Fiat Yamaha Team
2010 San Marino Grand Prix
Free Practice 
Friday, 3rd September 2010 

Ambient temperature: 25 degrees
Track temperature: 37 degrees
Humidity: 37%
  
  
Third and fourth for Lorenzo and Rossi at Misano practice

Just a few days after the energy-sapping race in Indianapolis, the Fiat Yamaha Team riders were back in action at the team's ‘home' track of Misano today in slightly more comfortable temperatures around the mid-twenties. Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo finished third in the standings whilst local hero Valentino Rossi was just under a tenth of a second behind him in fourth.

Despite making it into the top three Lorenzo was less than satisfied with his day's work, unable as he was to find a comfortable balance for his M1 and lacking grip with his Bridgestone tyres, especially in the rear. The 23-year-old and his crew have some ideas to improve the situation however and will be working hard this evening to ensure they are in better shape for tomorrow's qualifying session.

Rossi on the other hand, who lives just a few kilometres away from the track in Tavullia, was pleased with his first session on track and is confident of being able to competitively challenge tomorrow. He tried several different settings today and tomorrow his crew will put all the elements together to give him the right package for this track.
 

Jorge Lorenzo #99
Position: 3rd   Time: 1'35.444   Laps: 29
"Today was quite difficult for us, more so than we expected. It's not my physical condition, I feel completely recovered from the hard weekend in Indianapolis, but we really struggled today and I didn't have enough confidence in my bike or in the tyres. We have some small problems in braking, corner speed and acceleration so I don't feel like I can ride how I want to at the moment. We are still third so it's not too bad but we have some time to make up if we are to match Pedrosa. I have great confidence that my team will find the right way to improve and I hope we will be in better shape tomorrow."  
  
 
Valentino Rossi #46
Position: 4th   Time: 1'35.539   Laps: 30
"I'm quite happy because we did a good job during today's practice, especially towards the end when we made a big improvement to the setting of the bike and I was able to make some faster lap times. We have some more things to try, some electronics and some tyre settings, but I already feel confident so this has been a good way to start. We're quite far from Pedrosa, who was very impressive today, but we're close to Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Tomorrow we will try to find some tenths and improve our time a bit. My physical condition is okay, I don't have too much pain but this track has two or three hard braking sections to the right and I suffer a bit with my shoulder at those points."

Wilco Zeelenberg, Team Manager
"This first practice hasn't been so positive for us. We couldn't find a good feeling or the right balance and we didn't have enough grip. There was a small problem at most corners, either the front was too deep or we didn't have enough rear grip, so we need to make a big improvement tomorrow. We've got some good ideas to find the right solutions but of course we need to take care at the same time not to create problems in other areas by making too many changes. Anyway, it's only the first day and we will work hard now to give Jorge the right package tomorrow."
 

Davide Brivio, Team Manager
"We have made a strong start and we've found a good base setting to work from. We worked through all of the tyre options and we have a clear idea about the right direction. We tried some different set-ups today and tomorrow we will keep working, put it all together and make some fine adjustments to hopefully enable Valentino to be fast in qualifying."