#ValenciaTest MotoGP J.1: To the happiness of the rookies

They had been dreaming of it for years, since their beginnings in competition, since the first races they had seen on television, and the big day finally arrived: Here they are finally in MotoGP!

Franco Morbidelli, Xavier Simeon et Takaaki Nakagami were smiling from ear to ear this Tuesday morning as they left the pits with their new 1000, under the eyes of the injured Tom Lüthi who will soon join them.

Nakagami and Morbidelli, barely mounted on their Honda RC213Vs, were once again engaged in a fierce battle as was the case throughout the year in Moto2. Under the checkered flag, the Japanese from the LCR Honda Idemitsu team in 1'32.723 was ahead of the Italian from Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS in 1'32.762 by 0.039. Three hundredths of a gap, they wanted the rookies!

Xavier Siméon was 1.5 behind the Nippon and the Transalpin, with a time of 1'34.242 achieved on his Ducati GP16. We could compare the Belgian's time to that of the only other GP16 driver, the Czech Karel Abraham who clocked 1'32.445. For his first day in MotoGP, Xavier had nothing to be ashamed of compared to Karel and his 6 seasons in MotoGP, with 85 starts in this category. But Abraham's session ended badly:

At the same time, three lucky winners showed off their Desmosedici GP17, the one which has just won 6 Grands Prix this season with Andrea Dovizioso. Jack Miller, very surrounded by the Ducati staff (Dall'Igna, Ciabatti, Gabbarini) in the Pramac stand in the morning, achieved an excellent fifth time, 0.4 behind Maverick Vinales' best time. Tito Rabat was not so bad in thirteenth position in 1'31.673, 1.484 behind his compatriot Vinales. Finally the third GP17 experienced gearbox problems which sent Alvaro Bautista to the ground, then to the hospital for checks. Fortunately, there was nothing broken on his back, but there was significant pain.

And that's it, that's it for today. The rookies will have great stories to tell at dinner, and will definitely have sweet dreams...

Photo © Team Marc VDS