2016 Moto2 World Vice-Champion after winning four victories, Tom Luthi logically appeared as the designated favorite for this coming season in the category, at the start of the off-season. But the Swiss did not prove to be as conquering as Nakagami nor as persuasive as the Marc VDS drivers. For his last trial gallop at Qatar, the Car Expert driver is on the pace. But he would like much better.
Sailing towards his 31st birthday and at the gates of MotoGP since 2007, the man who was also the late 125cc World Champion in 2005 is expected to reach the top of Moto2 in 2017. But the winter tests have not yet been convincing, even if There is no need to despair. There is still work to be done, while time will eventually run out, with Qatar marking the final practice before heading into the competition in less than a week.
A delay all the more reduced as Friday was ruined by rain. Tom Luthi then thought of a solution: “ this lost Friday will be missing from our work program. So I asked if it would not be possible to extend these tests on Monday to compensate for this rainy evening. But apparently, we don't have the slightest chance of seeing this request succeed ».
We will therefore have to make do with this Saturday and hope that the sky on Sunday will be clement. “ It looks like we are a step below when we compare our performance with those of Nakagami or Morbidelli. But in terms of pace, I'm not that far and we're pretty good. However, we still have quite a bit of work to do. ».
More than seven tenths behind the leading Japanese, Lüthi comments from his sixth place: “ we were able to try a lot of things. But it feels like we're halfway through the job. We haven't finished finding the settings we need ».
Moto2 Tests Qatar J2 Chronos :
1. Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) 2:00,187 min
2. Franco Morbidelli (Kalex) +0,053
3. Alex Marquez (Kalex) +0,240
4. Hafizh Syahrin (Kalex) +0,584
5. Miguel Oliveira (KTM) +0,674
6. Tom Lüthi (Kalex) +0,714
7. Fabio Quartararo (Kalex) +0,884
8. Xavi Virgo (Tech3) +0,939
9. Danny Kent (Suter) +1,049
10. Axel Pons (Kalex) +1,065
11. Marcel Schrötter (Suter) +1,081
12. Jorge Navarro (Kalex) +1,109
13. Sandro Cortese (Suter) +1,124
14. Julián Simón (Kalex) +1,188 (Ersatz für Iker Lecuona)
15. Luca Marini (Kalex) +1,249
16. Jesko Raffin (Kalex) +1,257
17. Xavier Simeon (Kalex) +1,323
18. Isaac Vinales (Kalex) +1,323
19. Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) +1,326
20. Mattia Pasini (Kalex) +1,456
21. Brad Binder (KTM) +1,627
22. Simone Corsi (Speed Up) +1,696
23. Dominique Aegerter (Suter) +1,751
24. Yonny Hernandez (Kalex) +1,780
25. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Kalex) +1,848
26. Tetsuta Nagashima (Kalex) +1,997
27. Remy Gardner (Tech3) +2,012
28. Khairul Idham Pawi (Kalex) +2,068
29. Mashel Al Naimi (Speed Up, QMMF) +2,338
30. Edgar Pons (Kalex) +2,549
31. Andrea Locatelli (Kalex) +2,683
32. Stefano Manzi (Kalex) +3,704
33. Saeed Al Sulaiti (Speed Up, QMMF) +4,475
