The weather finally cleared up at Estoril enough to allow 22 Moto2 riders to decide to put in some lap time and try to salvage what they could of the three day test.
Sharing the top spot were three riders, Claudio Corti on Italtrans Racing Team’s Suter Thomas Luthi (Suter Interwetten Racing) and Simone Corsi with Ioda Racing Project’s FTR, all three posting the unofficial lap time of 1′42.
4.
This trio was followed by Alex de Angelis on the MotoBI, who was just one tenth slower that the leading group.
Jules Cluzel (Suter Forward Racing) with Michele Pirro (Moriwaki Gresini Racing) posted identical lap times, while Mike Di Meglio (Tech 3) was the only other rider to get under 1’43.
0 mark.
Pol Espargaro, Valentin Debise and Kenan Sofuoglu closed out the top ten.
The teams will now have two weeks to get ready for the official test at Jerez, March 4th-6th.
Lap times and rider quotes after the jump.
Moto2 Estoril unofficial test times:1 Simone Corsi Ioda Racing 1′42.
42 Thomas Luthi Interwetten 1′42.
43 Claudio Corti Italtrans 1′42.
44 Alex De Angelis JiR 1′42.
55 Jules Cluzel Forward Racing 1′42.
76 Michele Pirro Gresini Racing 1′42.
77 Mike Di Meglio Tech 3 1′42.
88 Pol Espargaró Speed Up 1′43.
09 Valentine Debise Speed Up 1′43.
010 Kenan Sofuoglu Technomag CIP 1′43.
011 Scott Redding MarcVDS 1′43.
212 Marc Márquez Caixa Repsol 1′43.
213 Mika Kallio MarcVDS 1′43.
314 Mattia Pasini Iodas 1′43.
515 Stefan Bradl Viessman Kiefer 1′43.
616 Bradley Smith Tech 3 1′44.
217 Dominique Aegerter Technomag CIP 1′44.
318 Alex Baldolini Forward Racing 1′44.
619 Robertino Pietri Italtrans 1′44.
820 Santi Hernadez SAG 1′44.
821 Randy Krummenacher Switzerland Kiefer 1′45.
122 Anthony West MZ Racing 1′47.
5Mike di Meglio :“The weather made it very difficult here in Esto ril.
There was so much rain and the track never really dried sufficiently for me to push at my normal level.
The track only completely dried up for the last hour of the last day but in that short time I improved my feeling with the bike.
I tried some new parts and the direction we found is definitely a step forward.
We are closer to the fastest group now and that gives me some good confidence.
I am sorry that I crashed in the last minutes of the test today as I pushed too much and was trying to get more out of the bike when the conditions were not ideal.
I want to thank the Tech 3 Racing Team because when we got out on track we did a good job and I am sure we can improve at the next test in Jerez.
”Bradley Smith:“Although the weather didn’t provide us with the best conditions, we are going in the right direction with the bike and I am learning a lot.
The bike feels more like my friend now and that is very positive for me.
Each time I go out on track I am learning so much that I am sure I can still make a big step forward.
In Valencia I was two seconds away, now I am 1.
5s away.
I am sure we can improve by another second by the time we get to Qatar for the first race, so I’m moving in the right direction.
I was lucky in the crash on the second day.
The power caught me out in the rain, but luckily both the bike and me didn’t get damaged too much.
We’ve got a two-week break now before the next test in Jerez and that is good to make some changes to the bike based on what we discovered in Valencia and Estoril.
I’m loving working with the Tech 3 Racing Team and can’t wait for the start of the season.
”Scott Redding:“What a disappointment.
After a successful test at Valencia I was looking forward to coming here to Estoril and continuing the work on the bike, but the weather put paid to that.
The first day was difficult, but the second day I didn’t even bother going out the track was that bad.
On the third day we had a bit of a break in the weather, but the track didn’t really dry out properly between rain showers and it was only in the final hour we got anywhere close to dry conditions.
Even then the track was really slippery after all the rain.
Hopefully we’ll get some better weather in Jerez next week and we’ll be able to pick up where we left off in Valencia.
”Mika Kallio:“At this point I need as much time on the bike as I can get, but the wind and rain meant I only did six laps on the first day and none on the second.
Today was a bit better, but even when it stopped raining there were still damp patches on the track.
In between the rain showers I squeezed in 20 laps and was able to evaluate two different suspension settings on the front of the bike.
This has given us a good indication of which direction we need to go in, so it wasn’t a completely wasted test.
The bike felt good and the gap to the fastest riders is coming down, but I still need more dry track time before the start of the season.
Hopefully we’ll have better weather in Jerez next week.
”Santi Hernandez:“The last day of the tests in Estoril has been very positive because we found a good set up for the FTR Moto2 machine allowing me to go fast.
This morning we had some problem in the front of the bike, that we fixed but after appeared some problem in the back of the FTR that fortunately we solved too, after this I had good feeling from the front and rear of the machine and that helped me to a better lap time.
We would have liked to ride without interruptions, but the rain didn’t help us in that respect but we leave Estoril with a great result.
We go back home now with the knowledge from this test and a plan to develop further at the next test at Jerez where for sure we will keep this high level and fight for good positions at the classification of the world championship.
”Andrea Iannone:“I’m satisfied with the tests we did in Barcelona and Valencia: the conditions here at Estoril weren’t favourable and, if we had chosen to test, we would have taken some useless risks.
The weather didn’t help us in this case, it’s a shame as we could have taken advantage of these days, but I’m still happy.
I’d like to thank my technical staff, Suter and my track engineer Alessandro Giussani and all the team.
”Marc Márquez:“We could not try what we had in the program for this tests because the weather did not allow us to run in normal conditions, so I only did some laps.
I tried nothing new because the track was not completely dry and there was only a narrow dry line.
I just focused on gathering kilometres with the Moto2 and start taking reference points of this circuit.
The feeling was good and now we have to start planning the next tests in Jerez”.