Britain’s Sam Lowes rounded off the final day of Moto2 testing at Jerez with the quickest time of the day and ended up second overall after posting a 1’42.075 to be just behind the time set by Axel Pons yesterday.
The fastest Moto2 lap during a Grand Prix weekend still stands at 1’42.706, set by Stefan Bradl in 2011. Pons’ time was almost a second faster, but Lowes was also under the record lap by over half a second.
“It’s been a fantastic day, we worked really hard in the first two days and today we managed to keep the same direction. This morning I did a long run with 15 laps all in 1’42, the last one in 1’42.2, which is incredible,” said Lowes.
“In the afternoon we tried some new parts from Kalex, then in the final stages we pushed a little bit for the lap time, but not at the maximum, still doing a good job. I’m really happy because we ended the test in second position, but I was the fastest today. For sure we have the best pace and we can fight to win, this is the target. A massive thank you to the team, I can’t wait for Qatar.”
The final session of the test not only saw Lowes improve, but Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Team) was also able to set his fastest lap of the test, a 1’42.174 again well under Bradl’s record.
Fourth fastest overall was Paginas Amarillas HP 40’s Alex Rins with a 1’42.186s set on his 17th lap of 23 in the last session of Friday. Having had very limited private testing before Jerez, Rins focused primarily on getting comfortable on his 2016 Kalex with longer runs. Tom Luthi’s (Garage Plus Interwetten) 1’42.271 from the first day stood as the Swiss rider’s best time, seeing him complete a competitive top five.
With all of the top 11 riders under Bradl’s circuit record, the 2016 Moto2™ season looks set to be an exciting battle with riders already flying at the first pre-season test. The Jerez Test also allowed Dunlop to test several new tyre options for the 2016 season, include a hard tyre options for circuits such as Argentina, Australia and Sepang with newer surfaces.
Dominique Aegerter (CarXpert Interwetten), Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP), Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Marcel Schrotter (AGR Team) formed the remainder of the top ten on combined times, all within 0.8s.
Reigning Moto2™ World Champion Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) was 14th and 1.222 seconds back on Pons’ fastest time. Meanwhile Danny Kent’s (Leopard Racing) return to the middle class continues to progress well, the Moto3™ Champion ending 12th on combined times.
Simone Corsi (Speed Up) led the charge of Speed Up mounted riders with a 1’42.943s, placing in 13th and as the leading non-Kalex machine. Xavi Vierge (Tech 3) racing had a vigorous testing schedule aboard the new Mistral 610, testing a variety of parts for the French team. Having only recently ensured his future in Moto2™, Efren Vazquez was able to run on the Suter for the first time and made steady improvements to get within five seconds of the fastest rider.
