Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo made a strong start to 2012 with second place behind world champion Casey Stoner in the opening test of the year at Sepang, which concluded on Thursday.
Lorenzo, fastest in Stoner's absence on day one, eventually finished 0.591s behind Honda's reigning world champion. But he insists that lap times are not the critical factor at this stage in the development of the new 1000cc machines.
“Casey is fast with whatever they give to him,” smiled Lorenzo, who set his own personal best Sepang lap on Thursday. “To be honest the lap time is not important at this stage. The feeling with the bike is very good though.
“This bike is also more fun because it has more torque and you don't need to fight with a lazy engine on the exit of slow corners. Now you have enough power to enjoy it more.
“For the future I think we need to work on the electronics, especially the slow corners. On the exit, it's not very smooth.
“The new Bridgestone tyres feel very good. Very stable on the straight and when braking into the corners. Better than the standard ones. They give good confidence.”
Although the gap to Stoner was substantial, the Australian set his time in the cooler morning conditions, while Lorenzo's best was on his 18th of 35 laps.
“I made my best time today at midday which is the hardest time with the conditions so it was pretty good,” confirmed the 2010 world champion, who missed the end of last season due to a finger injury.
“Let's see what we can do when we come back.”
The second Sepang test starts on February 28.
by Peter McLaren from crash.net
