Yesterday there was a private testing session at the Catalunya circuit, near Barcelona, in which some teams from the Moto2, Moto3 and CEV categories took part.
We noted the presence of the teams from the Marc VDS World Championship ( Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez), Gresini Racing (Sam Lowes), Estrella Galicia (Jorge Navarro), Idemitsu (Takaaki Nakagami, Ratthapark Wilairot), Dynavolt Intact GP (Jonas Folger, Sandro Cortese), Ongetta Rivacold (Niccolo Antonelli, Jules Danilo), Honda Team Asia (Khairul Idham Pawi, Hiroki Ono) and CIP-Unicom Starker (Tatsuki Suzuki, Fabio Spiranelli).
Le FIM CEV Junior World Championship was represented by the teams ofEmilio Alzamora (Jaume Masia, Alonso Lopez, Jeremy Alcoba),Alex Rins (Alex Ruiz, Filippo Fuligni, Davide Pizzoli, Enzo Boulom, Makar Iurchenko) and Valentino Rossi (Dennis Foggia).
If the temperatures weren't as frigid as in Czech Republic for Ktm, the track was unfortunately extremely dirty (rain + Porsche day the day before), leading to a real festival of falls without much seriousness.
For the moment, only teams Marc VDS et Federal Oil Gresini communicated about these tests.
Morbidelli and Marquez focused on modifications to the settings of their Kalex Moto2 while testing suspension upgrades made by their partner Öhlins.
Morbidelli also tried a new chassis geometry with positive results while Marquez worked on an intense preparation program for the Barcelona Grand Prix which takes place from June 3-5.
During this working day, the two riders of Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 both fell, without seriousness. They will now enjoy a well-deserved weekend before heading to Le Mans where the next Grand Prix will take place.
Franco Morbidelli: “The objective for us today was to improve our settings by working on both the chassis geometry and the suspension settings. The result was very positive. We also tested new suspension elements with Öhlins. As always, some were interesting, others less so. But overall we have taken a step forward. We will try to confirm all this at Le Mans next week. It was a good test, we worked well with the team and we leave Barcelona with a lot of information which should be useful to us for the next race at Le Mans. »
Alex Marquez: “This day wasn't quite what I hoped for. I really like this circuit but the conditions this morning weren't great and I crashed at the corner and made a mistake. This meant I lost a little feeling with the bike. In the end, the day was all positive because we were able to try a lot of things on the bike, notably suspension elements brought by Öhlins. It's difficult to draw conclusions because the conditions were special today, but we have a starting point for the next weekend at Le Mans. I am confident that I will be able to achieve a good result there. »
Sam Lowes : “the day was very positive; we did a lot of laps (101), tried a lot of things on the bike and worked on race pace again. Without pushing for a time, I was faster than my best lap last year, so overall we were really fast. We also tried a few new items, as well as others to reconfirm them. We are therefore looking forward to the race here in Catalonia. »
