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Lorenzo holds top rookie status |
The 20-year old Spaniard, who will officially join Fiat Yamaha in January as team-mate to Valentino Rossi, completed an impressive total of 86 laps on a 2008 prototype YZR-M1.
Although Lorenzo's best time of the day was set on a qualifying tyre, a lap of 1min 32.68secs - good enough for sixth in the unofficial standings - his best lap on a race tyre was also nearly one second faster than his Tuesday best.
Jorge thus finished his first MotoGP test eleventh out of the 17 riders, 1.5secs from MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner and ahead of fellow 250cc graduates Andrea Dovizioso (14th) and Alex de Angelis (15th).
"Obviously I'm feeling much more comfortable and relaxed on the bike than I did yesterday, when everything felt very new!" said Lorenzo. "It's been good to have a full day to really concentrate on getting used to the bike and I've been feeling better and better throughout the day. The set-up we used today was more or less the same as yesterday, but today we worked mostly on tyres, because these are also new for me. I'm happy with what we've done at this first test and I very am pleased to be here. Now I am looking forward to next week when we will go to Malaysia and I will have another chance to learn more about the bike."
"Today we made some changes to the set-up and especially to the suspension, and these small changes together have made Jorge more comfortable," added Fiat Yamaha team director Masahiko Nakajima. "His lap times today have been very consistent and have gradually got faster, without making any steps backward, and this is very encouraging. Although a MotoGP bike is very new to him and he is only just beginning to learn about it, his lap times and data show he is adapting quickly and that the changes we have made are improving things for him. This is the feedback we need at this stage. His hard work over these two days has been much appreciated and we're very happy."
