Phillip Island and the MotoGP/Weather/Tyres/Regulations cocktail is definitely not working for the big names in the category.
We remember the blunder that had been made Marc Marquez in 2013 by returning a lap too late to change bikes, which earned him a disqualification in the race…
This year, it's Valentino Rossi's turn to be trapped in a somewhat similar way and, as a result, having to drop from second to 20th place in FP1, just behind his teammate.
And as FP2 has been cancelled, the two Movistar Yamaha riders are certainly looking forward to tomorrow, especially as
Jorge Lorenzo was particularly careful this morning...
Otherwise, Valentino Rossi says he broke his left little finger in a crash at Motegi, which, according to his own words, should not handicap him.
Massimo Meregalli, Team Director: “Today was a scenario that was anything but ideal to say the least. The track conditions were extreme, making it very difficult to find a good feeling for the drivers. This is the worst kind of weather to test and tune a MotoGP. However, we still managed to try two or three settings in the morning session. Valentino was completely satisfied with the balance of his bike. Jorge didn't want to take any unnecessary risks today, and only went out for a few laps to get a first feel of the track with his two bikes. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow and additional time for testing so that our drivers can advance to Q2. »
Jorge Lorenzo, 19th: “I left the pit lane quite late this morning and I didn't do many laps during the first run. I was progressing little by little, but I stopped too early and when I tried the second bike, there was already more water on the track, so I just did one more lap. It was difficult to find a good reference to know which bike we were better on in these conditions.
Valentino Rossi, 20th: “The conditions were very difficult today. Unfortunately we had bad weather, it was very cold and there was a lot of water. This morning we were able to ride for 20 minutes in acceptable conditions, and it wasn't so bad, I was pretty strong. In the afternoon the temperature dropped and the water quantity was too high, so unfortunately we were unable to fly. We haven't been able to work on the feeling with the bike and so we keep the pretty good feeling we had at the start of testing, but at the same time the temperatures have dropped, so we have to wait until tomorrow. »
