Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Marquez beats Iannone to top Barcelona test

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez topped the post-Catalan Grand Prix MotoGP test day at Barcelona.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Repsol Media

2019 Honda RC213V
2019 Honda RC213V
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Tito Rabat, Avintia Racing
Tito Rabat, Avintia Racing

Marquez overhauled Suzuki's Andrea Iannone with four minutes left on the clock in the eight-hour session, posting a 1m38.916s – a laptime that would've been good enough for third on the grid for Sunday's race.

Iannone had overtaken the session's early leader – Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat – around the two-hour mark.

The status quo out front remained unchanged for a long time, before Marquez – who trialled a black-liveried prototype Honda RC213V on the day - took second from Rabat with just over half an hour left to run.

The Spaniard then sped up again, beating Iannone's long-standing benchmark by 0.104s, with Rabat remaining best of the rest in third, 0.446s off the pace.

With Ducati factory riders Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso skipping the test, the Italian factory provided "new things to try" for Pramac's Danilo Petrucci.

The Italian placed fourth, but his day had come to an early end when he crashed out at the high-speed Turn 9 right-hander.

"I'm fine, just a crash, was a low-side at Turn 9, but when [I] arrived on the gravel, there is always a little step between the grass and the gravel and I started to get round, round, round.

"I started to feel very very bad with my feet, but no fracture, so that's important, even if my foot is getting bigger and bigger.

"Anyway, I'm so sorry, because it was my first test to try new things for Ducati factory and I crashed with this.

"Fortunately, I'm okay, and the majority of the test, we are done, so I'm happy because I was even quite fast."

Tech 3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco had briefly taken the lead from Rabat early on, but was shuffled down the order, ending the day in fifth.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was sixth, while Honda works rider Dani Pedrosa moved up to seventh late on.

Pedrosa's improvement relegated Suzuki's Alex Rins to eighth, 0.004s ahead of Yamaha's Maverick Vinales and 0.006s ahead of Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller.

Vinales and factory teammate Valentino Rossi ventured out on track relatively late in the eight-hour test, and spent most of it outside the top 10, with the Italian eventually settling for 14th.

A new, larger-profile front tyre was made available to riders in the test by supplier Michelin, with Iannone issuing a short verdict: "I like. Good job Michelin."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont

Session results

Pos. Rider Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Marc Marquez Honda 1:38.916   88
2 Andrea Iannone Suzuki 1:39.020 0.104 37
3 Tito Rabat Ducati 1:39.362 0.446 82
4 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1:39.488 0.572 41
5 Johann Zarco Yamaha 1:39.534 0.618 72
6 Cal Crutchlow Honda 1:39.727 0.811 61
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda 1:39.738 0.822 77
8 Alex Rins Suzuki 1:39.793 0.877 83
9 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1:39.797 0.881 85
10 Jack Miller Ducati 1:39.799 0.883 52
11 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:39.915 0.999 56
12 Franco Morbidelli Honda 1:40.004 1.088 70
13 Hafizh Syahrin Yamaha 1:40.108 1.192 42
14 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:40.124 1.208 58
15 Bradley Smith KTM 1:40.462 1.546 77
16 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1:40.541 1.625 88
17 Pol Espargaro KTM 1:40.721 1.805 49
18 Scott Redding Ducati 1:40.732 1.816 62
19 Xavier Simeon Ducati 1:41.145 2.229 74
20 Tom Luthi Honda 1:41.207 2.291 82
21 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 1:41.316 2.400 62
22 Mika Kallio KTM 1:41.976 3.060 16

 

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Crutchlow braced for "horseshit" theories amid Pedrosa exit
Next article Rossi: Yamaha stuck with "the same bike" until Brno

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia