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Sports / Motosports

Lorenzo tops on final day of testing

Published: 06 Mar 2016 - 12:08 am | Last Updated: 03 Nov 2021 - 12:47 am
Peninsula

Yamaha’s world champion Jorge Lorenzo in action during the final day of the three-day pre-season MotoGP testing at the Losail International Circuit in Losail on Friday night.


 


Doha: Yamaha’s world champion Jorge Lorenzo finished the MotoGP pre-season testing in scintillating style, finishing the final day in Qatar half-a-second clear.
Lorenzo was the dominant force in the opening test last month at Sepang, and after a quieter week in Australia, led Wednesday’s first night in Qatar, where the season will start in a fortnight. 
The Spaniard went to the top with a lap of 1m54.810s, a full 0.725 seconds faster than the rest of the field at that stage. 
That lap was also 0.457s better than the fastest lap of last year’s Qatar Grand Prix, set by team-mate Valentino Rossi. While no-one beat Lorenzo, his margin at the top did eventually close slightly. 
Having been fifth and fourth on the first two days, Pramac Ducati rider Scott Redding continued his strong week on Friday when he slotted into second place with 90 minutes remaining. 
The Briton turned a lap of 1m55.326s to be Lorenzo’s closest challenger, 0.516s behind for the day and week, and the only satellite rider inside the top six. 
Thursday pacesetter Maverick Vinales stopped on track during the session but capped a promising pre-season for Suzuki with the third-fastest time, just 0.007s behind Redding. 
Marc Marquez and Rossi were fourth and fifth, the pair both falling for a second time in the test, at Turn 16 and Turn 10 respectively. Marquez’s Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa finished a quiet 14th. 
Ducati’s Andrea Iannone led the way before Lorenzo’s effort but did not improve thereafter and ended up sixth, ahead of Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, Hector Barbera and Pol Espargaro. 
Crutchlow and Barbera each crashed before running effectively finished, while Loris Baz, Aleix Espargaro and Tito Rabat also crashed on their way to 13th, 15th and 17th respectively. Alvaro Bautista put the new Aprilia RS-GP 18th, 2.233s off Lorenzo’s pace and three spots ahead of team-mate Stefan Bradl.
Meanwhile, difficulties continue for Dani Pedrosa who remains unable to find a satisfactory feeling on his bike during Qatar test.
The testing period has been a trying time for Pedrosa, the factory rider struggling at all three tests to find a quality setting for his factory Honda. 
Experimenting with several different settings on the final day of the Qatar Test saw the Repsol Honda Team rider unable to match his best lap of the test. His 1’55.857 from Thursday saw Pedrosa conclude the three day event in tenth and just over a second behind the fastest time. While many riders performed longer race runs on the final day, Pedrosa continuing to focus on experimenting with settings.
Fortunately the first race is not until the 20th of March, giving the technicians back in Japan a chance to analyse the data. Come race day many things can change and Pedrosa remains confident of a solid first race, although he is aware there is still much work that needs to be done. The new Michelin tyres and Magneti Marelli ECU have proven a difficult challenge for Honda to overcome, their rivals having made an easier transition during the off-season.
Pedrosa: “We had not many tyres left so we couldn’t do much testing and I finish more early than usual.”
Unfortunately the conclusions are not entirely satisfactory. Over the three days we have tried to test a lot of things, but there are still some ideas that we want to apply the next time we are on track. With the data obtained in the last few tests, the technicians in Japan will work to try to make some changes ahead of the first Grand Prix. We’ll see if they are favourable, and if we can get better performance for the race,” he added   at the end of the third and final three-day testing in Qatar.Agencies