Why Lorenzo goes 'too far' during practice starts

"Jorge tries to make good starts, but he also does everything to make the bike wheelie or spin or whatever to set it up for the race"
Why Lorenzo goes 'too far' during practice starts

Many times this season eventual MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo was left shaking his head in frustration after a poor practice start, yet would make a perfect getaway in the race.

Indeed, all of Lorenzo's seven wins this year saw the Spaniard lead every single race lap.

The pattern of bad practice starts followed by a good release in the race seemed more than just coincidence. Crash.net asked Lorenzo's team manager Wilco Zeelenberg if it was all part of perfecting his launch control.

"Yeah, you know Jorge is quite special in that area because he risks everything to make the wrong start in practice, so that it's quite 'bullet-proof' to make a good start in the race," Zeelenberg said.

"For example he lets the clutch out too quickly so he can reduce the performance to what he needs for the race. He goes too far, so he can learn and bring it back. Then he is much safer when he does the real start."

Asked why Lorenzo often looks frustrated by his practice starts, Zeelenberg added:

"He tries to make good starts in practice, but he also does everything to make the bike wheelie or spin or whatever so that we can try to find the best way to set it up for the race start.

"Many times he complains in practice and I say 'Yes, but you were on the dirty part of the track! We should not set-up too much for the dirty side'. Anyway, we get it right for the race."

Getting it right is set to become harder next season, when the less-sophisticated single ECU will be compulsory for all.

An illustration of how advanced the factory MotoGP electronics had become, relative to the Open class system, could be seen by Valentino Rossi's launch from the back of the grid at the final round.

"Watch the helicopter view of Vale off the grid at Valencia and how he rode around the Open riders who didn't have the best launch control and electronics," Tech 3 team manager Herve Poncharal told Crash.net. "Straight line, throttle open. There is not much a rider can do. It really showed the difference in the electronics.

"So for sure Yamaha and Honda are going to go back from their present electronic level with the new ECU next year. And now they are a bit worried, but it will reduce some of what we saw at the start in Valencia. It should be closer and make the sport a bit more exciting."

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