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Lorenzo Tops the Jerez Friday, Winglets Present on Almost Every Bike

Jorge Lorenzo is the king of Jerez at the end of day 1 and after the first two Free Practice sessions. The Spaniard reduced his FP1 performance by around seven tenths of a second, and almost the entire field posted better lap times with one notable exception.
Lorenzo tops Jerez Friday 4 photos
Photo: YouTube capture
Jorge LorenzoJerez FP2, 2016Jerez FP1 and FP2 combined
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa was the only rider who could not improve over the morning session, and now sits in the eighth place in the combined time sheets.

Lorenzo, 1'39.555, was trailed by Marc Marquez, who clawed back one second from his morning FP lap time. Aleix Espargaro put his Suzuki GSX-RR third on the session's charts, getting in front of Hector Barbera. Surprisingly or not, Avintia's rider is looking better and better aboard the customer Ducati machine, and if he can also manage to make his tires last for the race distance, he has serious chances of getting in line with the satellite teams.

Valentino Rossi lapped some 53 thousandths of a second slower to a fifth-fastest FP2 finish, followed by Maverick Vinales, the rider hinted to be his new teammate from 2017. The top ten was rounded with Dovizioso, Redding, Pedrosa and, wait for it, Eugene Laverty.

Iannone was 11th, Crutchlow 13th, while the two satellite Yamaha are still struggling in 14th and 16th. Aprilia isn't making any spectacular progress, with Bradl ending FP2 in the 15th position and his teammate Alvaro Bautista relegated to the 18th position.

In the combined time sheets, the only change in the top ten from the FP2 charts is made by Redding and Pedrosa, with the Spaniard in the 8th position, as we already mentioned, swapping places with the Brit.

Winglets, winglets everywhere

It looks like the winglets are spreading like wildfire on the MotoGP grid, as almost all the teams are taking to installing such add-ons on their bikes.

Suzuki got no less than six winglets on Aleix Espargaro's bike. They should have been tested on Monday, but the rider insisted that the new fairings be sent to the track as early as possible. Aprilia also tested winglets on Bradl's bike, alongside Honda, who tried new designs for Marquez.

The purpose of these winglets is to limit the wheelie effect on corner exit, under hard throttling. With the former ECU software, this phenomenon was counteracted by engine management, but with the new unified software, the effect is significantly less powerful. This commanded a physical approach to add downforce on the front end and help with front wheel grip.

Still, Dorna and the FIM are looking forward to regulating the use of winglets in MotoGP, so we'll see where all this is heading.
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