Yamaha Wrap Up Spanish Visit with Successful Test Motorland Aragon (Alcañiz, Spain), 19th June 2013 Following reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo’s stunning victory in Barcelona at the weekend the Yamaha Factory Racing Team have concluded two days of successful testing. The Monday test at the Catalunya circuit immediately following the race was followed by a move to Aragon by the Team and a further day of testing today. Riders Lorenzo and Rossi worked through a number of set up changes along with the testing of a new Bridgestone tyre. Lorenzo was also pleased to have improved his set up for the Aragon track, a key step towards a potential win at this year’s Grand Prix and ended the day as the fastest rider, nearly four tenths clear of rival Marc Marquez. Nine-time champion Rossi was pleased to have made a significant step forward in control under heavy braking as well as improved set up for the Aragon circuit. The Italian ended the day in fourth, just under a second from first position. Jorge Lorenzo 1st / 1’48.076 / 53 laps “Compared to normal I’ve been stronger today. At this track normally I suffer many problems in setting up the bike and getting the bike to work like in other tracks. This time from the beginning I have been very competitive with a lot of confidence. Also I think I am in very good shape so I have taken profit of it. I could also test a new tyre to put myself in a qualifying situation and I did a very good lap time. We are just testing very little things but it is better than nothing.” Valentino Rossi 4th / 1’49.007 / 54 laps “First of all we modified a bit the setting and also the front fork and now I feel more confident in braking, I can brake deeper and stop the bike in a better way. For me this is the biggest improvement. After this we tried the swing arm like Jorge has it, a little bit more stiff which I like. We tried some other small things; at the end we made a good package that gives me a really good feeling, especially in braking. I’m so happy because until today I didn’t have this feeling in braking, I am always in a bit of trouble. I can’t wait for Assen to understand if this is also improved at other tracks. It is important for the qualification lap because you have to push more in braking. This result is especially important here in Aragon as this is not one of my best tracks. I have not made great races here yet but the pace today and the lap times at the end make me very happy.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “The result of this test is quite similar to the one in Barcelona two days ago, we tried the same things and they had the same positive outcome. No dramatic things but set up wise and feeling wise the bike improved and Jorge is feeling good. The main target was to get more confidence on the bike and improve the consistency as well. I think we were able to deliver both for him which is very positive. If you have that on two different tracks it says something so let’s see if we can use that in the coming races.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “It has been a really positive test, the first part in Barcelona and the second part here in Aragon. All the items we tested in Barcelona we could reconfirm with positive results here in Aragon. The plan we had to stay there on Monday and test here on Wednesday gave us some really good feedback. I think after the great weekend we had in Barcelona we finish this Spanish trip in a good way. We are ready to go to Assen and we are expecting to go well there as it is a circuit that suits our bike. We are really looking forward to the next race.” Test Times 1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1’48.076 2. Marc Marquez (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1’48.434 3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1’48.928 4. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1’49.007 5. Stefan Bradl (GER) LCR Honda MotoGP 1’49.553 6. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1’50.080 7. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Suzuki Test Team 1’50.860 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Positive second day for Repsol Honda Team in Aragon With weather conditions improving, until rain arrived at 17h20, the Repsol Honda Team were finally able to go out on track today and begin their testing programme. Marc Marquez, in his first time at Aragon on the MotoGP machine, completed 71 laps only aboard his 2013 machine and recorded a quicker time than the pole record set by Casey Stoner in 2011 (1’48.451) with a lap of 1’48.434. He and his team will stay for an extra day tomorrow to test some more items on his current bike and also the 2014 prototype. His teammate Dani Pedrosa completed his testing programme on the 2013 bike and also tested the 2014 prototype to give his first feedback to the HRC technicians. He did a total of 62 laps with a best time of 1’48.928 set on his current bike, and will not stay to test tomorrow. Marc Marquez 2nd 1’48.434 “I am happy with today’s test. Aragon is one of my favourite circuits and on a MotoGP bike it is a lot of fun! At the beginning it was difficult, as many of the braking points are blind, but in the end I felt comfortable. We did a good test trying to solve a problem we had in the last couple of races. We did some changes in the geometry and we found a good base set up that I believe will be useful also in the coming circuits and not only here. Tomorrow I will do some more tests on the actual bike and then I will try the 2014 prototype. It will be a busy day!” Dani Pedrosa 3rd 1’48.928 “It’s been a positive day of testing. We focused more on the actual bike doing several tests with different rear shocks to find more grip especially in the exit of the corners. I am quite happy as we found something good. We also did a kind of “shake down” of the 2014 prototype. I did just two exits and a total of nine laps, basically to get the first impression and give to the engineers some feedback. The bike is ok, but at the moment we need more time to understand it, so in the short term I will not use it” Testing Results 1 Jorge Lorenzo 1’48.076 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing 2 Marc Marquez 1’48.434 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 3 Dani Pedrosa 1’48.928 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 4 Valentino Rossi 1’49.007 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing 5 Stefan Bradl 1’49.553 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP 6 Alvaro Bautista 1’50.080 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini 7 Randy De Puniet 1’50.860 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: BRADL ENDS 3-DAY TESTING WITH MORE CONFIDENCE AHEAD THE FUTURE ROUNDS Aragon, 19 June: following a productive race weekend in Catalunya, Stefan Bradl and his squad class remained at the circuit for a one-day test on Monday working on gaining a better front end feeling with the RCV (3rd overall). The testing program proceeded in Aragon for two days and, despite the pouring rain of the first day, Bradl completed 15 laps with the black-liveried 2014 Honda. Today Bradl concluded his work in dry conditions posting a best lap time of 1’49.553 (5th). “The first day in Catalunya we mainly worked to improve the front-end feeling especially in the sector 4 where we have struggled too much during the race. We have found a couple of good adjustments which allow me to go faster into the corner. Then we moved to Aragon but our testing programme was ruined by the heavy rain on the first day. So I tried the new machine in the wet but it was just a shakedown. Today the weather was much better and I could test different items of my 2013 bike ahead the race here in September. Then I jumped on the 2014 prototype for 14 laps and I have found this bike pretty similar to my RCV”.