Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi head into Saturday highly keen to improve levels of grip, as the fastest Yamaha Factory Racing bike ended Friday over one and a half seconds off the leading pace at Circuit of the Americas.

As Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez posted an effort of 2’05.031, the best Lorenzo could muster over the five and a half kilometres was 2’06.637.

“As in the test (in March), we still have a lack of grip on corner entry,” Lorenzo explained to motogp.com. “In the morning I was surprised to be so close to Marc, but in the afternoon – when the track improved – they improved much more than us.

“We couldn’t get the best performance because we still have a lot of problems on corner entry. I don’t have confidence there so the lap times are still not good. It seems the Honda can turn much more and in many less metres than us; we have to stay on the angle for a long time, with no grip on the rear tyre, so it’s difficult to ride like that. I’m still positive and I think everything is possible. We can still get much closer if we improve the bike tomorrow.”

Rossi was quick to echo the sentiments of his teammate:

“Unfortunately, the Hondas are very fast. It’s a big difference. We hope to get closer, but Marquez especially is very fast…also Pedrosa and Bradl. We have to recover the deficit and try to improve because we’re suffering too much with the lack of grip. It looks like it is going to be much more difficult than it was in Qatar.”

At Losail a fortnight ago, Yamaha kicked off its 2013 campaign in fine style by sealing a one-two finish for the first time since 2010.

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