Though the curtain has only just fallen on an enthralling 2016 MotoGP World Championship, the paddock was back in action today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia for the first 2017 pre-season test.
It was Yamaha’s newest signing Maverick Vinales who ended the day on top of the time sheets. It took all of 15 minutes for the Spaniard to adjust from his old Suzuki GSX-RR to the Yamaha YZR-M1, Vinales setting lap times only a couple of tenths shy of Rossi early in the day. With just under 90 minutes to go, Vinales went top of the pile with an impressive lap of 1m30.930s.
The Spaniard’s teammate Valentino Rossi was second fastest, two hundredths adrift, after an eventful day for the Italian rider. Rossi spent the morning comparing his 2016 YZR-M1 and the 2017 version, setting a best time of 1m30.950s on the current bike early in the session. A crash during the lunch break whilst running on the 2017 bike on a hard front tyre halted his progress, the Italian not returning to action until the final 90 minutes and only for a few laps.
The big story of the year was Jorge Lorenzo’s announcement that he would be leaving Yamaha after nine years to join the factory Ducati squad for 2017. With much anticipation surrounding the Spaniard’s maiden appearance on the Bologna bullet, he didn’t leave us waiting long. The Spaniard hit the track on the GP16 for his first four flying laps right at the beginning of the session. Lorenzo spent much of the day adjusting to the Desmosedici, and put in a late flying lap to go third quickest with a 1m31.052s.
All of the GP17 running was left to his teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who conducted multiple back-to-back tests on the old and new machines. To keep data gathered consistent, Ducati left the banned-for-2017 wings on the bikes. Dovizioso rounded out the top five with a 1m31.131s to cap off a highly positive day for Ducati. Lorenzo went out for a shakedown of the GP17 in the final five minutes of the session, and will ride it in anger for the first time tomorrow.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was fourth fastest on a 1m31.102s as he debuted in public the new, ‘big bang’ firing order RC213V engine. HRC have been chasing a much more manageable motor after two years of their riders struggling to tame the aggressive RC213V. Audibly different, the new bike seems to be a step in the right direction as LCR’s Cal Crutchlow was just a few hundredths behind in sixth, whilst Dani Pedrosa completed the top 10. Incidentally, Crutchlow crashed at the final corner with and hour and 25 minutes to go but was able to get the bike back to his garage.
Andrea Iannone debuted at Suzuki with a bang, quite literally unfortunately. The day had been going rather well for the battered and bruised Italian, who had been setting some impressive lap times on the GSX-RR that put him inside the top five. But a big crash in the final one hour and 20 minutes curtailed his session, and he only made it back out for a few laps in the closing stages. Iannone heads into tomorrow’s running seventh on the time sheets ahead of Pramac’s Scott Redding and Avintia’s Hector Barbera, who were both hard at work testing the GP16 they will ride next season.
Marc VDS Honda’s Jack Miller didn’t get his hands on the new RC213V like his satellite counterpart Crutchlow, but did have a new chassis to test. The Australian lapped inside the top 10 for quite a lot of the session, though was shuffled back to 11th at the chequered flag. Teammate Tito Rabat was 18th fastest.
Alvaro Bautista gelled well with the Aspar Ducati GP16 in 12th spot, just seven tenths off the pace, whilst teammate Karel Abraham got to grips with MotoGP machinery once again down in 23rd. The Czech rider has spent this season in WorldSBK with the Milwaukee BMW team, and so hasn’t ridden a MotoGP bike on Michelin tyres or with the unified software package. He ended the day having completed 59 laps.
Aleix Espargaro made his Aprilia debut and already looks comfortable on the RS-GP, completing 61 laps and setting the 14th fastest time on a 1m32.177s. Teammate Sam Lowes unfortunately crashed in the final hour and was 24th on the time sheets. The Briton’s fellow Moto2 graduates Jonas Folger, Johann Zarco and Alex Rins were 16th, 17th and 21st respectively.
KTM brushed off their difficult Grand Prix debut last weekend with an impressive performance in today’s test. Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith were 19th and 20th as they get to grips with the RC16, but were only 1.6s and 1.8s off the pace. Espargaro did suffer a fall at Turn 10 but was unscathed and returned to track soon after. Francesco Bagnaia brought up the rear of the field after he sampled a GP14.2 for nine laps this morning. The Italian won a bet with his team that if he took two Moto3 victories this season he would get to test the Ducati in Valencia, Aspar making good on their promise.
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