Jorge Lorenzo’s career with Yamaha is over and his new career with Ducati has begun today, at the opening day of testing for the 2017 MotoGP World Championship season in Valencia, Spain.
Lorenzo sampled the 2016 Ducati, which was base carbon with red numbers, before his first scheduled run on the new 2017 Ducati tomorrow. Lorenzo signed with Ducati earlier this year.
You can see a couple quick videos of that, via the official MotoGP Twitter, below:
Here we go! First one out - #JL99 in red.
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 15, 2016
🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 #2017StartsNow #HappyNewYear! https://t.co/YrdJotRtqf
Getting acquainted... check out #JL99's first FULL lap on the Ducati on our Facebook page!🎥#2017StartsNow https://t.co/6C77uNiBVt
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 15, 2016
Indeed it’s Lorenzo’s replacement at Movistar Yamaha GP, Maverick Vinales, who topped the timesheets on the opening day of testing though. Vinales, on the No. 25 bike, clocked in a best time of 1:30.930 to edge teammate and nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi by just 0.02 of a second.
Full #TopGunMack mode. #MV25 makes his @YamahaMotoGP debut! #2017StartsNow https://t.co/YTtQfxcqju
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 15, 2016
Rossi survived a crash and will get back going tomorrow.
“With the new chassis the first feeling was OK, but after unfortunately I crashed because I put the hard tyre on the front, which on the right side doesn‘t give enough grip for our bike,” he told MotoGP.com. “I damaged the bike and I didn‘t have enough time to try it again, so now the guys are working and I will try the new chassis some other time tomorrow and we will see.”
"I didn‘t have enough time to try it again"
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 15, 2016
Crash on 2017 M1 hinders progress for #VR46 on day1️⃣
📰 https://t.co/FayJ7d3xTk #2017StartsNow pic.twitter.com/M2qQzJOvfT
A full report from the official MotoGP website is linked here.