Ducati 1-2 on first day at Losail MotoGP Test
The factory Ducati Team dominated proceedings under the floodlights on the first day of the final preseason MotoGP test at the Losail International Circuit.
With most teams waiting until at least 6pm before heading out on track for the conditions to be more reflective of when they will race here in two weeks time, it took a while for the action to heat up at the 5.4 km circuit.
Ducati said they were bringing a significant update to Qatar, and the GP15 seemed to like the Losail circuit, as Factory riders Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso led the way from early on. Iannone topped the timesheet’s with a 1’55.265, 0.7s off Lorenzo’s pole time from 2015, after being one of the most active riders of the day completing a total of 50 laps. His teammate Dovizioso was less than a tenth of a second behind in 2nd, making it a one-two for the Italian manufacturer.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’55.265 (1st), 50 laps – “For sure it was a positive first day, and we are learning more and more about the Desmosedici GP15 and its reactions. Today we carried out the schedule we had planned at the start of the day and we managed to get through everything we had to do. Now our engineers will have even more information to evaluate the situation, and in any case we were always quick. I am happy because we are improving every time we go out onto the track.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’55.363 (2nd), 48 laps – “I am very satisfied with this first day here in Qatar, because we immediately got off to a fast start and this is always important. For sure we still have a lot of work to do because there are a few aspects of the GP15 that we have to improve before we arrive at the race, but I am happy with the base settings we have established here. Tomorrow we’ll do some important tests to better understand our new bike, but as I said before today was a very positive start.”
Even the Repsol Honda of Marc Marquez could not match the pace of the Ducatis as he ended the day in 3rd (+0.289s), with teammate Dani Pedrosa putting in a late flying lap to finish in fifth as he tried out some different fork settings on his RC213V.
Marc Marquez – 3RD 1’55.554 (44 LAPS) – “I am happy with how today went. In Qatar you always have to be careful on the opening day, because the track is more slippery than normal, but today it was fairly good and you could go fast – although tomorrow we are definitely expecting it to improve further. Today we worked on a few small things such as the clutch and brakes, in order to draw conclusions. Now we have two days ahead in which to focus on our setup.”
Dani Pedrosa – 5TH 1’55.813 (33 LAPS) – “In Qatar the first day is always difficult due to the conditions of the track. As more rubber is laid down, the grip improves and it becomes cleaner and more comfortable to ride. Hopefully tomorrow the track surface will already be better so we are able to test more things on the bike.”
Team Suzuki Ecstar would have been encouraged by the competitiveness of Aleix Espargaro who finished 4th fastest (+0.433). They will look to test some updates to the GSX-RR tomorrow. His teammate Maverick Viñales was a further 0.4s back in 11th having ended the days testing early after damaging both of his bikes in crashes, luckily without injury.
Davide Brivio – Team Suzuki Manager: “It has been a positive first day of testing here in Qatar. The track is new for the riders with our machines and they both followed the development-plan we decided. Aleix is more experienced and worked hard mainly to prepare for the race, while Maverick took some bigger steps forward getting familiar with the track and bike’s feedback. He had a couple of crashes but of course he is a rookie and needs to get familiar with this circuit; which is very particular for general conditions and temperatures. So far the evolution process is fulfilling our expectations so we keep on with the plan we had, mainly focusing on getting prepared to the race.”
Aleix Espargaro: “Today we focused on adapting the set-up to the track, which is new for us, and to get well-prepared for the race. Lap times are not so bad but there is still room for improvements. We tested both soft and hard tyres: the first one is very competitive, but it is not suitable for this kind of track as it deteriorates pretty quickly. I feel more-confident with the hard tyre, the pace is not that much slower but the grip drops after 10/ 11 laps, so we need to work on electronics and settings to counterbalance this.
“So far we tested the same configuration we ran in Sepang 2, making improvements step-by-step, in particular the traction control which will probably be the key to find consistency with the hard tyre for longer runs. We have some upgrades to test in the next two days but our priority is to find more traction over the distance and to find a comfortable set-up for the race.”
Maverick Viñales: “I am happy for this first day because I finally had the chance of trying my GSX-RR on a new track. We did a lot of work mainly on my adaptation to the circuit and the finalisation of the set-up and electronics. Losail is a very peculiar environment, I need time to get used to the conditions and to adapt to the bike, but we managed to test some improvements in electronics, in particular the traction control.
“I made a couple of mistakes in braking that led to two crashes, but I’m not worried because I know they were my responsibility and my machine is following the improving process we had planned. We still have many improvements to do, mainly to finalise the new electronics and to get ready for the race, both in fast laps and in pace, but for the moment the feedback is very encouraging.”
For the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team it was a case of continuing to develop their seamless shift gearbox having officially announced they will use it during the season. Jorge Lorenzo finished in 6th (+0.563s) just one-tenth ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi in 8th, with the 9-time World Champion the first rider to crash earlier on in the day, managing to walk away unhurt.
Jorge Lorenzo – 6th / 1’55.828 / 43 laps – “It’s been very difficult to get onto the pace today. We don’t exactly know what happened, but it looks like we need much more grip on the rear when we enter the corners. I think we are still very far from our limit. The track is not very grippy, especially on the entry of the corners and also the curbs are very slippery and bumpy, so the track conditions are a bit strange compared to last year.“
Valentino Rossi – 8th / 1’55.938 / 48 laps – “At the end today it was not so bad. I had a quite good pace, we worked a little bit on the bike and we improved the setting. Unfortunately I had a crash at the beginning of the session. Fortunately I was not injured, but I did have one less tyre so I had to work the whole day with two sets and I was not able to do the time attack at the end. The feeling is quite good for the first day, the lap times are not so bad and it looks like this year’s battle will be very hard because all the bikes and the riders are very strong. Tomorrow we have to continue to work on the bike. We don’t have a lot of new things, but we’ll work on the balance and the setting and will try to improve the lap time.”
Sandwiched between them on the timesheets was Cal Crutchlow on the CWM-LCR Honda. The British rider made a big leap forward throughout the day, setting a 1’55.837 as he continued to try and solve the brake issue that was bothering him at the second Sepang test.
Cal Crutchlow #35, 1’55.837 (lap 26 of 38) – “Today was a good day, I felt confident riding and I only used two sets of the four tyres available to us so this is good for the other days. We worked on more of a ‘long-distance’ setting for the bike – we weren’t really looking for a lap-time and I feel confident that we could make the lap time if we really needed it. Tomorrow will be the day we’ll do some longer runs though to go with it.”
“We had to be a bit careful with the track conditions today because between 4pm and 6.30pm the track was too hot, and we’d be wasting tyres. Then from about 10pm the track had a lot of dew on it. We have to be careful of the situation as regards that and just stick to our plan which is to work from seven until ten, which is why we didn’t do as many laps as we wanted. But we’re happy enough.”
His teammate Miller is making progress on his Open spec Honda and was less than 2 seconds slower than Iannone back in 19th place.
Jack Miller #43, 1’57.228 (lap 43 of 49) – “I’m really happy with how the test went today, because we’re not so far away from where we want to be now, We’re inside the two-second barrier, just 1.9 to the front today, but we can’t celebrate yet because this is just testing and we still have a lot of work to do so I can be more comfortable with the bike.”
“It definitely feels good though, as we’ve worked hard for the last couple of weeks and I feel I’ve increased my fitness another step and it seems to be paying off so far. So we’ll continue to put in the hard work.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team’s Bradley Smith finished just 1 hundredth of a second behind Rossi in 9th, while Pol Espargaro could not match his teammate’s pace and finished in 14th. He was another rider to complete 50 laps around the Losail track.
Bradley Smith – 9th / 1’55.954 / 43 laps – “It’s very nice to be back at Qatar which is a track that I enjoy and I have had some good results at in the past. Overall, I am quite satisfied with my performance on the first day and to finish only four tenths from third is positive. We didn’t change the base setup which we were using in Sepang, aside from a few small modifications which were necessary, so we know we did a great job in Malaysia. Today I concentrated on undertaking long distance runs in order to prepare myself for race situations with the overall conclusion being positive. For sure, there is a bit of a gap to the front but the riders who were using a softer tyre obviously had an advantage because the grip level was low, as it always is on the first day at Qatar. However, this is likely to improve in the next two days and when this happens we will have more grip especially in the corners which is where our strengths are, so I feel confident about lowering my time further and moving up the field.”
Pol Espargaro – 14th / 1’56.615 / 50 laps – “It was a tricky start to the three day test in Qatar and to be honest, I didn’t feel as comfortable as I would have liked to as the conditions were strange and I wasn’t totally happy on the bike. The main issue was the front feeling as I didn’t have a lot of feedback from it. Because of this, I couldn’t feel how hard I was braking nor could I gauge the level. It was truly challenging but it could be because of the different compound of tyre that we used, which was not the same as last year. However, tomorrow we will try the other tyre option which is closer to what we used twelve months ago. There are still two days left, so we remain positive and I am sure we can make some steps forward.”
Scott Redding seemingly made some big advances throughout the day as he managed to finish less than a second off the leaders, completing the top ten in the process on his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Team Honda.
Yonny Hernandez continued his encouraging return from his shoulder injury for Pramac Racing, showing good pace to finish in 13th, just under two-tenths behind his teammate Danilo Petrucci in 12th on the Factory class Ducati’s.
Karel Abraham was the leading Open class rider in 15th for his AB Motoracing team, just ahead of the Avintia Racing Ducati of Mike De Meglio.
Drive M7 Aspar Team’s Nicky Hayden finished in 17th place, 0.4 seconds ahead of rookie teammate Eugene Laverty in 22nd, as they looked to try and find a good base setup on their Open spec Honda’s.
Nicky Hayden 1.57.099 (47 laps): “The track conditions were pretty good compared to the test here at Losail last year. Even though it was a little dirty at the start of the session the feeling improved very quickly. Today we were able to continue improving our work but we still have to make progress. We need to cut the gap to the riders at the front. Tomorrow we need to improve stability and grip on the rear end, we also have to optimise the tyre use. Today we worked on general adjustments, a little bit on the electronics and the basic set up – we didn’t test anything specific we just tried to adapt the set-up that we found at Sepang to this circuit. I was hoping to be a little quicker on this first day but even so we did a positive job and I hope that we can continue to improve tomorrow.”
Eugene Laverty 1.57.500 (44 laps): “At the start we had a setback with the electronics and I wasn’t able to ride much but then the mechanics fixed the bike and we made progress. The sensations here on the first day are better than Sepang. This bike adapts well to the conditions of the circuit and I’m sure that tomorrow we can make a lot of improvements. Even though this was the first day the track is quite clean. I set my fastest time on the hardest rear tyre which is quite positive. Today we worked mainly on the chassis and I felt comfortable even though we didn’t have much time to work.”
Athinà Forward Racing revealed their new livery and sponsors and also tested some new aerodynamics.
Overall it was a day of intense work for Stefan Bradl, who was not at his best due to some health issues, finishing 18th overall with a time of 1.57.156 while his teammate Loris Baz was 20th with a personal best of 1.57.376.
The German completed 26 laps on his Forward Yamaha bike, focusing his work mainly on the setup and the electronics. It was a different approach for Loris Baz, who was more keen on getting more familiar with the new bike and also on improving his pace on the long run.
Stefan Bradl – 18th / 1’57.146 / 16 laps – “Earlier this week I was not felling very good. I had stomach problems and I’m not 100% in shape. I though I was ok, but when I got on the bike I was really not feeling comfortable. I was forced to stop without being able to complete the program we had in mind. I hope to recover and to be able to make the most of the last two days of this test.”
Loris Baz – 20th / 1’57.376 / 40 laps – “It ‘s been a good day. The feeling is better than in Sepang II and this is a good starting point for this last three days of pre-season testing. I tried several new things today and I focused my work on the race pace. I’m glad of what we have achieved and I think tomorrow we will be able to significantly improve our lap.”
Athinà Forward Racing brought a new fairing to Qatar in their bid to win the Open title this year with riders Loris Baz and Stefan Bradl 18th and 20th on the timesheet’s respectively.
Hector Barbera on the other Avintia Racing Ducati was in 21st place, with Alex De Angelis on the Octo Ioda Open ART machine finishing ahead of the factory Aprilia Racing Team Gresini RS-GP’s of Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri.
Alvaro Bautista – “Today we worked quite a bit on the electronics to improve going into turns and rear grip. Even after changing bikes I still continued testing the electronics. Toward the end of the session we also tested the new material. We had some good results, so tomorrow we’ll pick up our work from here to improve further.”
Marco Melandri – “Unfortunately today I was very ill and I was only able to take a few laps. Losing time right now is a shame, but I preferred stopping today so that I can take the best possible advantage of the next two days of testing.”
Testing resumes tomorrow at 16:00 local time, click here for the full results from day one.
MotoGP 2015 – Losail Pre-Season MotoGP Test – Day One Times
1. Andrea Iannone (ITA) Ducati Team 1’55.265
2. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Ducati Team 1’55.363
3. Marc Marquez (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1’55.554
4. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1’55.698
5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1’55.813
6. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’55.828
7. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) CWM LCR Honda 1’55.837
8. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’55.938
9. Bradley Smith (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1’55.954
10. Scott Redding (GBR) Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS 1’56.112
11. Maverick Viñales (SPA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1’56.130
12. Danilo Petrucci (ITA) Pramac Racing 1’56.132
13. Yonny Hernandez (COL) Pramac Racing 1’56.301
14. Pol Espargarò (SPA) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1’56.615
15. Karel Abraham (CZE) AB Motoracing 1’56.638
16. Mike Di Meglio (FRA) Avintia Racing 1’56.719
17. Nicky Hayden (USA) Drive M7 Aspar 1’57.099
18. Stefan Bradl (GER) Forward Racing 1’57.146
19. Jack Miller (AUS) CWM LCR Honda 1’57.228
20. Loris Baz (FRA) Forward Racing 1’57.376
21. Hector Barbera (SPA) Avintia Racing 1’57.405
22. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Drive M7 Aspar 1’57.500
23. Michele Pirro (ITA) Pramac Racing 1’57.664
24. Alex De Angelis (RSM) Octo IodaRacing Team 1’58.026
25. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1’58.459
26. Marco Melandri (ITA) Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1’58.990
“So far we tested the same configuration we ran in Sepang 2, making improvements step-by-step, in particular the traction control which will probably be the key to find consistency with the hard tyre for longer runs. We have some upgrades to test in the next two days but our priority is to find more traction over the distance and to find a comfortable set-up for the race.”
“I made a couple of mistakes in braking that led to two crashes, but I’m not worried because I know they were my responsibility and my machine is following the improving process we had planned. We still have many improvements to do, mainly to finalise the new electronics and to get ready for the race, both in fast laps and in pace, but for the moment the feedback is very encouraging.”
