A busy second day of testing for the MotoGP field in Australia concluded with Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales on top of the time sheets from Honda’s Marc Marquez.
Today saw two new front and three new rear tyres introduced by Michelin for the grid to try, while Aprilia and Suzuki debuted their versions of the concealed ‘winglet’ fairing first unveiled by Yamaha in Malaysia.
Vinales focussed his efforts of long runs yesterday, and once again hammered in the laps. The Spaniard guided his YZR-M1 around the 2.7-mile Phillip Island circuit 80 times on Wednesday, setting a best lap of 1m28.846s to go almost half a second clear of the field.
Team-mate Valentino Rossi, who celebrates his 38th birthday today, managed 10 laps less than the Spaniard and finished the session down in eighth place on a 1m29.874s.
Marquez was the busiest rider by far on day two, the Honda rider putting in a whopping 104 laps on his way to second on the time sheets. The Spaniard continued to evaluate the RC213V’s new engine configurations as the team look to get the electronics to work better with it.
Last year’s Australian Grand Prix winner, LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, completed the top three on a 1m29.326s and managed 80 laps on his RC213V as he too tests Honda’s new engine.
Aspar Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista impressed immensely during the Sepang test, and was on good form today. The Spanish rider clocked 86 laps of the Australian circuit, guiding his GP16 to fourth fastest on a 1m29.411s. Factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso completed the top five.
Twitter: Tech alert!
New fairing from @ApriliaOfficial breaks cover! Check out the front of @AleixEspargaro’s machine…… https://t.co/deLkQErthJ (@MotoGP)
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro debuted the Noale factory’s concealed ‘winglets’, which are placed much higher and further forward than the Yamaha design. Espargaro reckoned in Malaysia that the fairing would give them back ’55-60%’ of the effect the wings had.
The Spaniard put 69 laps on his RS-GP today and set a best time of 1m29.502s to go sixth quickest ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Jonas Folger. Suzuki’s Alex Rins hammered in 80 laps on his GSX-RR on his way to ninth in the standings, with Marc VDS’ sole representative this week Jack Miller rounding out the top 10.
Twitter: The new suzuki fairing #motogp https://t.co/Qyy48zxZDv (@SteveEnglishGP)
Aspar’s Karel Abraham showed a decent turn of speed today on the two-year-old GP15 down in 13th, with Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci and the factory Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo completing the top 15. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa slotted into 16th having only put in 40 laps today due to a throat infection.
Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith on the factory KTM RC16 managed 140 laps between them on Thursday, with the Spaniard ending the session the fastest of the two in 19th and only 1.7 seconds off the pace. Smith brought up the rear of the field with a best lap of 1m31.703s.
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