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MOTOGP: Lorenzo And Spies Excited By New M1’s Potential
Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies both praised the work Yamaha did during the offseason to make sure the new 1000cc M1 would be competitive.
Media Release  |  Posted January 31, 2012   Sepang (MAL)
Yamaha Factory Racing's Jorge Lorenzo (Photo: Yamaha Racing)
MotoGP 2012 finally got underway today with the first of three days of testing at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Yamaha Factory riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies took their first ride on the 1000cc YZR-M1 since last year. Both riders blew the cobwebs off quickly and settled down to an impressive pace, Lorenzo proving to be the fastest man on track with his teammate always close behind him.

The focus for the first day was to get back into the swing of riding and also to establish a good base set up. Tomorrow and the day after Lorenzo and Spies will compare various new settings to provide valuable data for the second Sepang test in one month’s time.

Jorge Lorenzo Position: 1st Time: 2'01.657 Laps: 30

“I’m very happy with today. For the first ride on the bike in some time, it’s been very positive. Yamaha has worked very hard over the winter for this M1. I can see very easily where I have to adapt my riding style for the bike and I can see a lot of potential. We have many areas where we can improve so I’m looking forward to beginning again tomorrow. I’m also very happy that my finger is fine and doesn’t affect my riding at all!”

Ben Spies Position: 4th Time: 2'02.234 Laps: 28

“I’m happy, it was fun to get back on the bike today, I haven’t ridden any type of motorcycle since Valencia. It didn’t take too long to knock the rust off, we tried a few things in set up and every step we did made small improvements. We have a lot to do in the next couple of days and a lot more in the second test. It’s been a confidence inspiring start, Yamaha have put in a lot of effort for this season so we’ll work day by day to be even better.”
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