VOL. 53 ISSUE 16 APRIL 26, 2016 P71
Rossi and Lorenzo complained
of hitherto unknown wheelspin in
the upper gears, but the former
suffered less, after having built
up a margin of better than two
seconds by lap nine.
"I had a lot of spin on the
straight—very strange. It hap-
pened yesterday, and worse
today," said Rossi. "From half
throttle it would spin, but the
bike worked well in the corners
so I knew I was okay."
"Half-throttle" may have been
late and ran a touch wide. Vale
was straight back again.
In some ways, Jerez is a bit
too classic. Riders complained
of a lack of rear grip, espe-
cially drive grip, all weekend.
A re-surface is overdue. Or did
Michelin's harder-construction
tires play a part? Or the cruder
electronics? Or simply 11 de-
grees more heat on a gloriously
sunny race day?
Whatever the combination,
it was crucial in the race. Both
Briefly...
struck Scott Redding in practice in
South America, and ultimately meant
that the Argentine GP was short-
ened and run as a mandatory bike-
change "flag-to-flag" race. Goubert
explained the tire disintegration was
caused by a combination of circum-
stances, quite different from the
puncture that was blamed for Loris
Baz's more serious rear tire explo-
sion during testing at Sepang. For
Redding, "the tire stayed inflated,
which allowed him not to crash." It
had shed a large arc of tread, de-
stroying the back of the bike and
giving the rider a major bruise in the
process. "It was a combination: very
high track temperatures, a very de-
manding layout and quite a well-built
guy on the bike—it was too much for
the tire," said Goubert.
Yamaha has disinterred the rear-
weight-bias 2016 chassis for the
Jerez tests, with Lorenzo essaying
some laps on it during free practice,
but the opposite has happened at
Suzuki, where both riders have now
reverted to the 2015 chassis. The
group tests are important for all, with
riders and technicians still getting to
grips with the new tires and control
software, some faster than others.
Honda in particular need to make a
step, as both factory riders repeat-
edly confirm. Aprilia, meanwhile,
brought the first tranche of all-round
improvements to chassis and engine
to Jerez, continuing a steady gain for
the all-new machine.
