Lorenzo Leads Curtailed FP1 In Australia
- Oct 16, 2015
- 2 min read
Track conditions were cold for the start of the opening practice session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend. The spots of rain began to clear as the session progressed which allowed the times to drop in the final ten minutes.
Jorge Lorenzo opened up a crucial weekend for himself with the fastest lap of FP1. The Movistar Yamaha rider used the condition-affected circuit to do some back-to-back comparisons between his Yamaha with and without wings. His fastest lap came in the final ten minutes of the session, when the track was at its best, and was a 1:30.047.
Ducati also spent the morning testing wing set-ups. Andrea Dovizioso ran without for the first time this season, with the team determining that the chassis-mounted winglets caused the GP15 to become unstable. The front fairing-mounted ones performed better and look to be the ideal set-up for the bike. Iannone ended the session 8th and Dovizioso 12th.
Valentino Rossi was able to get himself up the front in practice with a best lap of 1:30.572 seeing the Italian 3rd. Though some half a-second shy of his team-mate, this won't be of too much concern at this stage given the difficult weather and track conditions. Marc Marquez was sandwiched between both Yamahas, whilst Motegi winner Dani Pedrosa was a tenth adrift in 4th.
Jack Miller impressed on the Open Honda in 5th and looks very comfortable around the 4.4km circuit. Team-mate Cal Crutchlow was seven hundredths back in 6th. Pol Espargaro and Maverick Vinales completed the top ten.
Ant West returns to Grand Prix action this weekend as Karel Abraham's replacement at the AB Motoracing team, and ended his opening session on the RC213V-RS 24th. Damien Cudlin also makes his Grand Prix return for the first time since 2013 as Alex De Angelis' replacement at the Ioda team. The Aussie rounded out the field in 25th.
Full FP1 results can be found here: http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2015/AUS/MotoGP/FP1/Session.pdf?v1_5ed587b5
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