Moncayo and Faubel still looking for setup improvements

After eighteen hours of work, spread over three consecutive days, on 4PM on Friday the Moto3 riders have concluded their first test of 2012. The third and final day of training at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit has been a little better as far as the weather is concerned, with some degrees more on the thermometers and no wind it’s been good conditions to ride.

The Moto3 riders left with a lot of data in their bags, but aware of the intensive work they still have to do before the first Grand Prix of the year. The next step will be next week in Jerez, again three days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) which will be used to reveal some of the secrets of the new Moto3 category.

Alberto Moncayo and Hector Faubel left the facilities of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit satisfied and smiling. The riders from Cadiz and Valencia have both improved their best laptimes from the previous day by two tenths and got to a solid pace of 1.41. Alberto has continued to focus on the development of the suspensions and also made changes to the gear box. In the afternoon he also tested various tyre combinations to improve his time which in the end was a personal best of 1.41.21.

Alberto Moncayo 1.41.21 (56 laps): “The weather conditions have been pretty good on the third and final day. We tested several things, mainly some aspects of the gear change and suspensions. Thanks to that work we improved a lot about everything, but we had to go back at one point to rectify things. I’m very happy with today’s results, we achieved a very good pace thanks to a soft tyre, but we also tested an intermediate and the laptimes were similar. I’m eager to make our best laptime a little better. The good thing is that we could confirm new and different aspects on which we were working and riding faster, things to check to get a really good base setup. The conclusion of this first test is great, had I known to do these laptimes before going out, I’d have done so from the first day. We’ve improved every day, but there’s still a big margin to improve. At the moment everything goes smoothly, I’m very happy.”

Teammate Hector Faubel worked mainly on the electronics of his Kalex. He tried several mappings, but has yet to find a more aggressive solution that allows him to improved his laptimes with greater agility. Still, the Valencian was able to do a 1.41.60 and is confident to improve further in Jerez next week.

Héctor Faubel 1.41.60 (54 laps): “On this third day we continued to test many things and we found clear conclusions to request new modifications. We worked on the electronics and haven’t set up the engine management right and it doesn’t run as we’d like. In any case, I am happy, because the bike responds well and we also return to test next week in Jerez, where we have time to keep testing things. We still need to improve the engine configuration to gain a few tenths, so we will continue working to improve that. The conclusion of these three days is very good, I didn’t expect to get into the 1.41s. I think these are reasonable laptimes when you take into account the date we have and the cold temperatures. We are only a second behind the 125s, our situation will be developing rapidly and I believe soon we’ll be at a great level.”

Source: Bankia Aspar Team