Twelfth place on the opening day of play at the Sachsenring in Germany went to Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo, who finished the morning session with a time of 1'22.209, just over six-tenths slower than his teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, who topped the topped the timesheets.
In the afternoon the Spanish rider ended the session in tenth, less than three-tenths off Dovizioso's time in seventh, but due to the wet conditions, the times from FP1 stood at the end of the day.
The German track has recently been resurfaced so Friday's two practice sessions were extended to 55 minutes, ten more than usual, to allow all the riders to try out the various tyre solutions made available by Michelin for this race.
“This morning in the dry I focussed on continuing to adapt to the bike and get the best out of it, and this is my objective at this moment. The new surface offers a lot of grip, both in the wet and the dry, and this is positive," Lorenzo said.
"In the afternoon, in the rain, I was feeling pretty good at the start of the session but afterwards I had a small problem with the carbon brakes that didn't get up to temperature and I lost the chance to improve my lap times at the end. Tomorrow, if it's dry, we'll have to try and do a good FP3 in order to gain access directly into Q2.”
