News 22 Sep 2010

MotoGP: Four practice format set to return for final rounds

Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo was a fan of the four practice format at Aragon last weekend.

Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo was a fan of the four practice format at Aragon last weekend.

The final two rounds of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship will revert to two practice sessions on Friday after teams favoured the schedule in the series’ first visit to Motorland Aragon in Spain last weekend.

Two 45-minute sessions will be held for MotoGP instead of the usual single hour-long session on Friday at the Estoril and Valencia rounds respectively to round out the season.

Saturday’s FP3 and qualifying will also be reduced to 45 minutes in light of the additional session in MotoGP, making for a total of four 45-minute sessions instead of three hour-long stints of practice time.

“It was good to have two practice sessions today,” Fiat Yamaha’s world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo said of the two practices on Friday at Aragon last weekend.

“Even though the overall amount of time is the same over four days, four separate sessions makes it easier to get to know the circuit and what we need in order to be fast here.”

The decision was reached in a meeting by the Grand Prix Commission on Saturday at Aragon, electing only to implement the four session schedule for the final rounds since details of the other remaining GP rounds have already been published in various media outlets.

It’s expected that the four session format will be implemented full time for the 2011 season.

During the GP Commission meeting it was also decided to make the maximum permitted fuel pressure of the MotoGP class at 10 Bar, at a recirculated flow rate of 50 litres/hour. This was a rule that was first introduced in 2009, only to be dropped before the commencement of the 2010 season.

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