Lorenzo: The collarbone is feeling good…

Despite admitting to not quite being '100 per cent' fit as yet, Jorge Lorenzononetheless feels he is getting close to full strength as he led Yamaha's charge against Honda on the first day of free practice for the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

The Spaniard's aspirations of retaining hisMotoGP title have been hampered by injuries sustained at Assen and then the Sachsenring, and while the summer break would prove a welcome chance for Lorenzo get back into shape, he concedes he is not quite back to peak fitness.

Despite this, Lorenzo insists his collarbone is feeling good after a day of action around the 'Brickyard', the two-time champion notching up the fourth fastest lap, just two tenths from pace setter and series leader Marc Marquez.

“The collarbone is feeling good, it's not 100 per cent yet but it's close. It doesn't give me too many problems to ride at a high level. We are still very far from the track record and the track is still quite slippery. Compared to last year I think we are going to have less problems to fight for the podium. I won here in 2009 but usually it's not so easy for me. Sometimes the other Yamaha riders are faster than me but so far it's a good start. 

“This morning the track conditions were better than I expected and then improved further over the day, so this afternoon all riders improved their lap times. We still have some problems, especially in braking but I think our margin can be improved quite a bit. 

“We didn't make so many laps in the afternoon; I wanted to make more but firstly the red flag cost us time and then at the end I found so many CRT bikes there it was hard to get clear laps.”

Via Crash.net