For the second and final day of testing here at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia it was the Yamaha of new signing Maverick Vinales, at the top of the leaderboard. Viñales again eagerly entered the track in the morning and was immediately on the pace. Upon his return in the afternoon he focused on bettering his bike‘s set-up and posted an impressive 1‘30.930s on lap 25, for third place, but he was far from done.
The 21-year-old rider‘s energy was seemingly inexhaustible as he rode a total of 76 laps and became the first rider to drop under the 1‘30s with a stunning 1‘29.975s on his 66th lap, 0.196s faster than his closest rival.
“We can be very pleased with the progression we are making,” said Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha team director. “Maverick‘s initial nerves have gone now and he is already very strong. It‘s amazing to see him drop a 1‘29s lap so shortly after his transition and we are also very impressed with how accurate his feedback is with so few kilometres under his belt on this bike.”
Second quickest overall was 2016 championship, Marc Marquez who was just under two tenths slower than Vinales. Andrea Dovizioso was third fastest for Ducati, the Italian rider venturing out on track in the morning with the 2017 version of the Desmosedici GP, continuing with the same bike until just a few minutes before the end of the session. He then switched to the 2016 bike for a comparison run of a few laps. The Ducati Team’s Italian rider ended the session with a best time of 1’30.443, which he set on lap 33 of the 61 completed.
New Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone was fourth quickest followed by Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi.
“Valentino spent the afternoon testing the 2017 spec bike and making comparisons versus the various setting options, said Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha team director. “Thanks to his assessments we now have a better understanding of how these features affect the bike‘s balance. We will share this data with Yamaha‘s Japanese engineers so they can continue developing these items, but for a first test we are already in a good position.”
After setting the third best time on Tuesday, Jorge Lorenzo rounded out his first test with Ducati down in 8th place overall. The Spanish racer completed three exits in the morning with the 2016 version of the Desmosedici GP, before switcheing to the new bike, completing 66 laps today with a best time of 1’30.744.
Classification of Day 2 at Valencia Test:
1. Maverick VIÑALES - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'29.975
2. Marc MARQUEZ - Repsol Honda Team - 1'30.171 + 0.196
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO - Ducati Team - 1'30.443 + 0.468
4. Andrea IANNONE - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'30.599 + 0.624
5. Dani PEDROSA - Repsol Honda Team - 1'30.686 + 0.711
6. Cal CRUTCHLOW - LCR Honda - 1'30.709 + 0.734
7. Valentino ROSSI - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'30.709 + 0.734
8. Jorge LORENZO - Ducati Team - 1'30.744 + 0.769
9. Aleix ESPARGARO - Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'30.885 + 0.910
10. Jonas FOLGER - Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'30.948 + 0.973
11. Johann ZARCO - Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'31.015 + 1.040
12. Jack MILLER - Marc VDS Racing Team - 1'31.069 + 1.094
13. Scott REDDING - OCTO Pramac Yakhnich - 1'31.118 + 1.143
14. Alvaro BAUTISTA - Pull & Bear Aspar Team - 1'31.186 + 1.211
15. Hector BARBERA - Avintia Racing - 1'31.244 + 1.269
16. Michele PIRRO - OCTO Pramac Yakhnich – 1’31.816 +1.841
17. Pol ESPARGARO - Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1:31.853 +1.878/ 70
18. Tito RABAT - EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1:31.918 +1.943
19. Loris BAZ - Avintia Racing - 1:32.161 +2.186
20. Bradley SMITH - Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1:32.538 +2.563/ 59
21. Eugene LAVERTY - Aprilia Test Team - 1:32.568 +2.593
22. Karel ABRAHAM - Pull & Bear Aspar Team - 1:32.699 +2.724
23. Takuya TSUDA - Suzuki Test Team – 1’33.305 +3.330
24. Alex RINS - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'33.761 + 3.786
