Jorge Lorenzo hails “positive” test day at Jerez
Marc Marquez set the pace in Monday’s single day of post-race testing at the Circuito de Jerez. He led Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo plus Repsol Honda Team partner and Sunday race winner Dani Pedrosa.
To start with, conditions were very much the same as they had been in the pre-race Warm-Up session – far warmer than is usual in the morning at this time of year.
Fresh from his third podium finish from as many races, Marquez was first out of the pits as his team worked in the areas of electronics and chassis. Following a short time in which Lorenzo topped the timesheets, it was the newcomer who moved ahead in the second hour and his best lap time of 1’38.824 stuck for the rest of the day.
Crutchlow had no new parts to test and so focused on setup modifications, but did not push to the absolute limit as he remains bruised from his two heavy crashes of Saturday. The Yamaha Factory bikes sandwiched Pedrosa as Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi finished third and fifth, comparing two versions of their 2013 chassis with the goal being to establish one solid base setup; if achieved, this will allow the squad to rule out the time-consuming task of switching between chassis during race weekends. This exercise had not been carried out previously, as grip levels were too low in Qatar whereas Texas provided many unknowns when compared to familiar Jerez.
Jorge Lorenzo, 3rd, Time – 1’38.958
“It’s been a long day, it was not easy to finish the day on the bike because after three days full of stress of competition the only thing you want is to rest. I think the work was worth it because we improved some things. We tried many starts and I had get again the same feeling I had last year. We improved the start, which is important for the next few races. I think we also improved the bike and I think we decided the new chassis so it has been a positive day.”
GO&FUN Honda Gresini focused on the front and rear Showa suspension of Alvaro Bautista who finished sixth quickest, while on the team’s CRT machine Bryan Staring ran with a new frame. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl had suffered a lack of front end grip for the entire race weekend, thus today the German hoped to modify the geometry of his bike in a bid to find a proper solution. He would end proceedings in ninth spot.
Filling the void in seventh and eighth were the Ducati Team pairing Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, who had been highly keen to sample the new GP13 Lab chassis for the first time. Both riders conducted back-to-back comparisons with the current GP13 bike, although test rider Michele Pirro – who had competed with the new machine over the weekend – was not on-track today. Bradley Smith rounded out the top ten on the second Tech 3 machine.
A selection of CRT riders – such as those of NGM Mobile Forward Racing, Came IodaRacing Project and Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera – experimented with the first significant upgrade to the Magneti Marelli MotoGP ECU kit. This is aimed at providing a better interface for riders and teams when working on bike setup, while on the bike itself the main performance steps are wheelie control and an ‘anti-jerk’ strategy that cuts engine power when between off-throttle and on-throttle situations; this should allow for a more stable mid-corner ride.
In the case of Barbera who was the leading CRT runner in 11th place, the Spaniard also looked at several new chassis components, whereas Avintia teammate Hiroshi Aoyama tried out a new frame and swingarm combination. At PBM, Michael Laverty – who on Sunday had scored his first points with the team’s own-built bike – ran new parts as well as looking into the ECU update, whereas on the outfit’s ART machine Yonny Hernandez was looking to solve several setup issues, having been one of five riders to crash out of Sunday’s race. Danilo Petrucci was 14th for Came IodaRacing Project, working on bike setting as teammate Lukas Pesek completed the 19-rider field.
Not in attendance were Pramac Racing or Power Electronics Aspar. For the Italian outfit, Ben Spies remains out of action because of his pectoral muscle problem, whereas Andrea Iannone will undergo arm pump surgery in Barcelona on Tuesday.
MotoGP™ track action continues next Friday, 17th May, as the field takes to the tarmac at Le Mans in Free Practice for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France.
Source: motogp.com / Yamaha Racing
