Moto2/3 Valencia Test Day One

It was a cool first of three days at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, with the Moto2™ and Moto3™ classes sharing the track. Each category had one hour to itself, plus a further four and a half hours of communal track time. With air temperatures of only 12 degrees Celsius at 10am, the teams’ programmes were somewhat curtailed by far cooler conditions than those they had anticipated.

On the timesheets, Finn Kallio led the way with a leading lap time of 1’36.206, using his 2014 chassis but with 2013 body parts. He edged out Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2’s Jordi Torres by a single thousandth of a second, with second Aspar rider Nico Terol – who won last year’s race at the circuit – in fourth place, now using his actual 2014 bike as opposed to the prototype he tested back in November. He placed the emphasis on finding more grip, while hoping for better weather over the remaining two days. Both Aspar riders had already tested here in a private outing last week.

In third place was Tom Luthi for Interwetten Paddock Moto2, keeping out of trouble at the same track on which he suffered arm and collarbone injuries in a pre-season crash last year; on this occasion, the Swiss continuing using the 2014 frame he had first tested before the end of 2013, but like most was affected by the cool conditions.

The top five was completed by second Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat, who for 2014 has switched to the Belgian outfit from Tuenti HP 40. In sixth was Takaaki Nakagami for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, while Julian Simon was seventh for Nakagami’s previous squad Italtrans Racing Team. Sam Lowes became the sole Speed Up team representative following the departure of Italian Alessandro Nocco and finished eighth, while Tuenti HP 40 team-mates Maverick Viñales and Luis Salom completed the top ten. 11th and 12th spots were occupied by Caterham Moto Racing’s Johann Zarco and La Fonte Tasca Racing’s Alex de Angelis.

Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP and Viñales’ predecessor as Moto3™ title winner) was 17th, escaping uninjured from a crash, with the second Caterham of Josh Herrin 23rd; the American newcomer has now recovered from the strong fever that kept him out of track action in Almeria last week. Another rider to suffer a fall was Tech3’s Alex Mariñelarena (30th position), but like Cortese the Spaniard was able rejoin the action shortly after.

Moto2

Moto3 

This week, the lightweight class of the World Championship has three days of track action at the Spanish venue, which back in November had hosted the nail-biting end to the season in which Maverick Viñales claimed the world title. The Spaniard was present today, but testing his Moto2™ bike, leaving the Moto3™ crown vacant.

Amid far cooler conditions than expected, Antonelli topped the timesheets for Junior Team GO&FUN Moto3 with a leading lap time of 1’40.000. This was three and a half tenths of a second faster than second-placed Jack Miller on the leading Red Bull KTM Ajo machine, as he and team-mate Karel Hanika (the reigning Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Champion, 12th position) hoped for much better weather on Wednesday.

Romano Fenati was third, the Italian the leading rider for the new Sky Racing Team by VR46 outfit which is running KTM bikes and supported by multiple World Champion Valentino Rossi. Fourth was Isaac Viñales, the elder of the two Viñales cousins who is now riding for Team Calvo which carried Maverick to the 2013 title, while completing he top five was Danny Kent as the Englishman returned to Moto3™ with Husqvarna Factory Racing – a subsidiary company of KTM but which is set to follow its own path of development over the course of the season.

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SIC-Ajo’s Hafiq Azmi ended the day sixth, as Francesco Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team by VR46) and Antonelli’s team-mate Enea Bastianini – who steps up from the Rookies Cup – completed the top eight. Efren Vazquez (Caretta Technology-RTG) and Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing) were ninth and tenth, respectively. In the case of Oliveira, the Portuguese lost the front end which caused a crash at Turn 4, but he was generally pleased with both his new chassis and new engine.

In the meantime, Emilio Alzamora’s Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders continued the process of data collection as Alex Marquez (11th place) and Alex Rins (17th) switch from KTM to Honda machinery. Marc VDS Racing Team’s Livio Loi was 16th.

Moto3™ was sharing the anti-clockwise circuit with Moto2™ for four and half hours during the day, but each category also had one hour of track time to itself.

Testing resumes from 10am local time on Wednesday (GMT +1).