The Espargaro brothers took the honors on the first day of the Mandalika tests, Pol Espargaro beat Toprak Razgatlioglu's Superpole record by more than four tenths of a second, completing the Indonesian track in 1'32.877. The Spanish rider is ahead of his brother Aleix on Aprilia by almost half a second. With Brad Binder in third on the KTM, Alex Rins fourth on his Suzuki, world champion Fabio Quartararo in fifth on his Yamaha and Jack Miller sixth on his Ducati, all six MotoGP manufacturers made the top six.
The track was dirty and it rained intermittently, making conditions difficult and leading to occasional crashes. No one was injured, but the track remained tricky off course. Temps are likely to drop significantly as the weekend progresses.
To clean the track, the drivers had to complete 20 compulsory laps. It had to be done – if everyone waits for the competition to come out to clean the track, it will never be clean. While the first day of exploring the Mandalika layout may not have been the most fruitful in determining which elements are best, the teams were still trying out a few things regarding the chassis and Holeshot Devices.
Yamaha still has improvements to find and losing a day of testing due to poor track conditions today only makes their task even more difficult.
Also, the drivers at the Iwata factory are still testing the 2022 chassis by comparing it to the 2021 version, with Fabio Quartararo now having one of each. The difference between the two does not seem so obvious, since Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli noted that the new chassis does not bring a huge change compared to last year's.
But Yamaha is trying various solutions and there are still two days to find a technical solution.
With the relatively difficult track conditions, Suzuki was not able to test much during this first day.
The men from Hamamatsu have managed to improve their engine for the 2022 season, bringing more power, while retaining its character which makes the bike relatively manageable. On this new route, which does not require monstrous power, Joan Mir and Alex Rins should do well this year.
Ducati was able to test its new aerodynamic fairing and exhaust, but riders at the Borgo Panigale factory also tried a new Holeshot Device.
Here we see the old version of the device, with 2 butterfly-shaped knobs on the upper triple clamp, each allowing a device to be activated for departure (at the front and at the rear).
Here is the latest version of their system, where we find more than a dial, but we find a new silver lever positioned just in front of the upper triple clamp.
In Sepang last week, Honda tested 3 different chassis. This week, in Mandalika, Honda refined the development of its 2022 prototype and this chassis was adopted by all the drivers. Indeed, in the official Repsol Honda team, Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro both installed it on their two prototypes, and on the LCR side, Alex Marquez used it at Mandalika even though he did not want to test it. in Sepang.
The HRC teams also tested some variations of their aerodynamic package: in this photo by Marc Marquez, the RC213V is only equipped with the top wing set, but Pol Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami also tried aero with the upper wing set. The lower fins arranged lower, which we had already seen at Sepang.
Photos: Dorna Sports
