Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) went fastest during private testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on Saturday and Sunday, setting a 1:35.239 as his best lap – only 0.088 ahead of Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli.
This was our first experience with the 2017 Kalex and we tested a lot of things over the two days. Everything we tried on the 2017 bike was really positive and for me it offers some improvement over last year's version.Morbidelli concentrated on familiarization with his 2017 Kalex, whilst teammate Alex Marquez compared the 2016 and 2017 versions as the 2014 Moto3™ World Champion got back on track following arm pump surgery in the winter break.
Luca Marini (Forward Racing) was third on the timesheets with a 1’35.584 after 105 laps over two days, with teammate Lorenzo Baldassari further back with a 1’35.769 after 135 laps. Kiefer Racing Team’s new arrival Dominique Aegerter was fourth quickest as he gets used to life back on a Suter chassis, leading teammate Danny Kent by three tenths. Tech 3 Racing Team’s Xavi Vierge made it three different bikes in the top five, with Kalex, Suter and the Mistral 610 all represented.
"We commenced work on the new package, and I felt immediately comfortable on it. The new chassis and the new suspension seem to be a positive step in the right direction."After Marcel Schrötter tested at Valencia recently, Intact Dynavolt GP were another Suter presence back on track with both riders Schrötter and Sandro Cortese. Cortese was P7 and his teammate P9, with Moto2™ rookie Jorge Navarro completing the top ten for Federal Oil Gresini Moto2.
Also present were Yonny Hernandez (AGR Team), Remy Gardner (Tech 3 Racing Team) and Khairul Idham Pawi (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) – as well as the new Sky Racing Team VR46 Moto2™ team of Francesco Bagnaia and Stefano Manzi as the Italian squad prepare to launch an intermediate class attack.