The drivers of Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS said they were satisfied with the progress made during the first test session of the year, in Malaysia, on the circuit of Sepang. Franco Morbidelli and Tom Lüthi further improved their times during the third and final day of testing.
Victim of a fall yesterday, Franco Morbidelli suffered from a hand this morning and he had to have an X-ray at the circuit's medical center. The examination revealed no fracture and the reigning Moto2 world champion was able to get back on his bike while taking painkiller.
Morbidely dedicated his afternoon to improving his feeling with the medium Michelin tire in order to go hunting for the time at the end of the day. The Italian unfortunately did not manage to improve the time he had achieved in the morning, the grip not being better despite a slightly lower track temperature.
Si Morbidely experienced his first fall in MotoGP yesterday, Lüthi waited until the last day to experience the same mishap. The Swiss lost the front of his Honda at low speed entering turn 4.
Unharmed, and having practically not damaged his machine, Lüthi was quickly able to resume the course of his work program. He spent most of the day with worn tires in order to gauge the demands of MotoGP at the end of the race, when the rubber is well degraded.
The two riders will return to the circuit on February 16 at the Buriram circuit, in Thailand, which will host a new MotoGP world championship event in October.
Franco Morbidelli: 2'00.526 – 55 laps
« When I got on the bike this morning, I immediately felt pain in the fingers of my left hand, affected in my fall yesterday. I was still able to continue riding while taking painkillers. We worked this afternoon with the medium tire and I am happy with the result. I was able to do quite a few laps at a pace of 2'01, which is not bad with this tire. I then wanted to try to get a time but the conditions were not as good as this morning and I did not succeed. It was the first test of the year and we managed to try a lot of things. I feel good with my new team and I leave Sepang satisfied and looking forward to being back in Thailand »
Tom Lüthi: 2'01.126 – 52 laps
« Another good day with progress made with the bike and the tires. Conditions were a little different today. Normally it goes quickly in the morning and at the end of the afternoon when the temperature drops, but today the grip was not great during the last hour and the times did not go down. We mainly worked with worn tires to better understand the bike in order to prepare for the end of the race when the rubber starts to slip. It was interesting and I learned a lot. I also experienced my first crash when I lost the front at turn 4. I almost got it back but the rear ended up dropping out too and I fell. This way I know what happened »
Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
« For me this test is positive. We saw constant progress with Franky, every day. He is working in the right direction. On Tom's side, we feel a little disappointment in terms of the times, but for us he did a good job. We can already see a lot of things that he can do correctly on the bike and if he continues to improve over the next two sessions we think he can make up for the time lost in November by the first race in Qatar. And then our two riders experienced their first crash in MotoGP, it’s a done deal. I am now impatiently waiting for the rest in Thailand »
