Jorge Lorenzo goes under track record on Rossi territory

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2009-05-29 Jorge Lorenzo goes under track record on Rossi territory
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Sunny day at Mugello allowed riders and teams to work full-time on their bikes, which was for sure great change from previous events. Fiat Yamaha team riders occupied two top positions on timesheets, with Jorge Lorenzo setting best time, already under current lap record. Valentino Rossi was just fraction of second behind, with Casey Stoner in 3rd place. Dani Pedrosa was another championship pretender in top part of timesheet, in front of Colin Edwards in 5th. Read rider impressions after Mugello first free practice.

Jorge Lorenzo - 1st - 1:49.870:
This is a great start but it’s too soon to speak about the race or jump to conclusions; we’ve only had one practice! It’s true however that I didn’t have any problems today and I felt very happy for the whole session. Each time we come to a new track we don’t know exactly what to expect because we’re still learning the new Bridgestone tyres but at the moment we seem to be fast each time and I feel very comfortable in this period; this is positive. It’s very hot here, even hotter than in Spain but I am okay with that because we’ve had too much rain and we all need some sunshine! I hope it will continue like this for the weekend because it’s better for everyone.

Valentino Rossi - 2nd:
We did quite well today and it looks like we’re in good shape. It is only Friday so there’s a long way to go yet, but it’s looking like it could be a great battle on the track because the first few riders are very close. We have a few small things to work on still with the setting because I can’t ride exactly how I want to yet, but we already have a good rhythm and we have important data to help us improve further. This is a great track for me and it doesn’t matter if Mugello comes after a bad race or a good one, it’s something apart from the ‘normal’ championship and I always feel great motivation. Plus the sun is shining so I am very happy!

Casey Stoner - 3rd:
The idea behind going back to the aluminium swingarm is just in order to see where we can improve more with the carbon version. The carbon swingarm is better in a lot of ways but there is one area we’re struggling to find grip with in the turns. So we’re using the aluminium one to find out where it is better and why, and then hopefully transfer that across. I don’t mind riding with one of each because we can do similar lap times so it’s not a problem. The only way it affected us today was that we had to make a lot of short runs and do a lot of testing but we’re happy with the way things went. Today was a case of spending a time learning more about our bike rather than setting it up to race, which we’ll focus on tomorrow. Considering how close we are to the top, I think we can be quite confident.

Colin Edwards - 5th:
I'm reasonably happy because I did most of the session on my second bike. I had a very small problem with my number one bike and my guys did a great job to get me out so quickly on the second bike. The second bike though had stiffer suspension settings and I had a little bit of front-end movement that was holding me back a little bit. And with the hard compound Bridgestone tyres at the end of the session I was getting a bit more movement. But I've got to say that Bridgestone has done a great job. They are really simple and really easy to understand when you have the experience. It's the hardest rear I've tried all year and it feels great, despite the high track temperatures. And its typical Bridgestone because the more laps you seem to do on it the faster you go and even now that is still freaking me out. I think we've easily got half-a-second to come from the bike but I've got to smooth my riding out a little bit. Without getting the bike quite dialled in with the stiffer suspension settings I wasn't as smooth as I'd normally like to be, but we have got plenty of ideas to change it and I'm confident we're in for a good weekend.

Loris Capirossi - 7th:
It was not easy today as we struggled a bit to get a good feeling from the front of the bike, but it was good to have a full hour to work with because we were able to get through a lot of changes. We tried a couple of runs with different settings and then one with a very extreme setting. We will certainly improve tomorrow, but having said that the bike is not too bad at the moment. I really enjoy riding here at this track, but at the moment - until we get the setting right - it is just not quite perfect!

James Toseland - 11th:
That wasn't a bad session really and I'm pretty happy. I didn't start off feeling very comfortable on the bike and fair play to Gary Reynders and my team because they did a good job in solving some of the problems and we always went in the right direction with the set-up. It was really difficult to change direction with the setting I had at the start and it gave me arm pump and I never suffer with that. But because I was forcing the bike with my arms at the beginning of the session, once I'd got arm pump I couldn't get rid of it. Without that I'm sure the package I had was capable of going another three of four tenths quicker and that would put me in the top six. I felt comfortable too on the hard tyre because the last time I was on that was in Sepang in testing when I had my big crash. So to be half-a-second off fifth place on that tyre, I guess we're friends again. It was hot out there with 50 degrees on the ground but the hard tyre was working pretty well for me. I'm optimistic and confident for the rest of the weekend because the time I lost was with my arm problem and not the bike, so I'm really looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and doing a good job. I'm carrying Sylvain's race number on my bike as a gesture from the whole Tech 3 Team to show we're all thinking of him and wishing him a quick recovery. He's a great guy and we all want to see him back out on track as soon as possible.

Chris Vermeulen - 13th:
It's great to come back to Mugello; this is certainly a circuit that most of the GP field enjoy. It hasn't been a good circuit for Suzuki in the past as we have suffered a bit with the high-speed turns and the long straight. During today's session we made some progress with the bike and tested both tyre compounds to see which one gave the best feeling and durability - we've certainly got a direction with that. My biggest issue at the moment is with front grip and making the bike steer a bit better. We'll be working hard with the engineers this evening and we already have some ideas how we can improve.

Niccolò Canepa - 14th:
The lap time I registered today at the beginning of the session, when I was in tenth position, I made it easily and this gives me a lot of trust for tomorrow and Sunday. I feel really well on the bike, the track is very nice. Too bad for the slip, I found a small bottomland and I lost the control of the bike. Nothing serious anyway. The second bike wasn't in the best condition and we used a lot of time to adjust it at the best, but without too much luck. Tomorrow we will be at the top.

Nicky Hayden – 15th:
This is a very different circuit to Le Mans and to be honest I was hoping that coming here, to the track where this bike was born, we would be on the pace. Unfortunately we’re not and the truth is we’re struggling again – it’s pretty demoralising because every track we go to at the moment seems to cause us different kinds of problems. Here the worst thing is the bumpiness of the surface, which is unsettling a bike that can already be quite unstable. It is hard to change direction when the bike isn’t planted and that’s a big thing here.

Mika Kallio - 17th:
For sure the worst beginning of the weekend for us. During my fourth lap I basically done the same lap time as the best one of the day and this show that we didn't find the right direction to follow. We have tried many solutions without finding the right one. Really difficult day, the bike during the turns doesn't seem to follow my intention and everything was too complicated. Tomorrow we will have to work hard to take a big step forward.

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