Maverick Viñales
The three-day Philip Island MotoGP test has come to a conclusion with Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales proving to be fastest. Marc Marquez (Honda) posted the second quickest time, roughly 3/10ths of a second down from Viñales.
The rookies arriving at the MotoGP level this year from Moto2 were all quite quick. Whereas, Johann Zarco (Yamaha) fell behind his compatriots at this test, he was still just over a second behind the amazing lap time put down by Viñales. Zarco’s teammate Jonas Folger was the big surprise. Folger was very fast over the three days, showed he could string together quick laps, and ended with the combined fourth quickest time of the test.
Suzuki rookie Alex Rins also stepped it up at Philip Island and posted the sixth quickest time overall. Here are the full, combined results of the three-day test:
Phillip Island Test – Combined classification after Day 3:
1. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1:28.549 – Session 3
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1:28.843 +0.294 – Session 3
3. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1:29.033 +0.484 – Session 3
4. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1:29.042 +0.493 – Session 3
5. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1:29.101 +0.552 – Session 3
6. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1:29.103 +0.554 – Session 3
7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1:29.248 +0.699 – Session 3
8. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 1:29.342 +0.793 – Session 3
9. Jack MILLER Marc, VDS Racing Team – 1:29.358 +0.809 – Session 3
10. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1:29.361 +0.812 – Session 3
11. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1:29.411 +0.862 – Session 2
12. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1:29.470 +0.921 – Session 3
13. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1:29.547 +0.998 – Session 3
14. Danilo PETRUCCI, Octo Pramac Racing – 1:29.615 +1.066 – Session 3
15. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1:29.670 +1.121 – Session 3
16. Hector BARBERA, Reale Esponsorama Racing – 1:29.791 +1.242 – Session 3
17. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1:29.857 +1.308 – Session 3
18. Loris BAZ, Reale Esponsorama Racing – 1:29.977 +1.428 – Session 3
19. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1:29.978 +1.429 – Session 3
20. Scott REDDING, Octo Pramac Racing – 1:30.005 +1.456 – Session 3
21. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1:30.142 +1.593 – Session 2
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1:30.200 +1.651 – Session 3
Wow, Rins and Folger look good. They should be competing early in the season. Surprised to see Iannone down so far, Rossi probably didn’t care much, but the Maniac always seems to push hard.
Young guns out to impress, Mark there to let them know that he is not playing games, working to be the champ, JLo may not have the bike he can use to his style and Rossi turned 38 during the test, was hot to go fast one day and maybe not so much another, maybe a time for reflection, but race day is one day he always shows up to race, a season full of potential for some close battles, but this is sport and who knows what will happen, even #69 was a moto gp champion with only 2 season wins and JLo only squeaked by at the end a couple of seasons ago, can’t wait !!!!
Looks to me as if Honda has their rear traction problems well on the way to being solved. I think Honda is going to dominate this season including Pedrosa.
Prepare for a great motogp year ahead !
Fingers crossed they all stay healthy. Should be interesting to say the least. Could be bad for the elder statesmen mentally, if Vinales comes out swinging in Qatar.
KTM has made big progress, picking up more than 1.3 seconds since day 1. I know the next 1/2 second will be difficult, but they must have some talented guys spinning wrenches (programming?) behind the scenes.
True Jeremy but there are patterns emerging. Like Vinales being fastest in 5 of 7 days of pre season testing. In that MM said he is worried about Vinales speed not for just 1 lap but at race pace. That even though MM rode 107 laps his quickest wasn’t within 1/2 second of MV’s and MV had 8 laps faster than MM’s fastest.Vinales confidence is through the roof.
The fact that Lorenzo is behind even satellite Ducati riders, and that he can’t understand how Bautista can be going faster than he and Dovi are going, with Bautista on last years bike.Lorenzo’s confidence is in the basement.
Crutchlow should be about 5th or 6th and he is.
Rossi should be at least 7th but he is not even in the top 10. He will be when the flag drops however… he’s Rossi.
BTW after yesterday 3 of the top 5 on the time sheets were RC213V’s. The other two M-1’s, but it was Vinales and Folger on the M1’s. interesting , no?
Nice perspective on the confidence, without doubt it will have influence on how they drive and the results.
I wonder on an alternative universe where Vinales went to Honda what would the results looks like?
1st – 13th, all inside of 1 second.
Well Vinales certainly appears to be the real deal, and getting along with his Yamaha quite well. Good to see Dani up in 3rd. Suprised to see Rossi and Iannone down so far and behind Lorenzo. Crutchlow is where I would expect him to be.
It is always hard to judge from testing. You never really know what the riders and teams are working on. A flying lap to impress is probably priority zero for a lot of those guys right now.
I was watching his laps on live timing last night with about 2 hours left in the test. While he never turned a lap as fast as his fast one he was doing Lorenzo style laps within a tenth or two of each other for a long time. Probably doing a race simulation. He can certainly put in the scorching lap when needed so I believe he will be a good qualifier. If Maverick can also manage his tires like Rossi then I think we are seeing the next big thing in MotoGP