Bezzecchi leads Mahindra contingent on Day 1 of Moto3 test
CIP Moto's Marco Bezzecchi ended up as the fastest Mahindra rider on the first day of the official Moto3 test in Jerez.
The Italian clocked his best time of 1m47.532s during the first session of the day to finish 13th overall, over a second behind topper Aron Canet.
Bezzecchi completed a total of 62 laps across all the three sessions, with teammate Manuel Pagliani only managing 29th place, having completed 54 laps on the MGP3O.
The factory Aspar riders had a mixed outing as Albert Arenas was 15th in the order, registering his best time in Session 3, with 55 laps on board.
"The balance of the first day is good. I was looking forward to getting out on track with all the other riders," said the Spaniard.
"We have a good plan for this test, taking small steps forward along the same lines we established last week and continuing to improve little by little.
"It is hard because everything is very close but we try to keep riding alone and setting as many laps as possible close to our best time."
An unhappy teammate Lorenzo dalla Porta finished way down the order in 27th, unable to break the 1m47s barrier in the 58 laps he ran.
"This first day of testing has been quite difficult," the Italian said. "We tried lots of things on the used tyre.
"We thought that these changes would be a step forward for the race set-up but then when we put the new tyre in we could see they were worse.
"Tomorrow we will go back to what we had last week and start again from there," he added, having clocked his best time of 1m48.661s.
Elsewhere, Peugeot's Jakub Kornfeil finished 18th in the standings, improving on his time as the day progressed with 54 laps on the Indian manufacturer's bike.
His rookie teammate Patrik Pulkkinen ended up 31st overall, completing a solid 73 laps on his maiden outing in an official Moto3 test session.
Day 1 test times - P1 & Mahindra riders:
| Pos | Rider | Team/Bike | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Aron Canet |
Estrella Galicia Honda | 1m46.465s |
| 13 |  Marco Bezzecchi |
CIP Mahindra | 1m47.532s |
| 15 | Albert Arenas |
Aspar Mahindra | 1m47.716s |
| 18 |  Jakub Kornfeil |
Peugeot | 1m47.782s |
| 27 | Lorenzo dalla Porta |
Aspar Mahindra | 1m48.661s |
| 29 | Manuel Pagliani |
CIP Mahindra | 1m49.244s |
| 31 |  Patrik Pulkkinen |
Peugeot | 1m50.254s |
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