FIM MotoGP World Championship
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain
June 12, 2017
Day One Test Results (all on Michelin tires):
1. Marc Marquez, Spain (Honda), 1:44.071
2. Maverick Vinales, Spain (Yamaha), 1:44.437
3. Jonas Folger, Germany (Yamaha), 1:44.972
4. Dani Pedrosa, Spain (Honda), 1:45.003
5. Aleix Espargaro, Spain (Aprilia), 1:45.046
6. Cal Crutchlow, UK (Honda), 1:45.296
7. Johann Zarco, France (Yamaha), 1:45.452
8. Scott Redding, UK (Ducati), 1:45.565
9. Tito Rabat, Spain (Honda), 1:45.582
10. Valentino Rossi, Italy (Yamaha), 1:45.635
11. Danilo Petrucci, Italy (Ducati), 1:45.863
12. Jack Miller, Australia (Honda), 1:45.897
13. Pol Espargaro, Spain (KTM), 1:46.107
14. Andrea Iannone, Italy (Suzuki), 1:46.130
15. Sam Lowes, UK (Aprilia), 1:46.389
16. Mika Kallio, Finland (KTM), 1:46.405
17. Alex Rins, Spain (Suzuki), 1:46.490
18. Sylvain Guintoli, France (Suzuki), 1:47.055
More, from a press release issued by Aprilia Gresini:
APRILIA’S GOOD TREND CONFIRMED ONCE AGAIN IN THE TESTS
ALEIX EXTREMELY FAST IN RACE SIMULATION. NOW MISSION ASSEN
ALBESIANO: “WE WILL IMPROVE FURTHER”
The day of MotoGP tests at Barcelona confirms that the Aprilia RS-GP is fast and competitive in extremely different locations and conditions. It no longer comes as a surprise. The level the Italian project has reached is quite clear, despite the fact that there has been no consecration in terms of results since the Qatar race (with Espargaró sixth across the line), although such confirmation has been more than earned at this point.
Today the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini worked on various fronts in the garage, from new electronic management logic to different front suspension configurations. Aleix Espargaró also completed a partial race simulation, confirming an extremely interesting pace and excellent performance for the bike on used tyres. On the 21st of the 48 total laps he turned, Aleix stopped the clock at 1’45.046, the fifth best time of the day.
There was also plenty of work for Sam Lowes who shaved more than a second off his best time from yesterday. The English rookie put a time of 1’46.389 on the boards during the 41st lap out of a total of 43 done.
ROMANO ALBESIANO – APRILIA RACING MANAGER
“This was definitely a good test. We took another step forward in terms of chassis setup and electronics. From this point of view, we improved brake engine operation and what is defined as RTD (rider torque demand), in other words, the diagram that manages the engine’s reaction to the rider’s demand. Overall, the RS-GP proved to be competitive on practically every circuit and we still have room to improve, especially in the first part of the race with a full tank. Aleix did a partial race simulation with some very interesting times and he found new benefits from the things we tested today. Sam also showed good progress. A few issues have hindered him recently and I am the first to be disappointed, but I am sure that his growth trend will continue.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS:
Miller and Rabat focus on set up at Barcelona test
Less than 24 hours after the Catalan Grand Prix Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Tito Rabat and Jack Miller were back on track at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for a one-day MotoGP test.
Miller was upbeat about the Barcelona weekend, despite crashing out of Sunday’s MotoGP race, having rediscovered the front feeling with the new Michelin tyre that was missing in Mugello.
The Australian continued to work on front end set up today, as well as testing a revised rear shock from Öhlins. Miller and his crew also tested a number of different set-up options for Assen and Sachsenring, the next two races on the calendar ahead of the traditional summer break.
Rabat, who secured his third consecutive points scoring finish on Sunday, focused today on evaluating suspension and geometry changes, again in preparation for the upcoming Dutch TT and German Grand Prix races.
The Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider completed 59 laps before declaring himself satisfied with the progress made and, uncharacteristically, ending the test early.
Tito Rabat: 1’45.582
“We had the chance to try a lot of things on the bike today; suspension, geometry and electronics in particular, with some positive results. We now have a good direction for Assen, even if it is a very different track to Barcelona. I’m happy with what we’ve achieved here and now I’m looking forward to some down time after two busy race weekends, to recharge the batteries before heading to Assen next week.”
Jack Miller: 1’45.897
“Another hot day in Barcelona, which made this a physically demanding test after back-to-back races in Mugello and here. But it was also positive; we got in more laps on the bike and the feeling with the new front tyre is better now. The bike is working well and we’re faster with each exit, so I’m pretty happy with how things have gone today. Now it’s time to head home and get in some training before heading to Assen for the next race. Let’s see what the weather does for us this year, as it did us a real favour last year!”
More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda:
LCR HONDA COMPLETE SUCCESSFUL TEST IN BARCELONA
Just one day after a tough weekend at the Catalan Grand Prix the LCR Honda MotoGP Team were back to work on their factory RC213V at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. Cal Crutchlow worked tirelessly through 60 laps in the searing Spanish heat, and ended the day as the sixth fastest rider overall, with a best lap time of 1’45.296 – over one and a half seconds faster than his best lap during Sunday’s race.
The British star quickly found the root of his issues over the race weekend, and despite a small crash just before lunch, the team continued to work well into the afternoon, including testing a new fairing.
Cal Crutchlow – 6th
(1’45.296 – lap 40 of 60)
“The test went ok and was a lot better than yesterday’s race, that much is for sure. There’s nothing we can really take from Sunday, except for a few points. We think we know the problem behind our disappointing race yesterday. We confirmed and clarified that in our first exit from the pits today”
“We tested a few different things, unfortunately I had a small crash just before 12 o’clock and had a bit of pain in the shoulder and in the elbow. I stopped for a little while and then continued the day’s work, and we’re happy with what we’ve done”
“Our priority now is to get back towards the podium positions, so hopefully we’ve done a good job and we can do that now when we go to Assen. I look forward to there, it’s a good circuit and I’ve had a podium there before. The team are working hard and so are Honda over the last few races. It’s been a difficult period but they’re doing a great job.”
More, from a press release issued by Dorna:
Marquez blasts to the top in testing
Reigning World Champion leaves it late to sprint up the timesheets in the post-Catalan GP test held today
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) topped the timesheets by three tenths at the post-Catalan GP test, leaping ahead of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Viñales and Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Jonas Folger at the end of action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The number 93 was faster than his fastest in Q2, and only just over a tenth off Saturday’s pole position time.
Repsol Honda Team riders Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were both fast, in P1 and P4 respectively. Pedrosa did 53 laps, Marquez 82, with the rider from Cervera blasting to the top late on. The two Spaniards focused on settings, getting ready for the coming rounds including the next stop on the calendar: the TT Circuit Assen.
Cal Crutchlow at LCR Honda worked on geometry, electronics and suspension to try and fix his problems encountered in the race with rear grip, ending the day sixth quickest after 60 laps despite a crash at Turn 10. The Brit also tried a Repsol Honda liveried fairing for some laps. At EG 0,0 Marc VDS Tito Rabat did 59 laps and was an impressive P9 as he worked on chassis setup, with teammate Jack Miller in P12 after 52 laps and three tenths down on Rabat. Miller worked on the front suspension, and on agility in preparation for Assen.
Movistar Yamaha had two new chassis to test, with Viñales trying one back-to-back and Valentino Rossi the other. Viñales’ fastest was a 1:44.437 and he did 81 laps – improving at the end – with Rossi in P10 after 71 laps. Viñales also tried a new fairing nearer the end of track action.
Johann Zarco left it until the middle of the day to head out, as Monster Yamaha Tech 3 worked chiefly on suspension and setup. The Frenchman did 33 laps and ended the day seventh, with teammate Jonas Folger putting in a good number more on 42 laps completed. The German was third fastest overall, and had topped the timesheets earlier in the day with his best of 1:44.972 despite a crash – rider ok. He tried a new chassis, but will stay with the one used until now.
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini focused on the front – for Sam Lowes the aim was to improve confidence when braking, for Aleix Espargaro it was to work on maximising one of the Granollers native’s strongest points on the bike. Espargaro also tried a new exhaust for a few laps and ended the day in an impressive P5 after 48 laps.
Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) did 28 laps and then called it a day before the end of the session, feeling some pain in his shoulder. He ended the day in P11, with teammate Scott Redding finishing up in P8 after 59 laps.
Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was back in action following injury and focused on re-adaptation, with teammate Andrea Iannone working on settings. Sylvain Guintoli, who replaced Rins when the Spaniard was injured, was also on track for the Hamamatsu factory.
Red Bull KTM Factory racing spent their day evaluating their chassis compared to the previous version, and working on improving the turning of the bike. Pol Espargaro was P13 after 75 laps and joined on track by test rider Mika Kallio, as Bradley Smith recovers from an injury to his finger.
Some teams remain for private testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this week, before the engines fire up for Assen.
More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda:
Repsol Honda complete positive Catalunya weekend with Monday post-race test
Following yesterday’s double podium, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were back on track for a one-day post-race test.
On another sunny and very hot day, Marc and Dani worked on setup, electronics and Michelin tyres. Marc was fastest for the day with his lap of 1’44.071 on lap 81 of 82. Dani finished the day fourth with a time of 1’45.003 on lap 18 of 53.
After two very busy weeks, the Repsol Honda Team will have just a week of rest before returning to action for two more back-to-back races, the Dutch GP on 25 June and the German GP on 2 July.
Marc Marquez 93
1ST 1’44.071
“The test today was good enough, though we didn’t test anything new in particular on the bike. We did a lot of laps working a bit on the electronics and on my riding style, aiming to manage the tyres better. What finally made me very happy was the symmetric front tyre Michelin brought here, which is the same, or more similar to last year’s. I immediately felt great again, on the bike and with the front. Actually I did my fastest lap on that tyre, as it was more stable. I was smiling again, at least on this track. Hopefully we can continue on this path with the tyres.”
Dani Pedrosa 26
4TH 1’45.003
“Today we had an important day as we tried a different fork, doing a lot of comparison tests. We also tried a few things on the setup, working on the bike’s geometry. The track wasn’t in the best condition, as the temperature was very high and the tyres were dropping quite fast, but overall now we have more info to keep working on. At the end of the day, the track improved a bit and we also tried a front Michelin tyre.”
More, from a press release issued by Movistar Yamaha:
MOVISTAR YAMAHA TEST NEW CHASSIS IN CATALUNYA
The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team followed up a difficult weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a successful IRTA test day.
Montmelò (Spain), 12th June 2017
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi were back on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya today to continue the development of new items for their 2017 YZR-M1. The teammates finished second and tenth respectively in the 2017 MotoGP Catalunya Test times.
Today the Yamaha Factory riders were each able to test one of the two new frames available. Tomorrow they will switch to get a feel for the other option.
After a challenging outing yesterday, Viñales was a man on a mission: he was one of the first riders to venture out on track again this morning and the last to return to the pit box as the session closed. His goal for today was to try one of the new frames as well as improve his feeling with the bike in hot conditions. Whilst consistently featuring at the top of the charts for most of the day, the Spaniard wasn‘t shy to put in 81 laps in total and set a best time of 1‘44.437s on his penultimate lap to finish in second position, 0.366s off the front.
Teammate Rossi also made strides in the blistering Catalan sunshine. He started the day by setting the provisional fastest time of the session on his fifth lap, before it was time to switch his focus to the fine-tuning of his bike. The Doctor spent the day testing various settings along with the second new frame option and came back with positive feedback. After completing 71 laps, he ended the day in tenth place with a fastest lap of 1’45.635s, 1.564s from the top.
Following the progress booked today, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team have decided to stay at the Barcelona circuit for one further day to conduct a private test.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
TEAM DIRECTOR
After the challenging Catalan Grand Prix, it was good to have the opportunity today to test in similar conditions and we are satisfied with the amount of work that we got done. Today‘s main goal was to evaluate two new frames that we brought here to test. Maverick tried some different settings and a different frame compared to yesterday‘s race bike. He could ride comfortably with a good pace, even on used tyres throughout the whole day. Valentino‘s focus has been mainly on testing the new frame, which gave him more confidence in the areas where he wanted to improve. Both new frames had some positive aspects confirmed by the riders and tomorrow they will switch frames between them.
MAVERICK VIÑALES
We tried many things today, many new set-ups and some different settings on the bike and I was feeling comfortable all day. I‘ve been riding well, riding with a lot of confidence on the YZR-M1, so for me it was a good day. Overall for the test the feeling was really good, in the afternoon it was better with the very hot conditions and we completed many laps in the ‘45‘s and then ‘46’s so I was quite happy.
VALENTINO ROSSI
It was a good day of testing because we had a lot of interesting items to try from the Yamaha side and I think it was a positive day because we have learnt a lot about the bike and where we can improve. At the end, the feeling was better even if we have not yet solved all the problems. Tomorrow we will have another day, with some further test items so we will try to continue the work.
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki ECSTAR:
A HARD WORKING DAY FOR THREE RIDERS IN MONTMELO
Andrea IANNONE: P14 – 1:46.130 – +2.059 – Lap: 60 / 78
Alex RINS: P17 – 1:46.490 – +2.419 – Lap: 61 / 62
Sylvain GUINTOLI: P18 – 1:47.055 – +2.984 – Lap: 13 / 55
Following the GP of Catalunya, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR remained in Montmelò circuit for the scheduled IRTA test, deploying the full roster of available riders; recent CatalanGP riders Andrea Iannone and Sylvain Guintoli were joined by Alex Rins, returning from the injury that took him off the team for four races.
The main focus of Iannone and Guintoli was to verify the data collected thus far, especially that coming from the last GP in Catalunya, while Rins´ only objective was to get back on a MotoGP machine and find that right touch.
The day has been very intense, with many data comparisons made and the introduction of a first bundle of technical improvements to the set up and electronic configuration. The work will proceed tomorrow with another day of private testing, again with three crews and riders taking to the track.
Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager
“It was quite a busy day, with three riders and five bikes, including a test bike from Japan. We had a vast number of items to test, but today, thanks to our mechanics and staff, we were able to check out many of them. Now this is good, but it also gives me a headache because we had so much feedback from the riders and now we have to analyse all the data again, and there is still a huge amount of work to do. Hopefully, we will take away the important information from this day and find a positive direction in which to work. Tomorrow we will have a further chance to test, which is very important to us, and I believe this extensive work we are doing here will be useful for the future.”
Andrea Iannone
“We had the main focus of retesting some items we already had at our disposal, since it was important we check if are moving in the right direction. We found some confirmation of this, which means we are set to move forward, working to refine what we have already developed. Then we have new items that arrived from Japan, but we only introduced them at the end of the day. Tomorrow we will test more intensively. It has been a hard working day, but that’s what is needed to become more efficient and solve some of the problems we are encountering with the performance and the feeling of the bike.”
Alex Rins
“I’m very happy with how the test day went, and to be back on my GSX-RR. The truth is that we didn’t try many new things since my first priority was to get back the feel of riding a MotoGP machine after injury. My foot didn’t hurt or give me any troubles, so I’m very positive. This will also give me the chance to introduce some new items tomorrow, and to contribute to the development of the bike. I’m not at 100%, but I feel fit and don’t feel as though I will have further problems because of this injury. Tomorrow will be important, both because we will work with new items and new setups, but also because it will be the final check before my comeback at Assen.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“We had a very busy day today, testing a lot of different bikes and different parts and also strategies. It’s been very interesting, and I think it’s been a successful day, a great day testing with plenty of laps. We’ve assessed quite a lot of different new parts and hopefully they will give Suzuki hints about the direction to follow with the bike´s development. It’s been a positive day because we made a considerable number of improvements.”