MotoGP 2014- Jerez Test – May 5, 2014
Repsol Honda’s MotoGP™ championship leader – who missed the last preseason tests due to injury – made up for lost time with a 1’38.737 best effort recorded on the 28th of 55 laps around the 4.4km Jerez circuit where he took his fourth win of 2014 on Sunday.
In the perfect morning conditions Marquez was amongst the first riders on track along with Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing).
Marquez tried rear suspension tweaks to help with fast cornering and also worked on electronics and geometry settings. His teammate Dani Pedrosa was 0.64s behind him in fourth place overall having worked on front suspension to improve race performance in early laps.
Second on the timesheet was Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a 0.262s margin from the top with a late fast lap having worked on electronics and bike balance – also testing a new swingarm.
In third place was Valentino Rossi (+0.326s) who has recently incorporated a new chassis into his evolving Yamaha YZR-M1 package. Fifth fastest was the aforementioned Bautista (+0.898s), the Spaniard completing a marathon haul of 73 laps as he worked on front forks and rear shocks.
LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl (+0.976s) ended up sixth having elected to test despite feeling arm pump symptoms over the weekend, putting in 70 laps working on suspension, geometry and electronics to improve corner entry. Bradl will visit a specialist in Germany on Tuesday with regard to the pain he is suffering in his arm.
The test top ten was rounded out by Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing), Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar), all of them lapping just over a second off the pace of Marquez.
Ducati Team’s test work was handled by Michele Pirro in the absence of Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow, whilst Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) was forced to miss the test due to a severely swollen wrist from Sunday’s race.
Colin Edwards (NGM Forward Racing) also missed the test, with his Moto2™ colleague Simone Corsi taking over his duties as the Italian gathered some MotoGP experience.
Marc Marquez – 1st – 1’38.737 – “Today went rather well and we were able to draw some very positive conclusions. We didn’t really have anything important to test out, but there were some things that you don’t have time to look at over during a Grand Prix weekend; things like the electronics, the start strategy or some different setups. Despite feeling comfortable, we tested things out in order to have some ideas for the future. We tried a different rear suspension but in the end I went back to what we basically had used throughout the weekend. I felt most comfortable with it that way.”
Dani Pedrosa – 4th – 1’39.377 – “We did a lot of suspension testing today and made some setup changes to the chassis. It was all to try and find a better balance that will allow us to perform better in races. In general we did some good testing today and made some progress, although now we have to go to Le Mans and confirm that the changes are positive. We will have to see if what we have found here adapts well to the different temperature and track layout there, because here it was very hot and it will be cold in France. We shall see if we can adapt and get the best performance out of the tyres.”
Hiroshi Aoyama – 10th – 1’39.881 – “Today we used our time to try to improve things we cannot experiment with during race weekends. We also continued to test things we discovered during the past weekend and liked. Basically, we tried to improve our cornering speed, played around with various geometry and suspension options. This afternoon we saw several improvements thanks to our work, so we’re happy with that. Also, considering the heat on track, our lap times were very positive. This test has been very productive for us, we found improvements that will help us at the next few races.”
Nicky Hayden: “I went to the Clinica Mobile this morning and the doctors advised me not to ride the bike today. I don’t know why, but since Saturday night I have had swelling and discomfort with my wrist. This winter I had my wrist operated and I recovered well, had strength in my hand and everything seemed normal. It seems that it is nothing serious, and although yesterday I suffered a lot during the race, at least I could finish. When I return home I will head to the hospital for further tests to find out why I have a swollen wrist. With the French GP coming up in ten days I think it was the right thing to do to rest today, so that the situation does not worsen. We had no specific material to test, just some setups. We wanted to take the opportunity to try things that we don’t have time to look at during a Grand Prix. It would have been nice to ride a little and gather data, but we took the wisest decision. We’ll wait until Le Mans, where I hope to continue improving. I think last weekend we took a step forward, and our race pace after the first lap was similar to Dovizioso’s. The objective is to continue growing and get even closer to the riders ahead of us.”
