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Rossi in sixth, Lorenzo in fourth despite injuries

Posted by Staff

Friday, 16 May 2008

SIXTH PLACE FOR ROSSI ON DAY ONE IN FRANCE

Valentino Rossi rode his Fiat Yamaha Team M1 to sixth place on the opening day of the Grand Prix of France in Le Mans today. Although some bad weather is expected over the weekend, today was mostly dry save a few spots of rain which fell over the 4.180km Bugatti Circuit during the afternoon session.

Rossi was quick during the morning practice, setting the third fastest time, but this afternoon work with different tyres and settings were not as effective as hoped and he failed to improve on his time from this morning. It was nonetheless a fruitful day for Rossi and his team as they were able to gather valuable data for Bridgestone at what is another new circuit for this year’s package of bike and tyres. Despite the mixed weather forecasts for tomorrow, the 29-year-old is hopeful of two more dry sessions as he looks to refine the setting of his YZR-M1 in race trim before attempting to become the first rider to win two races this season on Sunday.

Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile battled through the pain of the two fractured ankles he sustained in China and the inconvenience of a small crash this afternoon to end the day fourth fastest in the combined standings.

Rossi:

“This morning we started quite well, I had a good rhythm and I was able to be third fastest with a good time. This afternoon to begin with it was also okay but then we tried some different things and it wasn’t so good; we tried a tyre I didn’t like so much and also a setting that didn’t feel so good so overall the result was not great! We weren’t able to improve our time from the morning but we actually learned quite a lot, which I hope will help us, so now we just need to work hard to decide what is the best way for tomorrow. I am confident we can improve. The weather isn’t so good, with some spots of rain, but actually we expected worse for Le Mans, so if this is as bad as it gets I will be happy! It may rain properly tomorrow in which case we will have different things to work on; I would prefer it to be dry of course but we will have to wait and see. It wasn’t a perfect day but we know why we didn’t improve so we’re not too worried.”

LORENZO BACK ON BOARD AND BATTLING ON DESPITE INJURIES

Following on from his eventful weekend in China two weeks ago, Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo was back on his M1 at Le Mans today, battling on despite the pain of two fractured ankles. The injuries he sustained in China have not yet had time to fully recover but the 21-year-old is able to ride and finished the day an impressive fourth in the overall standings, despite a small crash this afternoon.

It was straight down to business from the off this morning for the Mallorcan and he finished the first session second in the standings, despite this being the first time he has ridden a MotoGP bike at this track. This afternoon he continued to work on refining his settings and tyre choices and the Michelin rider was able to improve on his time from the morning by 0.3 seconds, despite losing grip and sliding out at turn two near the end of the session. Luckily however he escaped any further injury and the damage to his bike was also minimal. Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi was sixth fastest this afternoon, whilst the time sheets were topped by Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo:

“The first thing I did when I crashed this afternoon was to stand up in order to check that I hadn’t done any more damage! Luckily it’s okay and I don’t think I have made anything worse and at the moment I don’t need to have any injections, which is better for me. The pain in my ankles is not so bad and to ride is okay, the main problem is that I am lacking the confidence that I know I should have, but I just need to keep thinking positively and I am sure that this will come soon. We need to work on the electronics a bit and also the suspension, and then I think we can make another step, but anyway we’ve made a good start today overall. If it stays dry then I think I will have the possibility to fight for the pole position, but if it’s wet it will be a different story so we are hoping for good weather!”

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