Is there a new sheriff in town? Too early to tell, really, but Maverick Viñales makes you wonder now that he has completed two days of testing at Valencia on his new Yamaha. Viñales topped the time sheets on both days, and ended with a spectacular dip under 1:30 (the only rider to do so). For some perspective, just four days ago during qualifying for the final race of the year at Valencia only two riders posted a quicker lap time, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. No one else could get into the 29s. Impressive stuff, indeed.
You can see how everyone else fared on Day 2 below, but it is worth noting the speed of Andrea Iannone on his new Suzuki.
| Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap | Lead. Gap | Prev. Gap | Laps | Last lap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VIÑALES, Maverick | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 1:29.975 | 66 / 76 | ||||
| 2 | MARQUEZ, Marc | Repsol Honda Team | 1:30.171 | 0.196 | 0.196 | 58 / 78 | ||
| 3 | DOVIZIOSO, Andrea | Ducati Team | 1:30.443 | 0.468 | 0.272 | 33 / 61 | ||
| 4 | IANNONE, Andrea | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:30.599 | 0.624 | 0.156 | 47 / 51 | ||
| 5 | PEDROSA, Dani | Repsol Honda Team | 1:30.686 | 0.711 | 0.087 | 38 / 41 | ||
| 6 | CRUTCHLOW, Cal | LCR Honda | 1:30.709 | 0.734 | 0.023 | 45 / 63 | ||
| 7 | ROSSI, Valentino | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 1:30.709 | 0.734 | 0.000 | 45 / 69 | ||
| 8 | LORENZO, Jorge | Ducati Team | 1:30.744 | 0.769 | 0.035 | 41 / 66 | ||
| 9 | ESPARGARO, Aleix | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:30.885 | 0.910 | 0.141 | 45 / 61 | ||
| 10 | FOLGER, Jonas | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:30.948 | 0.973 | 0.063 | 62 / 63 | ||
| 11 | ZARCO, Johann | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:31.015 | 1.040 | 0.067 | 55 / 61 | ||
| 12 | MILLER, Jack | Marc VDS Racing Team | 1:31.069 | 1.094 | 0.054 | 40 / 59 | ||
| 13 | REDDING, Scott | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | 1:31.118 | 1.143 | 0.049 | 42 / 48 | ||
| 14 | BAUTISTA, Alvaro | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | 1:31.186 | 1.211 | 0.068 | 59 / 69 | ||
| 15 | BARBERA, Hector | Avintia Racing | 1:31.244 | 1.269 | 0.058 | 39 / 59 | ||
| 16 | PIRRO, Michele | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | 1:31.816 | 1.841 | 0.572 | 37 / 40 | ||
| 17 | ESPARGARO, Pol | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:31.853 | 1.878 | 0.037 | 33 / 70 | ||
| 18 | RABAT, Tito | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 1:31.918 | 1.943 | 0.065 | 36 / 61 | ||
| 19 | BAZ, Loris | Avintia Racing | 1:32.161 | 2.186 | 0.243 | 36 / 52 | ||
| 20 | SMITH, Bradley | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:32.538 | 2.563 | 0.377 | 34 / 59 | ||
| 21 | LAVERTY, Eugene | Aprilia Test Team | 1:32.568 | 2.593 | 0.030 | 38 / 57 | ||
| 22 | ABRAHAM, Karel | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | 1:32.699 | 2.724 | 0.131 | 31 / 41 | ||
| 23 | TSUDA, Takuya | Suzuki Test Team | 1:33.305 | 3.330 | 0.606 | 68 / 77 | ||
| 24 | RINS, Alex | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:33.761 | 3.786 | 0.456 | 4 / 5 | ||
| NC | LOWES, Sam | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini |
See more of MD’s great photography:
IMO by far the most impressive of the lot was Zarco and Jonas Folger, both of whom are coming directly off limp not-as-fast-as-WSS 600’s- not an easy transition.
I don’t think Vinales is surprising anyone; he’s clearly elite.
It will be interesting to see if Lorenzo can adjust, since he’s a very ‘everything-just-so’ rider.
The biggest thing is that I wish the factories would give more support to the B teams; I think there are several 2nd tier guys who could consistently run in the top 5 on better bikes.
Q: Is there a new sheriff in town?
A: nope, just sorted kit.
(ie. the same kit that pulled a “horizon job” during the race)
keep your eye on Zarco…..got skills !
February 2017 cant get here soon enough!
Pedrosa really picked things up at the end. And Dovi was impressive, more so than what we saw last year, his victory aside. The rookies are competitive. And of course Vinales, who was fast on the Suzuki, is crazy on the Yamaha. Too bad we’ve got several months to wait till the first race.
Looks like we’re in for another great season.
Zarco was seriously impressive. Man, did Suzuki blow it there.
So, on the one hand, MotoGP experts always say that one must take any gap at Valencia and double it, in order to get a truer assessment of how people are really riding there. In that sense, what Vinales did today was flat-out ridiculous.
On the other hand, what happens at Valencia tends to stay at Valencia. Test times there don’t necessarily translate to Jerez or Sepang or Phillip Island. Furthermore, we saw how badly Jorge blitzed the field in qualifying and also during the race this past weekend, and that’s the bike Vinales was riding for this test. That same bike didn’t do nearly as well at some of those other tracks, so let’s just wait and see how everyone fares in the remaining tests before we jump to too many conclusions here.
hey, you’ve been posting some nice… emmm. errr posts?
Thanks for the info!
You mention yesterday JL leather colors, seems like MV will be the other Ninja :p
Unfortunately, no, Maverick won’t be allowed to trot out his own Ninja Ringwraith livery, a la Jorge’s sinister black and red getup these past two days. Neither will Jorge, for that matter, starting at the next test he’s able to attend.
It’s back to Yamaha’s usual blue and white Power Rangers suit for Maverick, while Jorge will resemble a a wickedly fast candy cane in the traditional red and white Ducati finery.
2017 is going to be a good year for MotoGP methinks.
Vinales and Iannone fast on their respective new rides
Dani seemed to be running well
Crutchlow was quick
Aleix was quick
Jorge looked comfortable on the Duc
Can’t wait until next season!
Nasty winglets be gone! The bikes just look so much cleaner without those appendages. Lorenzo’s GP16 looked particularly awful in black with the biplane winged fairing.
In my mind the top 3 (4) test standouts have to be:
1.Vinales just because ALIEN
2.Aleix Esparagaro for putting the Aprilia only 0.141 behind the “Great Jorge”
3.Folger and Zarco for jumping on the real deal 260hp GP bikes on unfamiliar Michelins and going fast right away ahead of the likes of Miller et al. who have had a year to get used to their mounts and tires.
The more I look at the bikes during this test, the more I think it’d be really cool to have each rider design the graphics package for their bike. I know the teams would veto that idea for brand marketing reasons, but the look would be awesome.
I like that paint scheme. I think Vinales is definitely one of the new aliens. It’s been good to see more winners and closer racing the with ECU and TIRE rules. I like it coming down to the rider anyway. Sure the bikes are different in their own ways and that makes it interesting as well.