Final Moto2 Test Jerez Overall Times - Corti Edges Elias, Top 16 Within 1 Second

By David Emmett | Mon, 29/03/2010 - 20:41

At the end of the three days of testing for the Moto2 class at Jerez, Forward Racing's Claudio Corti comes away at the top of the timesheets. The Italian, riding a Suter for the former Hayate team ended the final day as the fastest rider, just a fraction ahead of the time Toni Elias set on Saturday. Elias himself dominated much of the test, but a nasty crash in the final session saw the Gresini rider forced off track between turns 1 and 2 when a much slower 125cc rider blocked Elias' line, leaving him no choice but to hit the deck. Elias was immediately flown back to his hometown of Barcelona to undergo medical examination and and treatment if necessary. Elias has a suspected fracture of his left hand, as well as heavy bruising to his left hand and left foot. The Gresini rider is expected to be fit enough to race in the season opener at Qatar.

Third fastest rider of the day - and the test - was Karel Abraham, the Czech rider pushing his Cardion AB RSV to within a quarter of a second of Corti's time. But unlike Corti and Elias, Abraham's lap time came as a one-off, and not as part of a consistent run of pace. Abraham finished ahead of Scott Redding, the British rider showing solid progression the Marc VDS Racing Suter after setting a quick time yesterday. Jack&Jones Banderas rider Kenny Noyes was out of the top three for the first time at Jerez, a broken metacarpal in his right hand requiring four painkilling injections from the Clinica Mobile to be able to ride. Despite his injury Noyes took his Harris-framed Moto2 machine to the fifth spot on the timesheets, less than four tenths off Corti's best time of the test. Reigning 125 World Champion Julian Simon ended the test in 6th place, having a couple of hundredths behind Noyes and a couple of hundredths ahead of Yonny Hernandez, the Colombian rider for Blusens.

The three days of testing have confirmed just how close this class looks likely to be. Less than a second separates Corti in first from Roberto Rolfo, all the way down in 16th, and two seconds cover some 31 riders. But the test has also shown the importance of four-stroke experience, especially experience on a production machine. Of the top 10 riders at Jerez, half have spent time racing production bikes: Corti was a force in Superstock 1000, Noyes and Hernandez were at the sharp end of the Spanish CEV championships, Ant West spent a year in World Supersport, and Tech 3's Yuki Takahashi has worked closely with HRC racing their CBR1000RR in the Suzuka 8 hour race. Of the riders without four-stroke experience, Scott Redding and especially Julian Simon have been most impressive, Simon being quick almost every time he's been out on the bike. The list of favorites in Moto2 is long, and probably fairly meaningless. Anyone could win the inaugural Moto2 race at Qatar, and anyone winning more than one race could easily end up champion.

Thomas Luthi at Jerez
Photo Courtesy Interwetten Honda/Mirco Lazzari

Results:

Pos No Rider Bike Time Diff Prev
1 71 Claudio CORTI SUTER 1:44.044 0.000  
2 24 Toni ELIAS MORIWAKI 1:44.077 0.033 0.033
3 17 Karel ABRAHAM RSV 1:44.291 0.247 0.214
4 45 Scott REDDING SUTER 1:44.394 0.350 0.103
5 9 Kenny NOYES PROMOHARRIS 1:44.406 0.362 0.012
6 60 Julian SIMON RSV 1:44.450 0.406 0.044
7 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ BQR 1:44.477 0.433 0.027
8 16 Jules CLUZEL SUTER 1:44.522 0.478 0.045
9 8 Anthony WEST MZ 1:44.530 0.486 0.008
10 72 Yuki TAKAHASHI TECH3 1:44.552 0.508 0.022
11 12 Thomas LUTHI MORIWAKI 1:44.615 0.571 0.063
12 15 Alex DE ANGELIS SCOT 1:44.624 0.580 0.009
13 48 Shoya TOMIZAWA SUTER 1:44.635 0.591 0.011
14 4 Stefan BRADL SUTER 1:44.737 0.693 0.102
15 6 Alex DEBON FTR 1:44.848 0.804 0.111
16 44 Roberto ROLFO SUTER 1:45.009 0.965 0.161
17 59 Niccolo CANEPA SCOT 1:45.264 1.220 0.255
18 2 Gabor TALMACSI FTR 1:45.286 1.242 0.022
19 80 Axel PONS KALEX 1:45.331 1.287 0.045
20 25 Alex BALDOLINI I.C.P. 1:45.357 1.313 0.026
21 14 Ratthapark WILIAROT BIMOTA 1:45.463 1.419 0.106
22 77 Dominique AEGERTER SUTER 1:45.527 1.483 0.064
23 63 Mike DI MEGLIO RSV 1:45.550 1.506 0.023
24 40 Sergio GADEA KALEX 1:45.618 1.574 0.068
25 10 Fonsi NIETO MORIWAKI 1:45.638 1.594 0.020
26 35 Raffaele DE ROSA TECH3 1:45.641 1.597 0.003
27 39 Robertino PIETRI SUTER 1:45.777 1.733 0.136
28 53 Valentin DEBISE ADV 1:45.852 1.808 0.075
29 75 Mattia PASINI TSR 1:45.987 1.943 0.135
30 52 Lukas PESEK MORIWAKI 1:45.993 1.949 0.006
31 3 Simone CORSI TSR 1:45.994 1.950 0.001
32 29 Andrea IANNONE FTR 1:46.059 2.015 0.065
33 76 Bernat MARTINEZ BIMOTA 1:46.247 2.203 0.188
34 61 Vladimir IVANOV MORIWAKI 1:46.254 2.210 0.007
35 21 Vladimir LEONOV SUTER 1:46.426 2.382 0.172
36 5 Joan OLIVE PROMOHARRIS 1:46.448 2.404 0.022
37 41 Arne TODE SUTER 1:46.492 2.448 0.044
38 95 Mashel ALNAIMI MOT 1:46.650 2.606 0.158
39 88 Yannick GUERRA MORIWAKI 1:46.828 2.784 0.178
40 27 Vincent LONBOIS SUTER 1:47.331 3.287 0.503

http://www.motocuatro.com/noticia.php?idNoticia=994

http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/tests/2010_Test_Jerez2_Moto2_…

Moto2
Jerez, Spain
Honda
Kalex
Suter
Tech 3
FTR
Moriwaki
TSR
Bimota
ADV
BQR
Harris
I.C.P
RSV
NCR

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Comments

If so, why would they do this? Is it a cost over safety kind of thing?

I don't know what happened with Elias' crash, but I would think that riders of neither the faster or the slower class of bikes would want to be seriously testing with the other around. Obviously the faster bikes would be constantly having to go around the slower bikes (not just faster riders going around slower riders in the same class of bikes), and this would detract from the concentration of both the passing and the passed riders. Constantly.

Just doesn't seem like a very prudent idea. Why would the riders not have an issue with this, I wonder.

It's basically an issue of cost. Renting an FIM sanctioned track is not cheap, especially not for the full set of services that the full IRTA test requires. To make best use of the track, both Moto2 and 125 tests run simultaneously, though each class also had the track to themselves for an hour each day.

The riders don't like it, but they prefer having more time on track to sticking with the safe option.

the Paranoid Android on this one. I've been involved at variety of tracks for over 20 years as a cornerworker. I've done about every job but starter, from picking up bikes ON track, waving the flags as needed to the position of race control on the worker side of the control tower mix. Working with various world and national sanctioning bodies to put forth an event.

Mixing classes that have the difference in riding characteristics that exist between Moto2 and 125 is just asking for an incident. The difference in speeds, both sraight line and cornering, with each having favor over the other creates an atmosphere prime for a collision.

Whether the riders like it or not, safety dictates that putting racers in unnecessary risk won't be done and the two classes separated. If that causess another day to a test then so be it, better than maiming or worse yet, losing a racer to save a couple euros. How much is a racers career/life worth?

Maybe they should just seperate the times the two Classes are on track. 125s for an hour, then Moto2s for an hour. That seems rather strange that they do not do that. Oh well, I guess it will take the riders banding together to propose something like that.

The cost will be the same. Just the arrangement different.

each class gets one hour exclusively, but both classes share additional hours of track time.

If the riders are OK with it, it's none of my business. I guess, even if the riders weren't OK with it, the support-class nature of their stature would probably severely limit their clout over any potential demands for change.

I do think though that class-sharing track time would NEVER fly with Moto GP. The riders' safety commission would never go for it, I would think, particularly Rossi, as he tends to be the most vocal proponent of effective safety measures, and he certainly, as well the class itself, has clout.

The top riders in the 2 classes are within 1.5s and the front of the 125 field is ahead of the back of the moto2 field. That gap with 1m46ish lap times is small enough to find a space and get clear laps in.

It'll have been the 125s that were the most frustrated. Those little 125s are just incredible through the corners. Powering past smaller bikes on the straights isn't a bother.

18% of the field has raced in MotoGP and half the riders in the field have one a Grand Prix competition. Of the riders in either group, I wonder how many will be successful enough to remain in Grand Prix racing in 2011? Will WSS be the beneficiary? I'd love to see Sofuoglu contend with Pasini and Pesek (even if I'd rather see them both stick around in Grand Prix racing).

It's only testing fella's. Riders shouldn't be putting hard passes on other riders in this environment full stop. So a 125 guy was going slow. It could have just as easily been another 600 rider. Whilst I understand the frustration of a slower rider being on line, a possible better summation might be that Elias shouldn't have pushed that hard to pass. I note Passini has been consistently off the pace, I really hope he gets it sorted as he provided some fantastic racing moments last year on the 250.

Claudio Corti. After watching Superstock, I reckon Maxine Berger and Ayrton Badovini are on their way to Moto 2 next year. Pasini is a surprise.
Running both 125's and Moto 2 at the same time? I know its only testing, but it is dangerous. The reason is that the riders are trying to max out the machines potential in the quest for a great consistent race pace. 125 trying to slipstream a 600, 600 trying to outdo a 125 in corner entry and apex speed.
I don't like it, especially when you have 40+ going for it at a circuit like Jerez.

So can they really have so many bikes out there at once? You'd think they'd have a limit of some kind. I understand that many of them will not all be ready to go at the same time, but it sounds like they'd have to manage the number somehow or it would be a traffic jam let alone dangerous.