RAIN DISRUPTS FINAL TEST OF YEAR AT JEREZ Inclement weather at the Jerez circuit in Andalucía meant that the Marc VDS Racing Team got only one day on track in dry conditions, with the other two days disrupted by rain. Scott Redding had just set the fastest time in the dry on the second day when his session was ended prematurely by a crash. The British teenager ran wide exiting the final turn, touched the grass on the outside of the track and highsided on the start finish straight. Redding underwent a precautionary scan at the local hospital, where he also spent the night, before returning to the circuit for the third and final day of testing. Redding was due to test the Suter Marc VDS MotoGP machine today, but was frustrated by the rain that brought a premature end to proceedings. The Marc VDS rider will now test the bike in February, as soon as the annual test ban expires. Mika Kallio was disappointed to lose two days of testing to rain, as he continues his familiarisation with the Suter MMXI he will campaign in Marc VDS colours next season. In the dry conditions on the second day the 28-year-old Finn continued to refine the set-up of the bike, as he closed to within one second of his Marc VDS teammate’s lap time. Kallio looked set to close the gap to Redding even further today, after making more changes to the bike overnight, but the onset of rain forced the Marc VDS rider to abandon the test after only one run. Scott Redding #45 – 1’44.4 “The first day of testing was a complete washout, with rain at the circuit all day. The second day I felt pretty good from the off and my times were coming down with every lap, but then I highsided on the start finish straight after touching the grass. I wasn’t injured, but I was coughing up a bit of blood, so headed off to hospital for a check up. The worse thing was that it was easily my fastest lap, but the team won’t let me have it because I wasn’t actually on the bike when I broke the timing beam! I’m obviously disappointed to miss out on testing the Suter Marc VDS MotoGP bike, but there’s always next time I guess.” Mika Kallio #36 – 1’45.2 “Yesterday, in the dry, I had a good feeling with the bike and plenty of information from the tyres, but with a very stable set-up we knew we weren’t going to be posting really fast lap times. Last night we changed the set-up to make the bike turn quicker and, during the first run this morning, we were definitely faster through some of the places we were losing time yesterday. But then the rain returned and that was it for the day. It’s disappointing not to have got three dry days on the bike, but my feeling was good and I’m confident that we know in which direction to go with the set-up once we return to testing in February.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Manager “Conditions were less than ideal here at Jerez, with two of the three days rendered useless by rain. It’s frustrating for Mika, as he needs as much time as possible on track as he adapts to our Moto2 machine. The fact that he only got one dry day made things difficult, but he still managed to close to within a second of Scott’s lap time. For Scott it was also a difficult test. He’d just set the fastest time of the day when he crashed on the start finish straight. After a night in hospital, purely as a precaution, he returned to continue testing today, but was thwarted by the return of the rain.”