Although the Repsol Honda driver encounters conditions that are much more favorable to him at Sepang than at Phillip Island, he still continues to be very far behind in the standings.
Jorge Lorenzo comes from an extremely complicated weekend in Australia, one of its toughest of the season. This is almost coming to an end, and the Majorcan has still not found solutions with his team to really feel more comfortable on his Honda. With a newly arrived Johann Zarco replacing Takaaki Nakagami in the satellite team and already faster than him, the last weekends do not look any easier.
However, number 99 wants to rely on the good feelings he had in Japan and still has hope, according to him, of returning to his highest level. In the meantime, this start of the weekend in Malaysia does not seem, given the times, really better. He indeed finished 18th in FP1, 2.4 seconds behind the leader, and 17th in FP2, 2.1 seconds. Lorenzo nevertheless assures that he feels better than in Australia and aims for better tomorrow.
“Between Phillip Island and here, it’s a big change, almost day and night. Here there is a lot of grip and it is quite flat with good weather, all this gave me a better feeling”, he explained. “In terms of pace, we were 1.1 to 1.5 seconds behind. We tried something different with the settings to improve our rear grip, but we weren't able to reap the full benefits by pushing for a fast lap. So I think I could have ridden in 2'00.3 or 2'00.3 and been closer to the front runners. Tomorrow the objective will be to continue to progress and achieve a 1'59. »
FP1-FP2 standings MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang:
Credit ranking: MotoGP.com
