MotoGP: Lorenzo continues to set the pace in post-race Jerez test
It was cloudy but warm for the first official mid-season MotoGP test on Monday in Jerez and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who had dominated proceedings over the race weekend, ended the day once more on top of the timesheets recording a 1:38.516 to celebrate his 28th birthday.
His teammate Valentino Rossi was only four-hundredths of a second further back in second, as he set his best time of the weekend. The team admitted they did not have any major updates to test, with both riders focusing more on the setup of their bikes, and completing 52 and 66 laps respectively.
CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (+0.306s) followed up his fourth during the race in Jerez by finishing third in the test, as he tried out some new suspension parts and worked on the electronics package on his RC213V as he put in 64 laps.
Team Suzuki Ecstar Aleix Espargaro (+0.382s) completed 63 laps and was fourth fastest as he used the test to try and find out if they had solved the chatter issue that had affected the bike at the three previous races. Chatter can be caused by excess grip, so the team wanted to know if they had fix the problem, or if it was simply down to slippery nature of the Jerez track.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez only completed 31 laps as he tried out a new swingarm for his Repsol Honda team, ending the day in fifth, 0.460 seconds behind Lorenzo as he protected his broken finger from any more damage.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith completed the top six, 0.831s back from Lorenzo, beating his time from Qualifying in the process. The Brit put in 41 laps as he finished three-tenths ahead of his teammate Pol Espargaro.
A number of the Open class teams made use of the extra track time to work on the setup of their Magneti Marelli electronics package, while Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera had some new parts to test to effectively turn his Open GP14 into the 14.1 Danilo Petrucci rides.
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini debuted their full seamless shift gearbox at the test with Alvaro Bautista, while Marco Melandri had a new swingarm and chassis to test. Bautista made dramatic progress to end the day in 11th 1.2s behind Lorenzo, while Melandri finished last in 22nd.
Click here for the full results of the Jerez test.
