MotoGP majority remain in situ for Monday testing

With a break of two weekends before round four the MotoGP riders have one additional day of on-track work ahead of them in the form of an important test date at Estoril on Monday, before attention turns to the Pramac Grand Prix of China at the start of May.

The majority of the MotoGP fraternity will stay in Portugal overnight on Sunday before undertaking a day of testing at one of the most technically difficult circuits on the MotoGP calendar.

Fiat Yamaha´s Jorge Lorenzo is certain to be a notable absentee having left for Barcelona on Sunday evening, after winning the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal, to have his forearms examined at the Dexeus Clinic on Monday - due to muscle pressure build-up which could result in surgery.

At a track which Bridgestone have selected as their venue of choice for four days of testing with non-MotoGP riders later in the year, Monday will see their teams and, indeed, their Michelin-equipped rivals focus much of their work on gathering tyre data.

Kawasaki will work on geometry tweaks to better accommodate their new chassis rather than re-testing the `screamer engine´ which got an outing two weeks ago in Jerez, preferring to put in more development on the motor before its next scheduled test at Le Mans following round five in May.

Likewise Repsol Honda will not be testing their new pneumatic valve engine on Monday, as had previously been suggested, HRC bosses in Japan aiming to make more improvements to the developing engine before it is let loose on a MotoGP circuit in the near future – perhaps also at Le Mans.