At Marc VDS Racing, the announced end of the Honda period looks more and more like a slow agony. Since the start of the season, the RC213Vs of the Belgian team have not been there and this first day Jerez confirmed the sad trend. Nineteenth in FP2 but 21strd cumulatively from the two sessions this Friday, Franco Morbidelli does not take off from the bottom of the table. But the Italian is polite and declares that he is, despite everything, making progress…
A slump that also affects his teammate Lüthi, hardly better off in the standings while the best rookie at this start of the Spanish Grand Prix is a Nakagami seventeenth. The Japanese on the Honda LCR is 0.257s behind the reigning Moto2 World Champion who no longer sees the leader's RC213V Crutchlow, 1.3s away… A chasm!
On his worries, the protégé of Valentino Rossi explain : " the bike bounces and we don't yet know if it's a tuning or electronic problem. Márquez and Crutchlow also had this problem. So it's inherent to the Honda. Despite our situation, I am satisfied with the work accomplished this Friday. Because we managed to improve our times. It is the most important ».
« We changed some things and my pace was able to improve during the second session. This means that our potential is worth more than that. We must continue to work and progress. You also have to stay calm and do your job. The wind picked up this afternoon which complicated things. As for grip, I noticed no difference with the first session ».
The Marc VDS team is finalizing its contacts to find out who it will be the satellite team from 2019. A favorite moment, it seems that it will be Yamaha which becomes the next partner of the men of Michael Bartholemy.
Jerez MotoGP J.1 Combined Chronos:
1 35 LCR Honda CASTROL C.CRUTCHLOW GBR HONDA 1'38.614
2 26 Repsol Honda Team D.PEDROSA SPA HONDA 1'38.642 +0.028
3 5 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 J.ZARCO FRA YAMAHA 1'38.705 +0.091
4 29 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR A.IANNONE ITA SUZUKI 1'38.709 +0.095
5 93 Repsol Honda Team M.MARQUEZ SPA HONDA 1'38.863 +0.154
6 4 Ducati Team A.DOVIZIOSO ITA DUCATI 1'39.068 +0.454
7 99 Ducati Team J.LORENZO SPA DUCATI 1'39.076 +0.462
8 43 Alma Pramac Racing J.MILLER AUS DUCATI 1'39.102 +0.488
9 46 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP V.ROSSI ITA YAMAHA 1'39.248 +0.634
10 44 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing P.ESPARGARO SPA KTM 1'39.311 +0.697
11 9 Alma Pramac Racing D.PETRUCCI ITA DUCATI 1'39.429 + 0.815
12 25 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP M.VIÑALES SPA YAMAHA 1'39.514 +0.900
13 17 Angel Nieto Team K.ABRAHAM CZE DUCATI 1'39.541 +0.927
14 42 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR A.RINS SPA SUZUKI 1'39.575 +0.961
15 45 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini S.REDDING GBR APRILIA 1'39.585 +0.971
16 36 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing M.KALLIO FIN KTM 1'39.661 +1.047
17 30 LCR Honda IDEMITSU T.NAKAGAMI JPN HONDA 1'39.694 +1.080
18 53 Reale Avintia Racing T.RABAT SPA DUCATI 1'39.888 +1.274
19 41 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini A.ESPARGARO SPA APRILIA 1'39.899 +1.285
20 38 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing B.SMITH GBR KTM 1'39.948 +1.334
21 21 EG 0,0 Marc VDS F.MORBIDELLI ITA HONDA 1'39.951 +1.337
22 19 Angel Nieto Team A.BAUTISTA SPA DUCATI 1'39.969 +1.355
23 12 EG 0,0 Marc VDS T.LUTHI SWI HONDA 1'40.241 +1.627
24 55 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 H.SYAHRIN MAL YAMAHA 1'40.488 +1.874
25 10 Reale Avintia Racing X.SIMEON BEL DUCATI 1'40.663 +2.049
