MotoGP | What happened during testing in Valencia
Want to know what happened during the test in Valencia the past couple of days? Then look no further, you can catch up to date with everything that happened and who finished on top.
Maverick Vinales kicked off his 2019 preseason in fine form as the Yamaha rider was fastest both days of testing at Valencia. Here are how the two days of preseason testing unfolded.
Day One
The rain had continued to fall in Valencia following the race weekend and the track was wet at the start of the seven-hour session.
It was Johann Zarco who braved the conditions and went out first on his brand new KTM machine. Unfortunately, the Frenchman only did one flying lap as he almost crashed the bike on the first outing.
It was then the Ducati’s who had spent time on top of the timing sheets with Andrea Dovizioso leading the two other factory Ducati’s of Danilo Petrucci and Michele Pirro with a 1.32.422.
Marc Marquez then posted the fastest time on a 2018 spec bike. But he wasn’t up there for long as Vinales took the lead with a 1.31.416 just before the red flags came out due to weather conditions.
This meant that Vinales had topped the timing sheets on the first day +0.302 ahead of Marquez.
Valentino Rossi finished third with Dovizioso in fourth, but he hadn’t tested the new spec bike throughout the day.
Stefan Bradl finished fifth on the LCR Honda with Franco Morbidelli in an impressive sixth place on the brand-new Petronas Yamaha team bike.
Moto 2 Champion Francesco Bagnaia made his debut on the Pramac Ducati and was top rookie in 11th place.
Tito Rabat returned to track action after breaking his leg at Silverstone and finished in 16th place.
Johann Zarco finished in 17th on his KTM with Jorge Lorenzo in 18th place on the factory Honda and 1.2 seconds behind Marquez.
Day Two
It was Zarco who kicked things off again on the second day. He was then followed by Aprilia’s Andrea Iannone who went faster.
Then Pol Espargaro and Petrucci put in even faster times.
However, reigning champion Marquez clocked a time on the new 2019 prototype Honda which was over nine tenths quicker.
It was then Dovizioso who took his turn at the top of the timing sheets.
However, it was Vinales again who finished fastest at the end of the day. Finishing +0.133 ahead of Dovizioso and +0.154 ahead of Marquez.
Jack Miller had followed Marquez on his fastest lap and the Australian finished fourth overall with Petrucci in fifth.
Morbidelli continued to impress on the Petronas Yamaha and finished sixth again ahead of Alex Rins and Takaaki Nakagami.
Valentino Rossi finished the session ninth with Aleix Espargaro rounding out the top 10 on the Aprilia.
Bagnaia was the top rookie for the second day in a row in 11th place and Lorenzo finished 12th.
There was a fair few crashed on day two with Iannone, Zarco, Pirro, Jonas Folger, Bradley Smith and Hafizh Syahrin all crashing during the session.
Joan Mir finished 14th place with Fabio Quatararo in 15th.
Zarco finished the session down in 20th place.
The next MotoGP test in 2018 will be next week with two days of testing in Jerez.
