Casey Stoner may have pipped Jorge Lorenzo for the top spot on Day 3 at Jerez, but the Mallorcan rider can head to Qatar for the first race of this 2012 season with a Yamaha M1 that is in the same league as the Honda’s RC213V in both types of weather conditions, wet and dry.
Lorenzo put in 84 laps today of which 26 were a full race simulation and banging out constantly laps in the low 1.
40s with a best 1.
39.
952 set on the 25th the remained the best of the day until Stoner’s final flyer.
“I’m really happy because we tried to make some good lap times so we put new tyres on the rear this morning to make the 1’38.
9 which is a good time,” said Lorenzo.
“This afternoon we improved the bike for a race simulation which went really well.
In general we are very happy, it’s not just me, Ben is also very close to the competition as are Cal and Andrea.
We need to improve our braking a little, if we can do that we could gain some more tenths of a second.
”Ben Spies finished the day in 4th and 0.
715 seconds off pace but seems content with his position, and with the new Bridgestone tires that drop off much sooner this year, the Texas Terror who always seems to ride better on worn out tires could reserve a surprise or two for the two other ‘aliens’.
“I’m happy with how the Test went.
Both Jorge and I worked really methodically on getting through a number of different things, I think we’re quite happy with the bike going to Qatar, it’s been good here and good in Sepang.
A couple of the areas where we had problems last year seem to be a lot better.
We can’t say if they are completely fixed until we go to more tracks but we are happy with the balance of the bike and I think we have a very competitive bike for 2012,” said Spies.
