Main man Marquez the pace setter again as final MotoGP round for 2014 gets underway
The MotoGP FP2 session saw Marc Marquez on the pace with Andrea Dovizioso and Aleix Espargaro also amongst the top three. Marquez was also the fastest ride on the combined timesheets from FP1 and FP2, in front of Jorge Lorenzo and Dovizioso.
Marquez’s (Repsol Honda Team) time of 1’31.296 from the morning session was the fastest of the day, with Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) second best overall courtesy of a 1’31.489 lap. Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was third fastest on Friday courtesy of his best lap from FP2, which was less than 0.1s off Lorenzo’s pace.
Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) were both in Friday’s top five, which featured a real mix of manufacturers and technical packages.
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team), Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) completed the top ten.
Wild card Randy de Puniet (Team Suzuki MotoGP) improved by over a second towards the end of the FP2 session, before a technical fault with the GSX-RR saw him pull over at trackside with smoke pouring from engine. He was 19th overall.
Moto2: Opening day in Valencia ends with in-form Zarco on top
In the Moto2 class at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, the top three riders were Johann Zarco, Thomas Luthi and Tito Rabat across the Friday practices.
Zarco (AirAsia Caterham) led the way in FP2 and FP1. A 1’35.264s lap in the afternoon put the French rider top of the combined timesheets, despite a crash towards the end of FP2. Luthi (Interwetten Sitag) followed just behind, second overall with a 1’35.364s from FP2. The top three was completed by Moto2 World Champion Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team).
Both Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team) and Maverick Viñales (Paginas Armarillas HP 40) were in the top five based on their FP2 times. The pair were both within 0.7s of Zarco.
Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert), Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team), Luis Salom (Paginas Armarillas HP 40) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) all improved their times in FP2. Anthony West (QMMF Racing Team) completed the top ten, having set his best time of the day in FP1.
Moto3: Antonelli in front in Friday sessions ahead of title candidates Marquez and Miller
As Friday’s Moto3™ sessions concluded at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, Niccolo Antonelli led the way from his rivals in FP2, with title candidates Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) also towards the business end of the timesheet.
Antonelli (Junior Team GO&FUN) led in the morning session with a 1’40.338 lap and improved to 1’39.647 to stay on top in FP2. On the first day of the title showdown weekend Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) trailed the Italian by 0.201s, whilst standings leader Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was 0.269s off Antonelli’s pace.
Enea Bastianini (Junior Team Go&FUN Moto3) and Andrea Migno (Mahindra Racing) were both inside the top five, around three tenths off P1.
Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46), Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0), Brad Binder (Ambrogio Racing), John McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG) and Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG) completed the top ten.
Wild card Albert Arenas (Calvo Team) was an early crasher, high siding out of Turn 6. Zulfahmi Khairuddin fell at Turn 2 with ten minutes of the session to go. Both riders were OK.
Repsol HRC Report
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez recorded the fastest time in both practice sessions today for Sunday’s Valencia GP, with teammate Dani Pedrosa 5th in the combined times.
The times were already fast from FP1 with Marc recording a blistering lap of 1’31.296 on his final lap of 19, 0.332 seconds faster than the circuit lap record (Pedrosa – 2013, 1’31.628). Dani finished the session in 4th with his lap of 1’31.647 also on his final lap of 19.
In the afternoon, although the track temperature was 8ºC warmer, the wind increased and the track became slower. Marc and Dani weren’t able to improve and their times from this morning placed them 1st and 5th on this first day. The field is incredibly close, and with under one second separating the top twelve riders there is sure to be a great battle for pole position tomorrow.
Marc Marquez – 1st – 1’31.296 – “The best thing about today was how I felt on the bike. Finishing fastest is a reference, but the most important thing is that the pace was good, and we have been improving and testing things out. This afternoon the track was a little slower, but we hope to continue improving tomorrow. I’m sure that there will be a nice fight for pole between myself, Jorge, Dani and Valentino.”
Dani Pedrosa – 5th – 1’31.647 – “Today will did a lot of tyre testing, above all with the front. We tried out three different types of front tyre and rode with the soft rear in the two practice sessions. I think that overall the state of the track allowed us to ride fast, although in the afternoon it felt harder to improve our times because of the wind. We have to work to improve our setup and make a good tyre choice for the race, because the times are tight for both the factory bikes and non-factory bikes.”
Yamaha Report
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were on track today for the first practice session of the last race of the season, the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Lorenzo made a strong start this morning at the Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit. The Majorcan set multiple fastest laps and led for most of the session, before settling for second place just 0.193 from the front.
The afternoon saw more of the same from him, riding smoothly at the start of the session while testing the asymmetric front tyre. He was unable to improve on his 1’31.489 lap from the morning and completed the day as second in the combined times.
It was a busy day for teammate Valentino Rossi. While trying to find the perfect set up, the nine-time world champion set a time of 1’31.767 in the morning to finished in fifth position, just 0.471 seconds behind the leader.
He wasted no time in the afternoon and was the first out on track and briefly led the way, before starting a consistently fast race simulation. Throughout the session he worked through a couple of set up changes, but didn’t improve his time and finished in seventh place for the day.
Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd / 1’31.489 / 20 laps – “Today, having a very good pace came easy from the beginning. This is the first time this season that I got to ride such a good pace this easily, so I’m very happy about the performance of the bike. Now we have to try some things and try to improve, but the pace of the bike is very good and I’m really satisfied. I was satisfied about the asymmetrical tyre. The “32” side doesn’t give exactly the same level of grip as the side of the “31”; it’s a little bit less but there isn’t a big difference. Tomorrow I’ll probably try the “32” but the question is about the rear. I think the soft tyre could be too soft for the race. You could probably manage to finish the race, but the soft tyre will start to drop a little. The hard tyre is too hard, but tomorrow we’re going to try it and see which option is better.
Valentino Rossi – 7th / 1’31.767 / 21 laps – “I think that the front tyre choice will be very important. We have three options and here we have the asymmetric tyre for the second time, which is not so bad. I tried it and also tried the medium, but we still have to decide which one we’ll use because we’re not all good with the setting. We had some problems that at the end of this morning weren’t so bad, but this afternoon I struggled a lot more to ride the bike and I didn’t feel good. In fact, my rhythm is not fantastic, so we have to try to make things better tomorrow. We’re a little bit worried, because usually we go with the harder tyre, but on the hard tyre we lose a lot of time, but the soft tyre looks to be a little bit too soft. This is the situation at the moment, but we hope that the track will improve so we can use the softer option.”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director – “It’s a good starting day. Jorge had a better day than Vale, but it’s the first day and there’s still a lot of time to fix things and to decide on the tyres. Jorge had really good speed and pace. We tested a few things with Vale today, but unfortunately he couldn’t improve his time and we need to find what’s missing. There is still some work to do to get him more to the front, where he belongs, but we are confident that we can do it. We know that this weekend is going to be hot and we’ll put in all our focus as usual to be ready on Sunday afternoon.”
Confident start on the opening day at Valencia for Espargaro and Smith
Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Pol Espargaro rode to ninth place in the first day of practice at the season finale in Valencia as he aims to complete his impressive rookie year in a highly competitive manner. The young Spaniard began the weekend at the 4005 metre Ricardo Tormo circuit by using the morning practice to confirm the base setup of his Yamaha YZR-M1 with his Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team. He completed the session in ninth position with a best time of 1.32.155. Later in the afternoon, Espargaro picked up from where he left off and persisted with his hard work on the setup for the race on Sunday at the sunny albeit windy track. He finished FP2 by posting a best time of 1’32.013, only 0.455 of a second from the rear of the front row, whilst he also set the quickest Yamaha speed of 327.8 km/h. His start today leaves the 23 year old rider fully optimistic as he intends to snatch a strong placement in tomorrow’s qualifying at the final MotoGP round of 2014.
On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 garage, Bradley Smith closed the opening day of action at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana with a tenth place finish in the combined standings. Smith completed the morning session with a firm ride to sixth where he posted a best time of 1’32.019. Free practice 2 saw the young British rider power onwards before concluding the practice with a 1’32.024 as he explored setup options in preparation for the 30 lap sprint on Sunday. The result today sees him poised to improve his time further as well as leaving him charged with determination for the qualifying practice tomorrow where he will aim for a position on the front two rows of the grid.
Pol Espargaro – 9th / 1’32.013 / 21 laps – “It has not been a bad day for us. We managed to improve a lot this afternoon, but I still think we have quite a lot of margin to progress for Sunday. We need to work more on our front setting as the tyre that I am feeling most comfortable with is not the best option for race distance. Therefore, this is not an ideal situation to be in right now, but I’m convinced that after we check the data thoroughly this afternoon, we will find the right direction to try and improve my feeling for tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I didn’t have too much pain in my foot during the day which I’m quite relieved about as I was a bit worried, but now I look confidently towards Sunday’s race.”
Bradley Smith – 10th / 1’32.019 / 21 laps – “The opening day of practice in Valencia went quite well for me and there are plenty of positives to take. We tried a lot of different options, particularly in the afternoon practice session as we had already established a solid base setup in the morning which I completed in sixth. It was a strong start and so we continued to explore different options in FP2 as we aimed to improve further. We have a good understanding of what we need to do to reduce the lap times tomorrow and we certainly found a good direction. The Yamaha is running very well here and is really consistent which I am pleased with. In addition, I rode my lap time on used tyres that had run almost race distance. Overall, I am feeling optimistic at the moment and we will continue our work to close the gap even more to the top six.”
Espargaro already fast at Valencia
The last racing week-end of the 2014 season is looking bright for the NGM Forward Racing team and its riders in the Ricardo Tormo Circuit of Valencia. Aleix Espargaro, who already clinched the Open Class World Title two weeks ago in Sepang, has once more shown his potential finishing the first day of practise in fourth position overall. De Angelis also displayed a good pace, ending up in 14th place, a bit more than a second slower than Marc Marquez who sits on the top of the board.
Espargaro was immediately quick this morning posting a fast lap of 1.31.640. He was able to slightly improve in the afternoon to a final 1.31.565. The Spaniard is looking confident for the qualifying session of tomorrow where the goal is to be in the top five to put the cherry on top of a season that had seen him performing beyond expectations.
It was a good day of work for his teammate, Alex De Angelis, who set a fast lap of 1.32.562 which grants him the 14th positions so far. The San Marino rider has found a good feeling and confidence on his Forward Yamaha bike and he has a positive outlook on the race.
Aleix Espargaro – 4th / 1.31.565 / 16 laps – “I’m pretty satisfied with today’s result because I’ve never been very competitive on this track. I have a good feeling on the bike, I miss just a bit more confidence on the front but I’m pretty sure that tomorrow I can improve my lap time even further. It will be the last race of the season with the NGM Forward Racing Team and the goal is to fight with the front guys and see what happens.”
Alex De Angelis – 14th / 1.32.562 / 19 laps – “It was a positive day of work. I’ve ended the last practise with a gap close to one second from the fastest lap and this is a positive result for me. We have changed something in between practises and the bike’s driveability has improved a lot. I’m looking forward for qualifying and for the race.”
Ducati Report
The two Ducati Team riders made a positive start to the final race weekend of the 2014 MotoGP season at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Cheste (Valencia). The first day of practice for the Valencian Community GP in fact concluded with Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow setting third and sixth quickest time respectively in today’s two free practice sessions.
The Ducati Test Team’s test-rider Michele Pirro also put in another good performance. The Italian, who is entered as a wild-card in the final round, ended the day in twelfth place, just 971/1000ths off the pace of Marquez, who was quickest today.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd (1’31.558) – “I am very pleased with the way this weekend has started because we were quick in both this morning’s and this afternoon’s sessions. We kept up a good pace with the hard tyre: we are not far from the frontrunners and I think that tomorrow we can improve even more. I also did a good time with the soft tyre, but it wasn’t a perfect lap so I think I can do better here as well, but I am really pleased with my pace on the hard tyre.”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 6th (1’31.731) – “We never had a good session in FP1 but FP2 seemed to be a lot better and I found not such a bad feeling with the bike. We changed the geometry a bit half-way through the session and it seemed to work also. We really need to improve for tomorrow because the other guys are going to be going a lot faster, but we will look through the data with the engineers tonight and see where we can improve. I believe we can still improve in sectors 1 and 4. Tomorrow I look forward to qualifying and see if we can get a good grid position for Sunday’s race.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Test Team #51) – 12th (1’32.267) – “It was a positive day for me, especially because I have finally come back to the track to do a race. I didn’t go bad at all, even though maybe I could have set a better time, but I made a mistake during my good lap. We still have to improve the set-up of my bike and I also have to get a better rhythm, but all things considered I’m pleased and tomorrow I hope to make a further step forward and get into the top 10.”
Suzuki Report
The throaty growl of the GSX-RR was heard around the MotoGP pit lane for the first time in almost three years today as Randy De Puniet helped reintroduce Suzuki to the very highest level of Grand Prix racing.
The 33 year old Frenchman worked through two Free Practice sessions to set his best ever lap on the fetching blue and yellow motorcycle around the twisty Circuit Ricardo Tormo layout in bright and pleasant, if slightly breezy, conditions.
The opening day of the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana on Spain’s east coast marked a small milestone in Suzuki’s invigorated attempt at the premier class and its first blast at MotoGP since the final round of the 2011 season at the same venue. The crew worked closely with Bridgestone tyre technicians and also built on refinements made during a recent test also around the flat curves of the site a short distance from the city of Valencia.
Progress was evident with De Puniet’s quickest attempt in FP2. The veteran set a 1min 32.799 through the fourteen curves and this represented a half second improvement over his quickest lap through testing. The former Grand Prix winner encountered a technical problem towards the end of the session and on his 17th lap that forced a hasty trip back to the pits and another circulation on the second GSX-RR. Unfortunately there was only two minutes left in the timed period and he couldn’t clock another effort to budge up from 15th place. He finally rested in 18th and only 1.3 seconds away from world champion Marc Marquez’s top spot in the classification. It was a dramatic but hugely encouraging opening MotoGP foray for the factory Suzuki squad.
A bright climate and temperatures expecting to hit a height of 20 degrees are forecast for Saturday where the grid positions for the 18th and final round of the 2014 MotoGP campaign will be decided.
Randy De Puniet: “I’m really happy to be back at a Grand Prix. It was not so bad today. We are only 1.3 [seconds] away from first position and that’s OK for our first day. I had a technical problem at the end otherwise I think I could have improved the lap time a little bit more. The conditions were great this morning but it was a bit cloudier and windier this afternoon. Still, we are in November so it is not bad! I’m satisfied. We need to make a few adjustments because I struggled with the hard rear tyre and we’ll discuss what direction we will take for the race. It is hard to work so fast and with only 45 minutes to make it happen. I liked being out on the track at a race after one year and I don’t feel like I’ve missed a season; this is good and I’m ready to fight to put the bike on the best place on the grid and then in the best position during the race. We are faster here today than we were at the test and every session I feel more confident. I think if we all give the maximum then we can be happy and this is what we want.”
Davide Brivio – Team Manager: “Today was full of emotion. When we started the bike this morning it felt special to be back in a race environment. Today was not so bad. We had a problem at the end but we are not so far [from the fastest times]. The performance was quite good considering that we haven’t raced for a long time. To come here for the last GP – when everybody else has had so much track time and experience – is not so easy but we are doing OK. Tomorrow we have to look at our tyre choice for the race and also improve our electronic setting. We need to improve the package and find more grip. We have to rush with the stuff you would normally work on during a race weekend; we need to find that best base setting. Anyway I’m excited and we’ll continue working.”
Gresini Honda Report
The final challenge of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship began today at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia with the first two free practice sessions: Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding got back to business closing the combined classification in 16th and 18th position, respectively, divided by a few thousandths.
Today’s outcome shows how Bautista is still slowed down by the well-known rear grip issues: the Spaniard tried several changes to his Honda RC213V set-up, but without achieving a good feeling with the bike. His best performance, 1’32”711, obtained in the morning session, at the moment relegates him back in sixteenth position.
His teammate, Scott Redding, set in the afternoon a very similar lap time, 1’32”771: the English rookie said he was satisfied with the progress made between the first and second session, and tomorrow he will try to improve the behaviour of his Honda RCV1000R machine especially under braking.
Alvaro Bautista – (16th – 1’32″711) – “There’s not much to say except that our situation has not changed compared to the last races: today we worked hard, but we couldn’t find anything satisfactory. I still don’t have feeling with the rear of the bike and every time I try to push, I lose grip. Riding in this condition is really difficult. Tomorrow we will continue to try changes to the set-up, hoping to find a better feeling with the bike, but after so many races we are not so optimistic. However, we will give our maximum until Sunday, that’s sure”.
Scott Redding (18th – 1’32″771) – “I felt quite good today: when I went out on track I felt immediately comfortable and our lap times has been quite consistent. We’ve been working well and so far I’m quite happy with the progress from today. At the moment we are just losing a little bit under braking because of the bumps, so we are going to try and find something that could help us for tomorrow. About tyres, we are also doing a good job either with the hard or the soft option, so we are not worried”.
Drive M7 Aspar Report
Marc Marquez dominated the first two practice sessions of the Valencia GP today, as the reigning champion led the way at the final round of the MotoGP season. At Malaysia he equalled Mick Doohan’s record for most wins (12) in a single season and today already laid the groundwork to try to overtake the Australian on Sunday. Lorenzo, Espargarò and Dovizioso attempted to snatch the best time in the afternoon session, but Marquez was a thousandth of a second faster. Today saw the return of an official Suzuki to MotoGP racing, with rider Randy De Puniet testing the bike. Also assuming a test rider role next year will be Honda DRIVE M7 Aspar rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who today debuted the Honda RC213V-RS.
The DRIVE M7 Aspar riders are experiencing a hectic end to the season. Two weeks ago they had the home GP of their main sponsor in Sepang, and now it is time for the home round of the team itself. Both Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama have unforgettable memories of the Valencia track, and both can boast title wins there. Hayden took the MotoGP crown in 2006 and Aoyama the 250cc title in 2009. Today was a day of adaptation, after three weeks of relentless racing outside Europe. Hayden concluded the first day in twentieth position and Aoyama in twenty-first. Today was a very special day for the Japanese rider, who yesterday confirmed that next season he will be an official Honda tester and will compete this weekend with the new Honda RC213V-RS.
20th Nicky Hayden 1.33.434 (38 laps): “After three weeks in a row competing nonstop, the week off was good for me. Now I feel like my hand is doing much better, and this circuit is not as hard as others we encountered on the flyaways. The first day did not go as expected, as my goal was to be faster and more competitive. I like this circuit, so tomorrow we will do whatever it takes to improve. We have tried different settings for both bikes, but today we found it hard to turn the bike, especially this morning. Luckily we improved our feeling in the afternoon, but still we must continue to improve. Tonight we will look at the data to see which way is the best way to get better.”
21st Hiroshi Aoyama 1.33.436 (41 laps): “Today we had the opportunity to try out a new Honda. Although it is similar to the current one, there are some big differences – especially the power delivery and engine braking. This bike has plenty of power but we still have much to learn about it. Today I lost a lot of time accelerating. It was all was new to me today, so I used this first day to adjust. I hope tomorrow I feel more used to the new bike. We still have to understand all the parameters of this bike and adapt well to ride fast tomorrow. We still need time and experience and also I have to adapt my riding, but the first contact with the new Honda has been great; I liked it a lot.”
Bridgestone Report
Bridgestone slick compounds available:
Front: Extra-soft & Soft (Symmetric) & Soft (Asymmetric). Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Soft (Main), Hard (Alternative)
Weather: FP1 – Dry. Ambient 18-19°C; Track 23-24°C (Bridgestone measurement) – FP2 – Dry. Ambient 20-21°C; Track 25-30°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez started his push for a record thirteen premier-class wins in a season in the best possible way as the 2014 MotoGP™ World Champion topped both Friday practice sessions at the Valencia Grand Prix.
Marquez’s quickest time of the day, 1’31.296 was set in this morning’s Free Practice 1 session and was three-tenths of a second under the current Valencia Circuit Record Lap, and 0.193 seconds quicker than his closest rival today, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo. Third quickest on the opening day at Valencia was Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso who set a personal best lap time of 1’31.558 to end the day just 0.262 seconds adrift of Marquez’s best effort. Lap times among the leading group of riders were extremely close all day, with the top ten riders separated by just 0.723 seconds on combined practice times.
The first session of the race weekend, Free Practice 1, was subjected to cool and blustery conditions which resulted in the majority of riders starting the session on softer compound slicks front and rear. Persistent sunshine helped boost track temperatures to 30°C during Free Practice 2 which enabled the riders to experiment with different tyre combinations, with all slick compound options in Bridgestone’s tyre allocation being utilised today. Bridgestone has brought two soft compound front slick specifications to Valencia, a symmetric and asymmetric option, and both of these options were evaluated today and further back-to-back testing will take place tomorrow as riders look for their preferred race tyre.
In today’s sessions the majority of riders including the Factory Ducati, Honda and Yamaha entrants showed a preference for the medium compound rear slick, while many Open-class riders focused on getting the best performance out of the soft compound rear. The hard compound rear slick was also evaluated today with encouraging results but given the likelihood of cooler temperatures for the rest of the weekend, is unlikely to be widely used in the remaining sessions.
Fine yet slightly cooler conditions are forecast for tomorrow with the next MotoGP™ session being Free Practice 3 at 0955 local time (GMT +1) with the first qualifying session, QP1 scheduled to start at 14:10 local time.
Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department – “Today was a good way to start the final MotoGP round of the year with a wide range of tyres assessed by the riders and strong, consistent pace shown throughout the day. This was the second time we’ve brought an asymmetric front slick option to a race weekend and almost every rider took the opportunity to evaluate this option and hearing the good feedback we received from the riders, I expect this option to get a lot of use this weekend. That said, all our slick options are performing well and with cooler temperatures forecast for the rest of the weekend, tomorrow will be important for the riders to work on bike setup and try different tyre combinations at a circuit where tyre management is of key importance. Given how quick the pace is already I am confident that if we have dry conditions tomorrow we will see yet another new Circuit Best Lap record set during qualifying.”
