The drizzling weather and rain tires were the two main topics that the MotoGP riders talked about following today’s two difficult practice sessions at Jerez de la Frontera.
Due to the constantly changing track conditions (wet, damp, drying and wet again) riders we’re unable to find the proper set-up and their rain tires (MotoGP doesn’t have intermediate tires as in World Superbikes and they can’t cut their slicks) are spinning and tearing up when the track is semi-dry and the wet tires that the riders are allocated are only four, so they hoarded them for qualifying and race day.
Dani Pedrosa:“It has been a strange day due to the weather conditions.
In the morning we decided to not go out because the track was not wet enough then we had more or less the same conditions in the afternoon, but it was necessary to do some laps and get some rhythm.
The first feeling on the bike was good for me, the bike felt good and I’m riding well but I hope we have better weather tomorrow, full dry or full wet.
Anyway, it is important for us to do a good qualifying practice tomorrow and we will need to be clever and quick because the conditions can easily change and in one minute can be the option to make the lap time for the pole and one minute later can be a disaster.
So let’s keep focused and try to do a good job”.
Valentino Rossi:“We go pretty well in the wet.
We’re happy to be second this afternoon because it confirms that the GP12 has the same good feeling in the wet that last year’s bike did, and that’s important.
I felt good immediately today.
We worked on the setting a bit but because we had already started with a good feeling, I was able to immediately ride at the limit and do some good times.
Now we have to wait to see what the weather does tomorrow, and especially on Sunday.
”Jorge Lorenzo:“This morning we couldn’t practice and this afternoon it was wet and then finally drying at the end.
In these conditions we are not so good because the middle of the tyre is dropping a lot, after eight or ten laps we don’t have any more grip so we have to slow the pace.
We have to work on that for Sunday if the conditions are going to be the same as today.
If it rains with a lot of water then that’s one story but if it’s like today we are not the fastest so we need to gain some grip on the rear.
”Casey Stoner:“It’s been a strange day, but at least we managed a few laps to get some sort of feeling in wet conditions.
We came back in to try and change the bike to give more rear grip but by the time we went back out it was already starting to dry a little and the conditions were constantly changing and we couldn’t really get a good understanding of the bike.
Towards the end we were fast compared to everyone else but it didn’t really matter by then.
It’s just been one of those days, not a lot to be taken from it, we know we have some things to improve if it continues to be wet, hopefully we can get some good track time tomorrow morning before qualifying in the afternoon.
At the moment my arm feels ok, but it’s difficult to know when the conditions are like this as you’re not stressing it like in the dry”.
Nicky Hayden:“It’s a shame about the weather.
This morning it wasn’t really wet and wasn’t really dry.
If we had unlimited rain tyres, I probably would have gone out and had a look, but with rain forecast for the whole weekend, I didn’t want to waste any.
We did some laps in the afternoon and checked a couple things.
It was hard to say if we made any improvements because the track dried out at the end and was almost ready for slicks.
The bike felt decent in the wet, especially the geometry and turning, but it lacked some grip on the edge, which is where we’re we’ll focus tomorrow.
”Andrea Dovizioso:“It has been a day of pretty much constantly changing weather and track conditions and unfortunately that meant we were not able to try anything on the set-up of the bike.
We did not have dry conditions at all and even though it has been raining we didn’t get the chance to ride in full wet conditions.
I went out to try the bike because we might have the same conditions for the race on Sunday, s o it was important to go out and collect some information.
For tomorrow I just hope that we can do some more meaningful work.
I don’t care if it is wet or dry but anything is better than mixed conditions so that we can focus on improving the bike.
”Alvaro Bautista:“It has been a very difficult day because of the mixed weather.
This morning the light rainfall did not wet the track enough for us to use the wet tyres properly so we only managed four laps.
It was pretty damp this afternoon though so we were able to gather some confidence with this bike in the wet and found a way forward with the set-up, although a couple of little problems slowed my progress.
As the track dried it was more and more difficult to work so we’ll have to wait for tomorrow now and see what we get.
”Cal Crutchlow:“If we get more of the same conditions for the rest of the weekend then we have a lot of work to do.
To be honest we struggled a little bit with a lack of rear grip and that is where we are going to have to work on because we could be racing in similar conditions on Sunday.
This track dries really fast and with the rain tyres we are having a lot of spinning.
Although we’ve got some issues with the rear grip, I am really happy with my position on the timesheets considering the problems and that makes me really confident that if we make the settin g better I will be very competitive.
”Ben Spies:“Today was good, we started with a wet track and we had to fiddle round with some tyre pressures for a while.
We got that sorted and made some changes to the bike to the point where I was comfortable.
The tyres had got quite bad by that point; the times were dropping so we were slower, but still as consistently fast as everyone out there.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see what we can do.
”Stefan Bradl:“Nothing special to say today… we had some better Fridays because the weather was very tricky.
This morning it started to rain but the surface was not completely wet and not completely dry so we lost the major part of the first session.
Then in the afternoon when the track was more wet we had a good pace in the beginning but after we struggled a bit because our tyre was older than the others as I used that in the morning session so we could not push very much.
Anyway the general feeling with the bike in the wet is good and in the end we went out with slick tyres because the asphalt started to dry up but I felt it was a bit dangerous”.
Mattia Pasini:This was a particular day.
This morning we have virtually didn’t lap and we entered the track just to make sure everything was in order.
The conditions were more stable in the afternoon, the track was wet but more homogeneous.
We did well at the beginning of the session even if we were quickerd during the tests.
Now we’ll compare the data and evaluate the larger differences, so we can prepare ahead of tomorrow’s session in case it should rain again.
Overall I’m happy, too bad for the crash that forced us to change our work plans.
”Hèctor Barberà:“Today I had a difficult practice session and I can’t be happy for the result.
It’s a shame that the morning practice was done on a damp but not drying track, because of numerous riders, included me, did not take to the track to test the bike’s set-up.
On the other hand, during the afternoon practice, the track was fully wet and I had few issues in the entrance of the corners, where we seem to be struggling to get the bike to turn.
We could have had a much more productive day than we did, but I have had some troubles, in particular with the confidence with my Ducati.
Despite that i would be optimistic for tomorrow’s qualifying practice”.
Michele Pirro:“These are the worst possible conditions for us to try and work on the set-up of our bike.
We still have a lot of problems with the electronics and with mixed conditions on the track it makes things even harder.
Hopefully we get a bit of luck tomorrow because we need it.
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