The Moto2 World Championship kicked off its preparations for the 2017 season with the first official test of the year at Jerez in Spain today, with KTM’s Miguel Oliveira topping the time sheets.
Austrian manufacturer KTM will make their Moto2 debut this season alongside their maiden MotoGP effort, and Portuguese rider Oliveira set the team off on the right path after going two tenths clear of the field with a 1m42.316s on the new chassis today.
Idemitsu Honda Team Asia’s Takaaki Nakagami comes into the new year as one of the pre-season favourites to challenge for the title, and he did nothing to quash those thoughts today in second on the time sheets. Italtrans Racing Team’s Mattia Pasini completed the top three, just over half a second off the pace.
Luca Marini was the sole Forward Racing representative on Wednesday after team-mate and 2016 San Marino Grand Prix winner Lorenzo Baldassarri pulled out due to an inflamed tendon in his left arm.
Despite having to carry out the team’s entire programme for today, the young Italian still managed an impressive 1m43.040s to go fourth fastest ahead of Marc VDS’ Franco Morbidelli and Interwetten’s Tom Luthi.
Dominique Agerter was the first of the Suter-mounted riders in seventh, seven tenths adrift on his Kiefer Racing machine. Alex Marquez, on the second of the Marc VDS bikes, ended the day seventh and two tenths ahead of Moto2 debutants Khairul Idham Pawi and Jorge Navarro.
2016 Moto3 world champion Brad Binder was just a few hundredths shy of his old Moto3 rival Navarro on the second KTM machine in 11th, whilst RW Racing’s Axel Pons, Kiefer’s Danny Kent, Tasca Racing’s Xavier Simeon and Petronas Raceline Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin completed the top 15.
Testing resumes tomorrow from 10:00 (GMT+1).
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