Mandalika MotoGP Test 2022

Aleix Espargaro and Marco Bezzecchi were the first riders back into the 1m31s in the morning. Pecco Bagnaia then joined them before 40-minutes into the session Fabio Quartararo went top with a 1m31.335. Alex Rins went fourth with a 1m31.691 to make it five riders in the 1m31s only 45-minutes into the eight-hour session..

Pol Espargaro then set a new outright benchmark of 1m31.060 on his tenth lap of the morning. 

Jorge Martin then put in a blinding first three sectors but pushed a little too far in the fourth sector, going down at the fastest corner on the circuit, turn eight. Aleix Espargaro also went down on a fast lap. Some time later Marc Marquez went down at turn two and Zarco crashed just before the lunch break. 

Raul Fernandez shrugged off the effects of a pretty hefty crash on Saturday to head out on track but the 21-year-old Spaniard was 2.5-seconds slower than he had been on Saturday. Fernandez did seven laps on Sunday morning before crashing again due to speed perception problems stemming from the concussion he suffered during the crash on Saturday.

The Suzuki pits were missing a few personnel with a number of the team testing positive for COVID and forced into isolation. Not only that but Joan Mir had also been hit by a bout of Bali Belly and did not make it out on to the track today, leaving Alex Rins with the remainder of the workload on the GSX-RR. 

At the halfway point of the day it was still Pol Espargaro on top with that 1m31.060 ahead of Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro and Pecco Bagnaia. Alex Rins was fifth ahead of Maverick Vinales, Johann Zarco and Alex Marquez.  Jack Miller was 12th. 

It was a very quiet start to the afternoon with few riders on track.  Jack Miller joined the crash list with two-hours left in the session, but there was still little movement at either end of the time-sheets. 

A lot of riders and teams finding packing up early to try and make an evening charter flight more attractive than chasing bragging rights from testing.

Brad Binder was one of the few that did make a late improvement though, leaping to tenth with under ten-minutes remaining. His team-mate Miguel Oliveira then followed suit, dropping half-a-second off his previous best to come from outside the top 20 up to P14.

A last charge from Fabio Quartararo saw him put in another 1m31.2 followed by a 1m31.075, a tiny 14-thousandths of a second from Pol Espargaro’s early benchmark. So close….

But despite the Frenchman’s best last-minute efforts we end the official pre-season tests with Pol Espargaro quickest ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro on the final day. However, when combined times are taken into account Luca Marini’s time from Saturday places him third ahead of Aleix Espargaro.

Franco Morbidelli joined his Monster Yamaha team-mate on track in the dying minutes of the session and moved from outside the top ten up to fifth. That pushed Brad Binder back outside the top ten.

The top ten all within half-a-second, and the top 21 covered by less than nine-tenths.

We don’t have the top speed standings from day three at the time of writing but will add them in when they drop.  On Saturday though Enea Bastianini was fastest through the speed traps at 314.8 km/h and the fastest seven bikes down the 507 metre front straight were all Ducati mounted.

Of course with such a short straight the MotoGP bikes don’t really get to strut their top end horsepower, so Suzuki, Aprilia and Honda riders were all close behind.

KTM have a bit more speed to find but Yamaha are still dead stone last in the speed stakes.

Fabio Quartararo was fourth quickest on the time-sheets when it came to lap times yesterday, and second today, but on Saturday he was 20th fastest down the chute at 305.9 km/h, but still the fastest Yamaha. 

Imagine how big that difference might be when they get to Losail in a few weeks, where Johann Zarco piloted a Ducati Desmosedici to 362.4 km/h down its 1068 metre long front straight..  

Last year though, despite the top speed shortcomings of the Yamaha, Maverick Vinales won the race at Qatar on a Yamaha and set a new race lap record! 

And that top speed advantage didn’t prevent Quartararo from winning more races than any other rider in 2021 on his way to becoming World Champion. So obviously over a full race distance, even with a kilometre long straight, the Yamaha is a seriously competitive motorcycle. 

Quartararo has made his disappointment with the failure of Yamaha to give him any significant boost in horsepower for 2022 quite clear in Malaysia, and again during this Indonesian test, but the 22-year-old has shown the skill, bravery and tenacity to exploit every other strength the Yamaha does have in order to come out on top. 

This year though the Honda seems to have the rear grip it was missing, and Marc Marquez can see where he is going…

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MotoGP Mandalika Test
Combined Times

1. Pol Espargaro – Honda 1m31.060
2. Fabio Quartararo – Yamaha 1m31.074
3. Luca Marini – Ducati 1m31.289
4. Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia 1m31.385
5. Franco Morbidelli – Yamaha 1m31.416
6. Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati 1m31.436
7. Alex Rins – Suzuki 1m31.477
8. Maverick Vinaes – Aprilia 1m31.478
9. Marc Marquez – Honda 1m31.481
10. Johann Zarco – Ducati 1m31.488
11. Brad Binder – KTM 1m31.574
12. Joan Mir – Suzuki 1m31.586
13. Enea Bastianini – Ducati 1m31.599
14. Alex Marquez – Honda 1m31.603
15. Miguel Oliveira – KTM 1m31.620
16. Jorge Martin – Ducati 1m31.665
17. Takaaki Nakagami – Honda 1m31.687
18. Jack Miller – Ducati 1m31.870
19. Andrea Dovizioso – Yamaha 1m31.890
20. Marco Bezzecchi – Ducati 1m31.901
21. Fabio Di Giannantonio – Ducati 1m31.915
22. Raul Fernandez – KTM 1m32.401
23. Remy Gardner – KTM 1m32.598
24. Darryn Binder – Yamaha 1m33.049

Images by 2snap

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2022 MotoGP Entry List

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2022 Provisional MotoGP Calendar

Source: MCNews.com.au