MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P45
So also was Valentino Rossi
bamboozled by the weather -
twice. And Jorge Lorenzo forced
to confront his fears, and later
admit that he had backed down.
Day one was unusually fine
throughout, but Friday and Sat-
urday (Assen is the only Satur-
day race of the year) the weather
reverted to type. It played some
Briefly...
tion and straight-line performance.
"They are not so important at Assen,
so I was quite surprised that we are
quicker there than before. We are
not fast enough, but we are getting
faster."
Yamaha had new exhausts for the
factory riders, first seen at tests af-
ter the Barcelona GP, but not quite
enough to go round. There were just
three of the new units, instantly iden-
tifiable by a shorter, squatter silencer
and a gruffer sound. The aim was to
improve throttle response and en-
gine character at the bottom end of
the rev range, for easier corner exit.
Of the two, Jorge Lorenzo felt they
offered an advantage, and he had
both bikes fitted with them. Even so,
after the wet final qualifying session,
he was still complaining that a jag-
ged throttle response made the en-
gine too aggressive. This left just one
set, and while Valentino Rossi used
it on the first day, by the second he
had both bikes switched back to the
older, longer tailpipe. "For me there
is not a big difference," he said. "I
tried them both. Yamaha tried to
improve the engine character and
make it better at the bottom. And it
works, but we also lose a bit at the
top. Jorge likes it, but I have only one
set and the problem is it is difficult to
ride two different bikes. Tomorrow I
will have both bikes the same, on the
original exhaust."
Although he made light of the distinc-
tion in public, Italian press reported
a touch of resentment, with Rossi
quoted as saying Lorenzo was still
continued on next page
