Lewis Hamilton 'had to be held back' during MotoGP experience

Yamaha had to force an 'eager' Lewis Hamilton to wait for his MotoGP ride after the Formula 1 champion showed up early to his December 'test'.

MotoGP bikes are affected by air and track temperatures perhaps even more than F1 cars, so when Hamilton turned up early for his December test in Valencia, Yamaha MotoGP team director Massimo Meregalli had to curb the Mercedes driver's enthusiasm as he looked to swap over with Valentino Rossi.

"Well, it was a nice day,” Meregalli told Motorsport.com. "They thought it was just a promotional opportunity, but it wasn't like that. Vale was put in the position to do some good practice shifts at the wheel of the Mercedes.

“He [Hamilton] showed up to the circuit very early and we had to stop him because he wanted to get on the bike at 9am, but it was cold.

“Then we had to change all the programme, because Vale arrived a little late and they wanted Lewis to get on the track as soon as possible, but we told him that in Valencia in December before 11am it was not possible.

“Having lost those two hours, then he tried to run as much as possible.”

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In his previous motorcycle track day, one which took place on the Yamaha R1 World Superbike, Hamilton suffered a minor crash, but Meregalli says this did nothing to affect the Mercedes driver's confidence.

"He had ridden a motorcycle only eight times before getting on a MotoGP bike, so in my opinion what he did didn’t hurt him,” said Meregalli.

“Then it is clear that we tried to put [the bike] in the best conditions, with a wet [engine] map and with tyres that were not the ones we normally use, also because we could not use them by regulation.

“It was windy, it was cold, so the conditions were not ideal, but he stopped only when we showed him the chequered flag."

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