One day after his third victory of the season, reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies were back on track at Misano - with the 2012 1000cc M1.
The bikes tested were the same as during their mid-August 1000cc debut test at Brno, with only minor changes to set-up and electronics to suit the tighter, twistier Italian circuit.
Lorenzo was again the quicker of the two riders, setting a best time of 1min 33.7sec during 60 laps. That was 0.2sec quicker than Lorenzo's new official lap record of 1min 33.9sec set during Sunday's race.
At the Brno test - when Casey Stoner's 1000cc Honda led the way by 0.085sec from Lorenzo - Lorenzo had lapped almost one-second quicker than the best 800cc race lap from the day before.
“It's been a little bit more difficult here than Brno, which is a very fast track. Misano is a little bit slower so the difference between the 800 and the 1000 is much smaller," Lorenzo explained. "It's difficult to understand the riding style you must use straight away.
"We've made a lot of progress in a couple of hours and the bike has a lot of potential. I'm very excited about the future. We've been working on the electronics to help in the braking area but mainly I've been getting used to the riding style of the bike and also adapting the bike to my riding.”
Team-mate Spies set a best lap time of 1min 34.3sec during 74 laps, which was also 0.2sec quicker than his best race lap, set on the way to sixth in the grand prix.
“We rode the same bike as we did in Brno but we changed a bunch of things and started working on a lot of electronics. Misano is a much more physical track; it's quite tight so there's a lot of wheelies and rear spinning. It's fun to ride but very physical compared to the 800," Spies said.
"I enjoyed it a lot and we went quite fast on it, getting some pretty good lap times. We've got a lot of data now for the engineers to go away and work on the next step for our next test. I think next year is going to be really good and I'm looking forward to racing the thousand!”
During the 2011 season manufacturers can test 2012 bikes for a total of 8 rider/days with their MotoGP race riders.
Yamaha has now completed four rider/days - the same number as Honda, but one less than Ducati. Suzuki is yet to announce a 1000cc project.
source: crash.net
