk away with a slight neck injury. The Irishman was able to get back on track and afterwards told MCN that the injury was nothing to worry about but that he’d spend time with the physio this week to get back to full fitness.