Marc Márquez the best on day 1 of MotoGP test at Catalunya
Rider Marc Márquez was the fastest on day 1 of the MotoGP test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The MotoGP World Championship riders held a test day yesterday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where we saw Marc Márquez of the Repsol team Honda confirm himself as the fastest, setting a time of 1:44.071 on the penultimate of his laps around the Catalan track.
Márquez completed a total of 82 laps during this test day, setting that time on the penultimate lap of the day; while in second place was Maverick Viñales, who finished 0.366s behind the leader, a clear improvement for the Yamaha rider, especially considering the somewhat complicated situation the 25 had faced all weekend.
In third place was Jonas Folger. The Yamaha rider showed strong pace throughout the weekend, managing a lap of 1:44, finishing 0.901s behind the leader, and was the only rider alongside Márquez and Viñales in that bracket. In the remaining positions we had Pedrosa 4th, Aleix Espargaró 5th, Crutchlow 6th, Zarco 7th, Redding 8th, Rabat 9th and Rossi 10th. Petrucci 11th, Miller 12th, Pol Espargaró 13th, Iannone 14th, Lowes 15th, Kallio 16th, Rins 17th, Guintoli 18th.
The day was just as hot as Sunday’s race day. With maximum temperatures of 35 °C ambient and 52 °C on the asphalt, the conditions on the Catalan track were very similar to those of Sunday’s event.
The Yamaha riders had two new chassis, so Valentino Rossi tested one on Monday and Viñales the other. Today they will swap and each get to try the one their teammate used. This way, each of the official Yamaha riders will have a full day to evaluate it. In his final run of laps, when he set his best times, Viñales used a new fairing, different from the one used in the race. Monster Yamaha Tech3 focused its efforts on different settings, particularly the suspension, and tested a new chassis that did not fully convince them. Jonas Folger went down at Turn 5 without consequences.
The Repsol Honda Team concentrated its work on setup ahead of Assen and the upcoming races. As for the LCR Honda team, Cal Crutchlow dedicated himself to testing geometry, electronics and suspension, with the aim of solving the lack of grip at the rear end in race trim. The front end is still very soft for Crutchlow, but they need to adapt. The British rider suffered a crash at Turn 10 with no physical consequences.
The Ecstar Suzuki team worked on setup for the bike, with settings being the Japanese outfit’s greatest concern. Both Andrea Iannone and test rider Sylvain Guintoli tried both aspects. As for the recently recovered Alex Rins, he did nothing special: he rode many laps seeking to readapt to riding and to test his left wrist.
As for the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS team, Tito Rabat focused his work on the chassis, while Jack Miller concentrated on working on the front suspension and making the bike more agile through corners with Assen in mind. At Octo Pramac Racing, Danilo Petrucci rode in the morning, but was hampered by his Sunday crash and stopped riding at midday.
As for the Aprilia Team Gresini, Aleix Espargaró and Sam Lowes focused their work on the front end, especially the forks and geometry.
On to the second test day.
Source and Photos | MotoGP Official website
