Spanish youngsters Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales traded times at the top of today’s sheets at the Phillip Island MotoGP test with the Ecstar Suzuki rider coming out on top by a little over a tenth of a second.
Vinales was the first rider to get into the 1’29s at the Australian track and ended with a 1’29.131 which was half a second quicker than his best race lap from the 2015 clash. It was also 0.161s faster than Marquez’ best of 1’29.292.
The final five minutes saw Viñales and Marquez swap fast laps, each taking a turn at leading before the flag came out. On his penultimate lap Marquez managed to set a 1’29.292, 0.161s behind Viñales with a total of 79 laps completed throughout the day.
Jorge Lorenzo made it a Spanish lockout in the top three with a 1’29.357, this came on the Movistar Yamaha rider’s 65th lap out of 80, only Andrea Dovizioso and Tito Rabat completing more laps than the 2015 MotoGP World Champion. None of Lorenzo’s runs were longer than six consecutive flying laps, the factory Yamaha rider yet to do a full race simulation but did complete ten laps in the 1’29 range. Magneti Marelli are keen for riders to do a full race run, including sighting lap and race start from pit lane, to assess the new electronics over race distance.
Valentino Rossi took fourth just 0.047 shy of Lorenzo’s time and 0.273s down on Viñales in first. Both Rossi and Lorenzo were within a quarter of a second of the fastest lap of the incredible 2015 Phillip Island race. Throughout the day Rossi was able to complete eleven laps in the 1’29 range, with five in a row ending his second day of testing.
Britain's Cal Crutchlow put on a late charge to put himself and his LCR Honda machine in fifth. While both the factory Honda riders are testing the 2016 ‘evo’ engine, Crutchlow continued to work on the 2015 engine and the 2016 engine debuted at the post-season Valencia test.
In sixth, Hector Barbera continued to impress on the GP14.2 with a 1’29.857. The Avintia Racing rider has only a single bike in Phillip Island and elected not to leave the pits on Wednesday during the wet weather. This put him as the top Ducati rider with Andrea Iannone ending the day seventh on the 2016 Ducati Desmosedici and 0.003s off Barbera’s time. Although not testing, Casey Stoner was talking with many of the Ducati riders, including Iannone, about their feelings with the bike and the circuit.
With an hour and a half remaining there was another brief interruption as Dani Pedrosa fell from his Repsol Honda RC213V at Honda corner, bringing out the red flag. The accident occurred soon after Pedrosa had improved to seventh with a 1’29.917, the Spaniard unhurt in the fall and the halt to proceedings lasting less than ten minutes. Pedrosa would end the test in eighth 0.786s back on Viñales’ best time.
Both Scott Redding and Bradley Smith put in a late run to break under the 1’30 barrier and into the top ten. All of the top ten riders present were within a second of the top time, Phillip Island again producing tight times. Just outside the top ten and 1.003s off Viñales’ best time was Loris Baz. The French rider is debuting a new seat unit at the Phillip Island to improve his position on the Ducati GP14.2 due to his height.
Having completed 88 laps, Andrea Dovizioso put in the most distance of any rider on track after a disappointing opening day. The factory Ducati Team rider was 12th fastest and three tenths down on his teammate in seventh. Behind the Ducati was Pol Espargaro in 13th.
Wednesday’s leader, Danilo Petrucci, was down in 14th position but able to improve his time by over a second and a half in the better conditions. 1.254 seconds behind his teammate and session leader, Aleix Espargaro will no doubt be looking for improvements on the third and final day of the test in Australia. The Team Suzuki Ecstar rider completed just two laps on Wednesday after leaving the Sepang test somewhat frustrated.
