As testing finished up for the Moto2 class at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, it is British rider Sam Lowes who was fastest overall ahead of the season opener in Qatar on March 20th after stealing the lead a few minutes before the end.
Lowes has joined the Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Team this year after making the switch from the Speed Up Team and managed to finish with a time of 1:59.405 aboard his Kalex. Lowes has been so strong throughout testing despite having a small crash on the last day finishing no lower than third fastest overall over the three days. Most of the riders spent the sessions working on their race pace.
Twitter: Looking ahead to the first GP now great job by my team in all the winter tests! gresiniracing… https://t.co/i6bCQ67Dvj (@SamLowes11)
Swiss rider Thomas Luthi who was fastest on his Garage Plus Interwetten at the end of day two was only able to improve on his time by 0.072 seconds which was still 0.203 seconds slower than Lowes. He finished ahead of Dynavolt Intact GP rider Jonas Folger who joined the team who have expanded to two riders this season. The German rider finished with a time of 1:59.652 on his debut season and is looking promising ahead of the first race.
Paginas Amarillas HP 40 rider finished fourth before fellow Kalex riders Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Team) Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia), Folger’s teammate Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) who were all able to break through the 2:00 minute lap barrier.
Injured Alex Marquez who underwent surgery recently on his wrist after a fall during private testing was just outside of the 2 minutes ahead of his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS teammate Franco Morbidelli.
Twitter: Happy with the last one. Time to rest and recover the wrist for the race. https://t.co/XRTUrlYnzw (@alexmarquez73)
British rider Danny Kent finished thirteenth as the fastest Rookie with a time of 2:00.260, 0.855 seconds slower than the leader Lowes. Danny Kent won the Moto3 Championship aboard his Leopard Racing Team bike; the team decided to expand to Moto2 this season and also promoted Kent’s former rival Miguel Oliveira who finished twenty-first by the end of the test.
Simone Corsi moved to the Speed Up Racing Team and finished the three day test as the top Speed Up rider in twelfth 0.855 off the leader and top Kalex lowes. Tech 3 Racing Team rider Xavi Vierge finished the fastest Tech 3 rider in the class in nineteenth 1.280 seconds slower than Lowes and the only Suter rider Efren Vazquez finished in twenty-ninth 4.698 seconds slower than the leader.
Twitter: Combined results from the #QatarTest
@XaviVierge finished in 19th and @ISAAC_VINYALES in 28th #Tech3 #Moto2 #MotoGP https://t.co/3JALJKVsSN (@Tech3_Moto2Team)
Spanish AGR Team rider Axel Pons was strong in testing in the previous test at Jerez finishing first on day two; he was the first to break the lap record set by Stefan Bradl in 2011 before Lowes beat him on the final day. Come to Qatar and Pons, unfortunately, crashed out on day one. He was advised by medics not to go on track for the remainder of the test. He is hoping to be back to feeling 100% before the season opener in Qatar in one weeks’ time.
Twitter: RT @JesSanSan: Si duro es caer, más difícil es levantarse. @axel_pons un ejemplo de lo que es el tesón. Su lema es “never give up”! https:/… (@axel_pons)
Throughout testing, we have seen many riders from all classes sporting the ‘winglets’ on the front of the bike which are thought to prevent the front of the bend from lifting under acceleration and therefore wasting time. During the third day of testing Car Xpert Interwetten rider Dominic Aegerter was riding with new ‘vanes’ on the rear of his bike. No-one is entirely sure what these are designed to do, however, it has been suggested that they may be there to disrupt the airflow at the rear of the bike in order to prevent the rider behind from slip-streaming which can lead to losing places on the main straights.
Twitter: Aegerter debuts latest GP aerodynamic devices – https://t.co/Zjza1ZVrMI https://t.co/rRvWbBBNRg (@denkmit)
The ‘vanes’ did not appear to affect the overall performance of the Kalex, in fact, it improved significantly on the third day; Aegerter finished twenty-third on day one, moved to twentieth on day two and finished fourteenth overall by the end of the test. His time of 2:00.459 left him just over a second slower than Lowes having improved his fastest time from day one by 1.785 seconds.
With one week to go until the season opener at Qatar on March 20th, we look forward to the fact that a British rider is looking so strong going into the Championship after dominating at the last two private tests. However with the top eight riders finishing within just over a half a second it is set to be an exciting season start to what is always a brilliant championship series to watch.
