Pol Espargaro ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro – The last day of testing before the MotoGP season opener again brought interesting findings from the six brands
With the third and final day of testing at the new Mandalika track in Indonesia, the preparations for the 2022 MotoGP season are complete. On Sunday, Pol Espargaro underlined the potential of the new Honda RC213V with the fastest time. The Spaniard set a new lap record of 1:31.060.
Two riders had to end the day early. Joan Mir suffered an upset stomach. He complained of pain and was feeling sick. As a result, the Suzuki rider did not ride a lap today and was treated at the Clinica Mobile with suspected food poisoning.
Rookie Raul Fernandez (Tech-3-KTM) had a crash at around 200 km/h yesterday. He was checked over by the doctors and was allowed to ride again today. But after seven laps he crashed in turn 8 and could not explain this crash.
Fernandez complained of vision problems and the doctors forbade him to continue. He suffered a concussion in yesterday’s crash. “When I’m going 300 km/h, it feels like 600,” he reported. “I don’t know when to brake. It’s not safe. “
Honda finished the test in Indonesia at the top of the timesheet. Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro are working with the latest chassis. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) was still comparing chassis variants at this test and, similar to last year, was looking for his own way.
Alex Marquez (LCR) had a crash in turn 1 in the morning. All Honda riders used the new aerodynamics. The new RC213V is competitive. This applies to a qualifying lap, but also to the pace on a long run.
Aprilia consistently at the front of the field
Next to Honda, Aprilia is named as the team with the most progress over the winter. At Mandalika, Aleix Espargaro, who finished third on Sunday, and Maverick Vinales again made a solid impression.
The new, narrower chassis makes for very good turning and high cornering speed. In Sepang, the riders had complained about extreme chattering. On the Mandalika track, this was not the case despite some fast corners and direction changes.
Yamaha: Qualifying attempt at the end
While Honda and Aprilia were relaxed about the season opener, not everything went smoothly for Yamaha. In the last five minutes Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli attacked with a soft tyre. They finished second and fourth respectively.
This one fast lap at the end, however, masked the fact that Yamaha have made little progress over the winter and have not shown absolutely competitive lap times in race pace either. Qualifying will again be the key to a good result for Yamaha.
Because overtaking manoeuvres will be very difficult with the M1 again this year. Yamaha is too slow. In the top speed measurement, even on this relatively short track (longest straight 500 metres), around nine to ten km/h were missing on the Ducati rockets.
Suzuki with progress in time attack
What Yamaha has failed to do, Suzuki has succeeded. The GSX-RR became faster on the straight. It was only about four km/h short of Ducati. Suzuki was thus on a similar level as Honda and Aprilia.
Suzuki has improved the overall package of the GSX-RR. Most importantly, a step was also made in the qualifying lap. Rins finished the test in sixth place. And the previous day Mir showed very good pace on long runs. Suzuki has preserved this strength.
Ducati tries to control engine power
On the straights, the Ducatis were the fastest bikes in Mandalika as well. However, the new engine of the GP22, where a few horsepower has been found again, also causes problems. Already in Sepang the rear wheel spun too much at the exit of the corner. That was the main issue.
The engineers worked in Indonesia to get a grip on this. This concerned the electronics, but also the mechanical set-up. More weight was put on the rear. They also changed back to the old, shorter exhaust.
On the final day, Vice World Champion Francesco Bagnaia showed a flying lap for the first time in the winter tests, which brought him to fifth place. The Italian also rode a very good pace on long runs with the medium tyre. Jorge Martin (Pramac) had two crashes today.
KTM making progress
KTM was much better in Mandalika than in Sepang. They analysed all the data, improved the set-up and the overall package. All four KTM riders rode with the new carbon swingarm and with the new aerodynamics. There was also a slightly different exhaust tailpipe.
With this package they concentrated on optimising the set-up. It was all about details, as it is with all manufacturers. Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were happy with the feel of the RC16.
In the last ten minutes, Binder and Oliveira started their qualifying attempts. Binder, in ninth place, was half a second behind the leaders. KTM has improved, but there is still something missing to be able to compete at the front.
Rookie duel Bezzecchi vs di Giannantonio
While the factory teams had a total of five winter test days (two in Sepang, three in Mandalika), the rookies were allowed eight days (five in Sepang, three in Mandalika) to get to know their new working equipment.
In the end, Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) was the best MotoGP rookie in 17th place. The Italian was a touch faster than his compatriot Fabio di Giannantonio (Gresini-Ducati). Moto2 World Champion Remy Gardner (Tech-3-KTM) continues to experience wrist pain.
That’s why the Australian was mostly to be found at the back of the field. Bringing up the rear is Moto3 up-and-comer Darryn Binder (if you disregard Fernandez today). On Sunday, Binder, who rides a 2021 Yamaha in the RNF team, was two seconds off the top.
This concludes the winter tests. The new season starts on 6 March with the traditional night race at the Losail Circuit in Qatar.
The test times from Mandalika (Sunday):
01 Pol Espargaro (Honda) – 1’31.060s (38 laps).
02nd Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.014 (79)
03 Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) +0.311 (51)
04 Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) +0.356 (69)
05 Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.376 (57)
06 Alex Rins (Suzuki) +0.417 (46)
07 Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) +0.418 (78)
08 Johann Zarco (Pramac-Ducati) +0.428 (82)
09 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.514 (68)
10th Alex Marquez (LCR-Honda) +0.543 (75)
11th Miguel Oliveira (KTM) +0.560 (73)
12th Luca Marini (VR46-Ducati) +0.605 (50)
13th Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda) +0,627 (91)
14th Marc Marquez (Honda) +0.733 (74)
15th Jack Miller (Ducati) +0.810 (78)
16th Andrea Dovizioso (RNF-Yamaha) +0,830 (62)
17th Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) +0,841 (42)
18th Fabio di Giannantonio (Gresini-Ducati) +0,855 (38)
19th Enea Bastianini (Gresini-Ducati) +0,950 (35)
20th Jorge Martin (Pramac-Ducati) +1,484 (18)
21st Remy Gardner (Tech-3-KTM) +1.800 (42)
22nd Darryn Binder (RNF-Yamaha) +1.989 (61)
23rd Raul Fernandez (Tech-3-KTM) +3.836 (7)
NC Joan Mir (Suzuki) – no time
