Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are back in the U.
S.
for the upcoming Indianapolis round after their brief break from their summer holiday’s for a two-day private test at Brno last week.
Yamaha did not post anything about the test, that saw the debut of the seamless transmission and in their preview of this weekend’s round, there’s just a mention that the test was ‘successful’ for both their riders, but not when the two riders will be using the new gearbox, with questions remaining, if they can fit the transmission into their exsisting M1’s or if they will have to take another engine in their already tight allocation, that sees both riders already using four of their five engines.
Indianapolis is not one of the best circuits for Yamaha.
Valentino Rossi has only won once in 2008, when the tail end of hurricane Ike cut the race short, and never has been on the podium again, while reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, who is still recovering from his two consecutive collarbone surgeries, won once in 2009 and has been always on the podium except for 2011.
Jorge Lorenzo, currently third in the standings said, “We are returning to the USA and beginning the second half of the year, which may be the toughest.
I was able to rest for some days after Laguna Seca and then we went to Brno to make a private test with because after two crashes in Assen and Sachsenring I couldn’t recover so much and now we have to manage a long period with three races in a row.
I feel better obviously than in Laguna but still need time to recover to 100% and it is not going to be easy because the calendar is so busy and also we have to fight not to lose points.
In any case, we go to Indy to give everything despite the circumstances.
” Valentino Rossi admitted that he still has to ‘do much work’ on his machine, despite the breakthrough at the Aragon test and the recent Brno test, but the Italian is improving, but whether he’ll continue to podium once his team mate and Dani Pedrosa return to full fitness remains to be seen.
“I have great memories of Indianapolis and I’m happy to be back there on my M1, although that’s not one of my favorite tracks.
I needed these holidays to recharge my batteries, even if we had two days of testing right in the middle.
Indianapolis will be the first one of three consecutive races and it will be very important to do good results everywhere.
My team and I still have much work to do on the M1 therefore they will be three very demanding weeks but we feel ready for the challenge.
“