Fresh from their stunning 1-2 finish in yesterdays Gran Premio de España, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were back on track today at the Circuito de Jerez for a one-day Official IRTA test. Yesterdays second place podium finisher Lorenzo was the second fastest rider of the day whilst race winner Rossi wrapped up his post-celebrations testing day in fourth.
The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team spent an extra day in Jerez today, following on from yesterdays stunning 1-2 race victory in the Gran Premio de España to take part in a one-day Official IRTA Test.
Aside from the three options of front tyre Michelin brought for the MotoGP field to test, the Movistar Yamaha team also focused on several elements to evaluate over the day. Lorenzo and Rossi tested multiple electronic settings for their YZR-M1s and made a further test of a rear fuel tank.
Lorenzo completed a full day of testing, completing 59 laps in total with a fastest time of 139.332 to finish in second place, just 0.19 seconds from the top of the timesheet. He also had the opportunity to test an optional exhaust before calling it a day on his first home Grand Prix weekend of the season.
Teammate Rossi was back to work at the track following his stunning race win in yesterdays Jerez showdown where he scored his 113th Grand Prix victory. The Doctor completed 52 laps as he also assessed the Michelin tyres as well as various other small details for his YZR-M1. The Italian wrapped up in fourth on the timesheets with a best lap time of 139.632, just 0.319 seconds from the top rider.
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
The main objective for us today was to test the three front tyres, which we were able to do successfully. It was good to discover that both riders felt the benefit from the same tyre. This is encouraging as it really shows Michelin is working hard in the right direction to give as much confidence and performance as possible to the riders. We were also able to make a further test with the rear fuel tank compared with the conventional one and were able to decide that we will continue with the conventional. Jorge reconfirmed a configuration of exhaust pipe and we were finally able to make some back-to-back tests with different electronic and chassis settings to complete the day. Now we are saying farewell to Jerez and taking our confidence from yesterdays brilliant results on to our next challenge.
Jorge Lorenzo
2nd / 1’39.332 / 59 LAPS
Especially important for us is that we tried a different setting to turn better on the corners and I think we made quite a big improvement. Apart from that we tried some little things but nothing gave a better improvement.
Valentino Rossi
4th / 1’39.632 / 52 LAPS
We didn’t have a lot of things to test today, just some small details. We tried the bike more in the 2016 version with a different fuel tank. For the rest, the important thing was the front tyre for Michelin. We tried three different front tyres, and we found something good; that was the most important thing. I felt better with the standard fuel tank so I think well continue with the normal one.
Pol Espargaro
9th / 1’39.942 / 62 laps
Im a bit surprised with todays outcome because we tried a lot of adjustments on the bike and all of them turned out to be positive. However, the solutions that we found on the bike really helped me, especially at a track with low grip like this. In addition, I also sampled a couple of new front tyres from Michelin, which I am pleased with. Regarding the tyres of this weekend’s allocation, we had to use mainly the harder compound, as there wasnt too many soft ones left, which I used in yesterdays race. However, we did use one soft tyre for more than 30 laps without any issues and at the moment its still my favourite compound. The good news is that with the setting that we made on the bike and the new tyres, we have made progress with the locking issues that we were having with the front. So the tyres which Michelin brought seem to be performing well, and we now have some solid points to take home. Well test the new compounds again after the Catalan Grand Prix and lets see what happens there.
Bradley Smith
11th / 1’40.335 / 71 laps
Even though the results from todays test are not incredible, weve made some good progress but I dont think this will dramatically turn around my season. Weve been struggling a little so far this year, and Ive never really found something that Im completely comfortable with. A lot of what we did today was going over the things that we adjusted in the first track appearances in 2016 so that we could reconfirm our knowledge. The adjustments that we have made arent negative and we can see that we have gone in the right direction. This morning we retested everything and made sure that we have the best package in our garage. Then, this afternoon we tried a couple of front tyres for Michelin. I just evaluated these as best as I could but we used the normal tyres for our setup work as these new tyres are for the future. After that, we continued to focus on the bike, by establishing a base setting plus modifying the rear shock and altering my riding position too. Its been a busy day and there were no miracles, but then again, we werent really expecting any. The team and I just wanted to keep our heads down, do our best and gain about 0.3 seconds a lap. In the end, we actually beat our objective as we were about 0.5 faster. So I am pleased with the outcome and the team did a good job so lets see what we can do at their home GP.
Jerez Test Times
1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 39.313s [Lap 11/91]
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1m 39.332s +0.019s [26/59]
3. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar 1m 39.536s +0.223s [14/91]
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1m 39.632s +0.319s [50/52]
5. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 39.646s +0.333s [65/76]
6. Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar 1m 39.682s +0.369s [8/71]
7. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda 1m 39.812s +0.499s [79/82]
8. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team 1m 39.879s +0.566s [10/55]
9. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 39.942s +0.629s [40/62]
10. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team 1m 40.027s +0.714s [46/50]
11. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 40.335s +1.022s [70/71]
