Yamaha’s Alex Barros blew away the MotoGP competition during the first day of testing at Catalunya, today. Posting a time more than one second quicker than Valentino Rossi’s (who was fourth quickest overall), Barros was also nearly half a second under the lap record held by Max Biaggi.
Perhaps, most interesting, was the fact that the Ducati riders, Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss, had the two highest speeds on the main straightaway at Catalunya, with Capirossi exceeding 202 miles per hour! Obviously, the Ducatis are extremely fast. Capirossi also finished second quickest in terms of lap time.
Tomorrow, the riders will go all out for fastest lap. The second, and final, day of the test includes a competition for a BMW automobile (given to the individual rider posting the fastest lap during a timed session).
By the way, Valentino Rossi was quoted as saying that the competition is much better this year — i.e., Honda will not have it so easy, as the MotoGP class is much more “equal”, according to Rossi. Today’s testing would seem to back that up, but we will see how the riders sort out tomorrow.
Take a look at the official MotoGP site for all of today’s times and trap speeds.
