[Yamahahaha]

Yamaha's MotoGP riders both suffered from a lack of rear grip and sliding at the Aragon circuit in the first race of the season. Lorenzo was plagued with rear traction problems and finished in fourth in FP1. Rossi was just a second under the top down in sixth position.

FP2 had an increase in track temperature, which further hampered the Yamaha pair. Lorenzo came in 7th with a 1'48.969s time. This was 0.501s odd of the leader Andrea Iannone of Pramac Racing.

Rossi ended the race in tenth with a time of 1'49.312s. That is 1.027s off of Andrea Dovizoso of the Ducati team who finished in first.

Lorenzo said:

“We are using a completely different tyre to the rest of the riders. Valentino didn't like so much the hard front, I don't know if he tried the soft in the last laps but for me it was better with the softer option. Tomorrow we will do some more laps to see if it will be constant for the duration of the race. We didn't start in the best way possible, we are very far from the front, but the thing that worries us is that we are far from my ideal time here from last year so we have margin to improve. I feel great physically and mentally but the bike needs to improve a bit. We are going to test a different set up for tomorrow so I’m looking forward to continuing.”

Rossi also commented:

“Together with Yamaha and Bridgestone we decided to try the hard rear to understand if it’s good option but it proved difficult. At the same time I struggled with the front as I was suffering some under steer so we decided to try the soft front; that was not so bad. We got some important data for tomorrow because we tried all the combinations. We need to work a lot as we suffer with rear grip and corner speed. The bike is difficult to ride and I’m not fast enough so tomorrow we have to improve a lot.”

Hopefully this will be a teachable moment for the pair and the Yamaha team. They can use this info as a stepping stone for better things next time.

 

[YamahaPWR]

Hopefully they have better luck next time.

 

[u3c307]

I am a Marquez fan so.....

 

[richie]

Marquez and Honda will be hard to beat again this year.

 

[Yamahahaha]

Do you think that it was actually the fault of the tires they were using, or is that just a convenient excuse?

 

[Vaughan]

I'm confused. Aragon was the 14th round of the championship, not the first. Lorenzo has made his issues with edge grip well known for months now, Rossi has clawed back this year after thoroughly not agreeing with the bridgestones last year.

This is the issue with spec tires, they are not optimised for specific bikes/riders like they used to be in the tire war days.

Oh and Yamaha's have won the last two races.... So yea... confused.

 

[u3c307]

I think Lorenzo is kind of getting kind of frustrated after not winning so much and Marquez\everyone else is killing him. Might be the tire but I am saying 99% it's the person.

 

[YamahaPWR]

I think Lorenzo is kind of getting kind of frustrated after not winning so much and Marquez\everyone else is killing him. Might be the tire but I am saying 99% it's the person.

yeah I can see how that is the case,
hopefully he improves.

 

[barett]

I think Lorenzo is kind of getting kind of frustrated after not winning so much and Marquez\everyone else is killing him. Might be the tire but I am saying 99% it's the person.

yea but post Assen disaster he rattled off 4 straight P2's and Victory at Aragon on Sunday. Naturally its the person, the tires simply don't suit his riding style.

Bridgestone has been apply a heat resistant layer to the tires which has made them stiff on their very edges where JL is most comfy. It's seriously impacted his riding style.

Although I will say the lean he was laying down sunday in the wet was downright stupid >

But I too am confused, its not that Yamaha is having a bad season, in fact they're not at ALL. Its just that Marc Marquez is a monster. Without Marquez Rossi is 3 points shy of Pedrosa for the championship lead and JL is 15 points short...

 

[YamahaPWR]

Looks like it just takes fine tuning of a number of things to get better results.

 

[YR3]

Sounds like I need to start watching the races to see this, would have liked to see him leaning through during wet conditions.

 

[Vaughan]

3 Yamaha wins in a row now... Misano, Aragon, Motegi... Phillip Island this weekend!!

 

[barett]

Add another Yamaha Victory to the table, Rossi won yesterday in Australia!! 3 Yamahas made the rostrum actually!

 

[u3c307]

So sad so many crashes lol.

 

[barett]

So sad so many crashes lol.

But only on the Asymmetric tire. Marquez, Espagaro and Cruthchlow all crashed identically to Lorenzo's off in FP back on Friday. I'm surprised they didn't do a 70% supersoft, 30% soft asymmetric. Of course hindsight is 20/20