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Quartararo smashes lap record in post-race Jerez test

Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo set the new fastest-ever MotoGP lap of Jerez in the post-Spanish Grand Prix collective test.

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

MotoGP

The rookie ended the day with a best effort of 1m36.379s, half a second quicker than the lap that had made him the youngest pole-sitter in MotoGP history on Saturday.

Quartararo headed the timing screens for most of the day, thanks to a series of fast laps in the third hour that included a 1m37.101s, which allowed him to take the top spot away from teammate Franco Morbidelli.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow became the first rider to dip below 1m37s during the test early in the final hour of running, demoting Quartararo.

But the Frenchman returned to the track afterwards and reclaimed the lap record with just under half an hour to go, following that up by going just 0.005s slower on his next lap.

Quartararo ended the day with a four-tenths cushion over Crutchlow, who was another three tenths up on Morbidelli in third place.

Morbidelli outpaced KTM's Pol Espargaro by just two hundredths of a second to snatch third in the final minutes of the test.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales and Suzuki's Joan Mir were also among those improving late on as they took fifth and sixth respectively, the former recording a field-high 94 laps.

Spanish GP winner Marc Marquez led early on in the day, and was second to Quartararo at the conclusion of his 75-lap test programme, before ultimately being shuffled down to seventh place.

He set his best time, a 1m37.260s, on the carbon-covered red-and-blue HRC-liveried bike that test rider Stefan Bradl rode during the Spanish GP weekend.

Suzuki debuted a wide Ducati-style rear winglet on the GSX-RR of Mir's teammate Alex Rins, but the Austin race winner got little mileage with it as it broke off when he swiftly went off-track.

Rins ended the day in eighth place, as the final rider within a second of Quartararo's blistering effort.

Jorge Lorenzo was just two tenths down on teammate Marc Marquez in ninth, but crashed twice during the day.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), who along with Lorenzo fell off his bike with the chequered flag approaching, made up the too 10.

Andrae Dovizioso headed three of his fellow Ducati riders in 11th, with the Italian manufacturer's contingent followed by the leading Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in 15th.

Espargaro's factory teammate Andrea Iannone, who sat out the race after injuring his left ankle in a crash on Saturday, was initially declared fit to test but pulled out due to pain after a single installation lap.

Yamaha's Valentino Rossi concluded the test 17th, 1.677s off the pace and a place behind KTM rider Johann Zarco.

Session results

Pos. Rider Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1:36.379   73
2 Cal Crutchlow Honda 1:36.797 0.418 78
3 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1:37.093 0.714 82
4 Pol Espargaro KTM 1:37.114 0.735 63
5 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1:37.226 0.847 94
6 Joan Mir Suzuki 1:37.233 0.854 85
7 Marc Marquez Honda 1:37.260 0.881 75
8 Alex Rins Suzuki 1:37.275 0.896 69
9 Jorge Lorenzo Honda 1:37.466 1.087 93
10 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1:37.468 1.089 63
11 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1:37.601 1.222 52
12 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 1:37.698 1.319 60
13 Jack Miller Ducati 1:37.701 1.322 85
14 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1:37.720 1.341 61
15 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:37.758 1.379 80
16 Johann Zarco KTM 1:37.895 1.516 71
17 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:38.056 1.677 74
18 Tito Rabat Ducati 1:38.061 1.682 79
19 Karel Abraham Ducati 1:38.075 1.696 67
20 Bradley Smith Aprilia 1:38.077 1.698 82
21 Miguel Oliveira KTM 1:38.649 2.270 77
22 Hafizh Syahrin KTM 1:39.053 2.674 57
23 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 1:39.637 3.258 79

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