Lowes and Arbolino continue pre-season at Jerez test
The Elf Marc VDS Racing duo post competitive times and complete busy testing schedules during a valuable two-day test session at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto.
After a successful start to winter testing in Valencia last week, Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino enjoyed another productive outing as preparations for the 2022 Moto2 season ramped up in Andalusia.
The Elf Marc VDS Racing Team complete their pre-season preparations with an official three-day test at Portimao, which commences on February 19.
Sam Lowes #22
The Briton continued to put in crucial development kilometres on the 2022 Kalex chassis on day one, with a key aim to find more rear grip.
The 31-year-old intended to focus on chassis set-up again on day two, but he had to end the test earlier than planned after encountering a tendonitis issue with his left wrist.
Lowes will now commence an intense course of physiotherapy on his left wrist ahead of his return to track action at the Algarve International Circuit in less than two weeks.
“I’m happy with the work done at this test”
“I struggled with a bit of tendonitis after the Valencia test last week and on the first day here in Jerez I was happy to complete as many laps as I did. I went out today and to be honest I was struggling with it. I guess I tweaked the wrist in Valencia and it’s just causing me some minor issues after so long off the Moto2 bike. There was less wind today and the bike felt good and even in the few laps I was able to run, I felt like we made a good step. I’m happy with the work done at this test. The team have done a great job as always and we’ve managed to eliminate some things that didn’t work and found a good direction with set-up moving forward. Our base setting is more or less fixed and that’s always one of the most important parts of testing to find a bike you’re comfortable and confident with. I’ve got a plan now to work on the wrist ahead of the next test in Portimao and hopefully it will be 100% there.”
Tony Arbolino #14
Experiments with different riding positions helped Arbolino feel more comfortable on his 2022 Kalex machine.
The Italian was also able to assess major geometry changes on the opening day and he was delighted with constant progress made throughout the test in establishing a base setting.
Arbolino was satisfied with the consistency of his lap times over the two days with the help of big improvements to front feeling and corner entry.
“The work we have done in Jerez has been positive”
“I completed a lot of laps over these two days and that helped me understand a lot of things and for this reason I am very satisfied. The lap time has improved throughout the test and now my crew and I have a clear indication of where we need to be better. We’re not so far away from where I’d like to be, and the pace was good. We just need to keep working and concentrating on where I know we can improve, but the work we have done in Jerez has been positive. I am so proud of my crew because they are working very hard to give me the best package possible. I am sure we’ll make another step forward in Portimao and by the time we arrive in Qatar for the first race we will have a good base.”
More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Moto2 Team:
JEREZ TEST – Vol.1: BACK ON TRACK AFTER THE WINTER BREAK
Jerez de la Frontera, 9th of February 2022. After presenting our new Moto2 liveries in our headquarters, here they are, finally back on track, in the circuit named after Angel Nieto. Two days of testing that saw Filip Salač and Alessandro Zaccone gaining more and more confidence with their Kalex and with the team.
Two different focuses: Filip’s goal was to do many km and to gain confidence with his bike, Alessandro instead focused more on the set up, to try to adapt the bike as much as possible to his riding style.
FILIP SALAČ #12
Two days of test here in jerez, it felt like the first day of school! We decided to focus on the feeling with the bike: I’m already adapting to it quite well and I enjoyed every single lap! I’m quite happy as after a positive first day, I did improve my lap time again by 7 tenths in day2. I had a small crash with the soft tires on the second day so I didn’t have the chance to make the time attack and I’m a little bit upset about it, but the pace was not bad with the hard tires. The team is doing a great job and I can’t wait to be back on this track in a few days!
ALESSANDRO ZACCONE #61
After an infinite winter beak it is so exciting to be back on track. In these two days of testing we tried to find the best direction to improve the feeling with the bike and we can consider ourself satisfied as we were able to try a lot of things. We were fast with the hard tyre but when we put the soft ones for the time attack I crashed in the first lap, so I didn’t have the chance to improve my personal best. On the other hand I have a great feeling with the bike so I’m sure our ideal lap-time is better than the one we made in those two days and we will prove it in the next test.
