RaceMoto Motorrad Blog

Nachdem Jorge Lorenzo sich ja dummerweise beim Motocross die Hand verletzt hatte, war die Teilnahme am abschließenden Wintertest in Katar anfangs ungewiss.

(Nebenbei: Wieso um alles in der Welt verbieten die Verträge der MotoGP Fahrer eigentlich das Motocross fahren nicht? Lorenzo ist ja nicht gerade der erste Fahrer, der sich mit dem netten Winter-Hobby die Knochen beschädigt hat…)

Laut einem aktuellen Interview schaut es nun aber wohl doch ganz gut aus – der Spanier wird zar nicht ans Limit gehen können, eine Teilnahme scheint aber halbwegs sicher.

Der Zeitung Motosprint gegenüber äußerte sich Lorenzo so:

Yes, I’m going to the Qatar test, I’ve taken this decision for several reasons, including the need to understand how my hand is doing, but certainly not to set the quickest lap time.

I have thought about forgoing testing and going straight to the first race. But I feel like going to the tests. I’d like to recover some feeling, some confidence, basically I want to get back in touch with my bike. Even if it’s just a couple of laps, I want to see how I feel on the saddle.

Jorge Lorenzo räumte weiter ein, dass die Verletzung natürlich seine Form für die Saisoneröffnung verschlechtert, hofft aber, dass dies keine allzu großen Nachteile für den Titelkampf bedeuten wird:

I think I won’t be well prepared when we get to the first race, I won’t be, and neither will be my bike.

In any case I don’t want to get disheartened. I carry on thinking positive, since the season is long: 18 grands prix are a lot of races, we need to think long term. As for the first race, I will try to limit the damage as much as possible – that would already be a positive thing for me.

Naja, mal sehen – manchmal kommt es ja auf 1-2 Pünktchen an…

Aber die Verletzung scheint der Vizeweltmeister nicht auf die leichte Schulter zu nehmen, zumindest deuten die weiteren Zitate aus dem Interview darauf hin:

This is the first time I’ve hurt myself during the winter preparations, when there’s testing, with the championship nearing. This is a new situation for me. This is an injury that takes a long time to recover from, it needs time and patience.

The incredible thing is that sometimes you have big crashes while going quick and you don’t hurt yourself at all, while this time I hurt myself plenty while going at 30km/h. The real problem is that I crashed on the asphalt. I was in a turn, the bike lost grip and I found myself down all of a sudden. I put down my hand and broke the first metacarpus. It’s the right hand, the one you accelerate with.

From a medical point of view, I can try to get some running in Doha. But I must go slow, and that’s what I will do. I will try to think about everything except lap times. Neither mine nor the others.

Movement of the finger is still limited, and the arm has lost quite a lot of muscle tone. But this is normal, I’m not worried about that.

Hoffen wir, dass Jorge Lorenzo schnell wieder schnell fit ist – ich bin nämlich sehr gespannt, wie er mit der neuen Situation in seiner Box klarkommen wird (Rossi hatte ja darauf bestanden, dass keine Daten mehr zwischen den 2 Konkurrenten ausgetauscht werden müssen – ergo kann Lorenzo nun nicht mehr auf die Abstimmungsarbeit des erfahreneren Rekordweltmeisters Valentino Rossi bauen).

Quelle für die Zitate: autosport.com

Hier die zweite Folge des Yamaha promotion Videos “One on One”: Eddie Lawson und Ben Spies im Zwiegespräch:

Link: www.youtube.com

(Hier klicken für die erste Folge)

Angenehm, dass die Damen und Herren von Yamaha (in diesem Falle Yamaha USA) weiterhin einen so guten Job machen und ihre Stars regelmäßig auch ohne Bike vor die Kamera setzen. Nach den eher humoristischen Einlagen (wie z.B. das Video aus dem US-Headquarter von Yamaha) hier mal eine “etwas gesetztere Gesprächsrunde” von Eddie Lawson und Ben Spies:

Link: www.youtube.com

Wann geht die MotoGP Saison bloß endlich los? Nicht nur das absolute Fahrergenie Valentino Rossi, nicht nur die schnellen Herausforderer Jorge Lorenzo und Dani Pedrosa, nicht nur der wieder erstarkte Casey Stoner, sondern auch “Mr. Elbow” Ben Spies wecken eine Menge Vorfreude auf die kommende Saison

Link: www.youtube.com

(Review der 2009er Saison von Ben Spies bei Yamaha)

Bisher hatte sich Jorge Lorenzo ja sehr bedeckt gehalten, wenn es um die neue Entwicklung innerhalb der Yamaha Box ging, nach der zwischen ihm und Valentino Rossi keine Daten mehr ausgetauscht werden sollen:

I don’t have anything to comment on this.

so war die bisher einzig vernehmbare Antwort.

Nun hat allerdings das twowheelsblog über einen Beitrag der spanischen AS.com berichtet, der das ganze etwas genauer darstellt – bzw. in dem Jorge Lorenzo weniger wortkarg geantwortet hat:

I have great respect for Valentino. He has an incredible talent and is an intelligent person. Last year I was close to beating him and with a step forward I can have the chance to succeed. I do not care what he says, I’m not interested in listening to that I copy his bike’s settings to win. I think about myself. In 2009, we compared data and there were races where we did well, in others both Valentino and I did worse.

Und weiter:

I don’t know why Yamaha made this choice, I believe that this will slow down development on the bike. However I’m not worried, I’m self sufficient.

Lustig die Schlussaussage, nach der Jorge “ein Diesel” sei:

I’m a bit of a diesel, I start slowly, and then build up for the to start the championship. Stoner and Valentino are now very fast, but there’s only a few tenths catch up on, I am not worried there’s 18 races and the championship is very long.

Man darf auf jeden Fall sehr gespannt sein, ob der Spanier schon weit genug ist, sich ohne den Blick zum erfahreneren Valentino Rossi um Setup und einen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung kümmern zu können.

(via twowheelsblog.com)

In Ergänzung zum soeben geposteten Video-Interview hier noch einmal in leicht gestraffter Textform:

Year after year Valentino remains at the top of his sport, what do you think his secret is?

There is no secret, it is all about a hard job. He has a great talent, but he also spends a lot of time in preparation and training before the races and, during the weekend in the preparation of the bike and the setup. He has a great motivation in remaining at the top and that’s his power point.

Who do you think Valentino’s biggest threat is this year for the championship, and why?

I would put Stoner and Lorenzo at the same level because at the end of last season they were very strong. These four riders will be the main players for the championship. Other rookies could be a surprise, like Ben and Simoncelli. I think that for the championship we have to consider these three or four riders.

Valentino admits that there were times when he made mistakes last year. How do you plan to make sure that doesn’t happen again this year?

We made few mistakes in wet races, where we are not traditionally very strong. From 2009 we learnt that all competitors are very strong and very motivated and we have to consider them at the top level. Sometimes we will have to accept to finish behind them, if it is not possible to win. This is the biggest lesson we have learnt from last year.

Valentino will have the same team of mechanics once again this year, can you give us an insight into their working relationship and why you think it is so successful?

With some members of this team Valentino has been working for more than 10 years but now this is the 7th year in Yamaha. I think the chemistry that keeps the team strong is the motivation and the competitive spirit that the team has. The same motivation that Valentino has for remaining the number one is transferred to the staff and everybody involved in our group tries to be the best in his job. We always try to be faster even in the most common actions or operations in the weekend. Our continuous spirit and will to improve is our secret.

There will still be a wall in the garage this year. How much information about each rider’s set up is available to their team-mate, and how much is kept confidential?

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