Marquez back on top at Brno test

Following on from the excitement of Sunday’s Czech Grand Prix, the MotoGP™ field was back in action at Brno for a day of post-race testing on Monday.

The test day began with brighter weather conditions than witnessed across the whole race weekend, before becoming more overcast later in the afternoon, which resulted in lower track temperatures from around 3:00 onwards.

Repsol Honda Team occupied positions one and three, across the day riding with both new components on the 2014 bike as well as trialing a slightly revised version of the 2015 bike. It was with the new bike that World Champion Marc Marquez posted a lap time of 1:55.411, which is quicker than the pole position time of Saturday and a new unofficial lap record.

“Today went very well and I am very happy, because we’ve erased the doubts that we had after yesterday’s race,” Marquez said. “We didn’t understand what had happened. We reached the conclusion that many factors combined yesterday, because today we were fast from the start and had a good pace with the same setup as yesterday.

“This morning we focused on work with this year’s bike, using some different setups, and I immediately felt very comfortable. Later we tried out the new bike again, which has great potential, and we set a good time with it. The best thing is that the pace we had today was back to that which we had over the entire weekend – except for Sunday.”

Race winner Dani Pedrosa was third overall, also putting in his best lap on-board the 2015 machine.

Having narrowly missed out on his first victory of the season on Sunday, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo ran atop the timesheets for much of the day. Eventually finishing second fastest, he and team-mate Valentino Rossi (fifth position) focused on testing their current bikes but with new prototype engines, while the programme also involved experimenting with a single prototype chassis – running the current fairing – which the two riders shared during the day. Rossi would abort his afternoon run as a result of a sudden but brief rain shower at 4pm.

The Cardion AB squad attempted to find more rear-end grip for regular rider Karel Abraham, while the agenda of Forward’s Aleix Espargaro revolved around setup and electronics, with Magneti Marelli having brought a minor upgrade to its ‘Open’ software; however, the company insisted that no significant update is set to arrive until MotoGP heads to Valencia in early November.

On the other side of the Forward garage, Alex de Angelis was busy at work as he continued to adapt to the bike. This meant a change to the plan of allowing Moto2™ rider Dominique Aegerter an outing on the machine, as this had been penciled in before it was confirmed that de Angelis would be Colin Edwards’ replacement and the San Marino rider is now in need of as much track time as possible.

At GO&FUN Honda Gresini, Alvaro Bautista and his team continued to work closely with suspension supplier Showa and existing parts in a keen bid to overcome the Spaniard’s ongoing lack of rear-end grip. Team-mate Scott Redding, on the other hand, tested a new front fork as well as some small adjustments to the rear shock and Nissin brake components on his Open-specification bike.

Bradley Smith was the highest-placed Factory Option satellite runner on the final timesheet, having ended his day shortly after 2pm. Until then, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider had been mostly working on setup and verifying issues from race day.

In sixth and eighth places, Smith and team-mate Pol Espargaro sandwiched LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl into seventh as the German tried to cure understeer issues which had affected him during the Grand Prix one day earlier.

The top 10 was rounded out by Bautista and Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez, as the Colombian attempted to discover what caused a flat front tire which had taken him out of Sunday’s race; having carefully looked into the problem, the team explained that the tire had not lost pressure overnight and that no visible damage could be seen on its surface. Should a solution have not been found by the end of Monday, the tire could be sent to Ducati’s Bologna factory in order to ensure that no wheel rim defect may be causing the concern.

There was a crash for Leon Camier as the Drive M7 Aspar rider continued to pound the laps in, fresh from a first points-scoring finish in the race; the Englishman was able to walk away from Monday’s minor slip-up.

At Avintia Racing, FIM CEV Repsol Superbike rider Kenny Noyes was testing the bike, but the day ended earlier than planned when the Spaniard crashed.

Elsewhere, brake supplier Brembo revealed a standard aluminum caliper for teams to test, as factory Yamaha riders Lorenzo and Rossi sampled the parts for the first time.

MotoGP track action will continue with opening free practice for the Hertz British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Friday August 29.

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Test Times (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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