Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi made a strong start to this weekends Grand Prix České Republiky in this mornings first practice session, but were frustrated by wet weather in the afternoon.

After a successful weekend in Indianapolis, Lorenzo kept the momentum going today in Brno. The Spaniard was enjoying the flowing Czech circuit and was quick to top the timesheets, rival Marc Marquez taking over just half way through the session. Lorenzo finished Free Practice #1 with a best time of 156.840, only 0.037 off the lead, moving him to second place.

Teammate Rossi displayed a good race pace during his long stints in the morning. The Italian consistently lapped in the 157s and topped the leaderboard multiple times. His fastest lap was a 1'57.532, securing him fifth place.

The teammates were both eager to improve on their times during Free Practice #2, but only three minutes into the session it started to rain, putting the action on hold. With 19 minutes left on the clock all the riders went back out in the pouring rain to work on a set-up for wet conditions.

Towards the end of the session Lorenzo and Rossi started to quicken their paces but they were unable to improve on their times from this morning.

Jorge Lorenzo - 2nd / 1'56.840 / 14 laps

While riding in the dry conditions this morning I was quite surprised by our performance. It was good from the beginning but I felt that we had a lot of things to adjust, so the margin for improvement was high. Unfortunately it rained in the afternoon. In those conditions we are still quite far from the fastest. We need to work on our set-up for the wet, because it seems like its going to rain tomorrow, but not on Sunday. We want to be fast tomorrow if it rains; in case of dry conditions I think we are quite good.

Valentino Rossi - 5th / 1'57.065 / 12 laps

This morning we rode the bike with the dry tyres and dry setting. Unfortunately we had some rain this afternoon. Its a shame because we have to try something to improve the setting, but at the same time I did get to do some laps in the wet. I tried the bike with the wet tyres and the first impression was not so bad, but we have to work to improve. We have to prepare the bike as soon as possible because we lost one practice session and need to have a clear idea of what we will do in case of a wet situation. We have to work with the team and be ready for tomorrow. In the wet conditions we lose a little bit in acceleration. The problem is that, though Im in the third position, my rivals are one second faster. It looks like they are very strong.

Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

We started really well this morning; it seems that our base set up is already a good level for the Brno circuit. We still have some areas where we can make several steps so it was frustrating to have the rain come down this afternoon, stopping us from continuing our work from the first practice. It looks like it's going to be dry for the race but maybe wet for qualifying so we are working to try and make sure we are prepared for all eventualities.

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