Valentino Rossi pips top spot on day 2 testing at Jerez

from Twowheelsblog

On the second day of official MotoGP testing at Jerez de la Frontera, most of the MotoGP riders decided to wait (and keep an eye the Formula 1 race) for the afternoon session to hit the track, after it began to dry out thanks to some wind and finally offering discreet surface conditions to test so lap times began to drop accordingly.

Valentino Rossi fans can pull out the yellow flags, as the Italian rider ended up the fastest rider of the day, taking over the top of the timesheets around 3:30pm from Dani Pedrosa with a best lap of 1’39”525 and the first rider to break the 1.40 barrier and was 0.007s faster than Lorenzo’s 2012 pole record.

While the two Sepang tests and the three-day outing at Austin seemed to show a certain superiority of the Honda machines, in the dry at Jerez, it was a Yamaha 1-2-3 with the reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo just 0.015s from his team mate and Cal Crutchlow in third just 0.049s and who lamented that he basically has only has the 2012 version of the M1.

Fourth fastest was Dani Pedrosa and he was just a tenth of second slower after a do-or-die lap and just before rain hit the Spanish circuit around 4pm and basically froze lap times.

Andrea Dovizioso took his Ducati to fifth and he was a little less than eight tenths from the top, but don’t ask us with which Ducati he did his lap time as each of the four Ducati rider has two different versions at their disposal. One has a different tank layout and one with a different weight distribution and has shark gills, and Dovizioso also had a new and lowerwindshield to test while test rider Michele Pirro continued with his two ‘laboratory’ Desmosedici’s.

Alvaro Bautista ended up sixth before suffering a crash at the Pons corner that caused the session to be red flagged and he suffered to micro fractures to the metacarpals his third and fourth fingers of his left hand, but apparently they will not rule him out of tomorrow’s final day of testing.

Marc Marquez must have had some serious problems today because he was seventh and almost 1.2 seconds off pace, and he was followed by Stefan Bradl who suffered his second crash in two days, while Pramac’s Andrea Iannone who finished ahead of Ducati factory rider Nicky Hayden, who closed out the top ten, and 1.1 seconds slower than his team mate Dovizioso.

The top CRT rider of the day was Hector Barbera in 11th and just 0.050s slower than Hayden and 0.022s faster than MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith.

Pramac’s Ben Spies did not have a good test day. He finished 18th overall and found himself not only behind Barbera but also four other CRT riders (Espargaro, Petrucci, Pirro and De Puniet) but also behind Ducati test rider Michele Pirro. Or Spies is still adjusting to the GP12 or 13 or whatever they are calling it or he is still suffering from shoulder problems.

MotoGP Jerez test Day 2 results:

01- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’39.525
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.015
03- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.049
04- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.105
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.797
06- Alvaro Bautista – Go&Fun Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.161
07- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.189
08- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.258
09- Andrea Iannone – Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.563
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.800