Submitted by David Emmett on
Maverick Viñales has ended the third preseason MotoGP test of 2017 at the top of the timesheets. The Movistar Yamaha rider started the day with a succession of quick laps which would not be beaten, before getting down to the long grind of development work, turning a total of 101 laps.
Marc Marquez leaves Phillip Island as second fastest, the Repsol Honda rider the only other man to get into the 1'28s. Marquez' program was almost as punishing as Viñales, turning 96 laps in addition to the 107 he ran on Thursday. He is joined by his teammate Dani Pedrosa at the top of the timesheets, the Spanish veteran recovered slightly from his throat infection and strong enough to post the third best time.
Jonas Folger rounded out a very strong test in Australia with the fourth fastest time, and ended as second Yamaha. The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider was just a few thousandths slower than Pedrosa, and just a few hundreds quicker than Cal Crutchlow, the LCR Honda rider finishing in fifth.
Alex Rins ended a good test at Phillip Island in sixth place, half a second behind Viñales. The Suzuki rider made astonishing progress over the course of three days, improving his time by over 2.3 seconds from Wednesday to Friday. He was not the most improved rider: that honor fell to Bradley Smith on the KTM, who improved his best lap by 2.7 seconds between Wednesday and Friday. A full list of improvement over the three days appears under Friday's results.
Andrea Dovizioso was the fastest Ducati, the Italian ending the day seven tenths off the pace of Viñales. And much to the relief of Ducati, Jorge Lorenzo made a big improvement to move up to eighth spot, under a tenth off the pace of his teammate. Jack Miller was ninth quickest on the Marc VDS Honda, while Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top ten on the Aprilia. Valentino Rossi ended the test just outside the top ten, over nine tenths slower than his teammate.
Results:
| Pos | No | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev |
| 1 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha M1 | 1:28.549 | ||
| 2 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda RC213V | 1:28.843 | 0.294 | 0.294 |
| 3 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda RC213V | 1:29.033 | 0.484 | 0.190 |
| 4 | 94 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha M1 | 1:29.042 | 0.493 | 0.009 |
| 5 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:29.101 | 0.552 | 0.059 |
| 6 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:29.103 | 0.554 | 0.002 |
| 7 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP17 | 1:29.248 | 0.699 | 0.145 |
| 8 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati GP17 | 1:29.342 | 0.793 | 0.094 |
| 9 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda RC213V | 1:29.358 | 0.809 | 0.016 |
| 10 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:29.361 | 0.812 | 0.003 |
| 11 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 1:29.470 | 0.921 | 0.109 |
| 12 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:29.547 | 0.998 | 0.077 |
| 13 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP17 | 1:29.615 | 1.066 | 0.068 |
| 14 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Yamaha M1 | 1:29.670 | 1.121 | 0.055 |
| 15 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati GP16 | 1:29.792 | 1.243 | 0.122 |
| 16 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM RC16 | 1:29.857 | 1.308 | 0.065 |
| 17 | 76 | Loris Baz | Ducati GP15 | 1:29.977 | 1.428 | 0.120 |
| 18 | 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM RC16 | 1:29.978 | 1.429 | 0.001 |
| 19 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati GP16 | 1:29.984 | 1.435 | 0.006 |
| 20 | 45 | Scott Redding | Ducati GP16 | 1:30.005 | 1.456 | 0.021 |
| 21 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:30.200 | 1.651 | 0.195 |
| 22 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati GP15 | 1:30.452 | 1.903 | 0.252 |
Times over three days, sorted by most improved rider from slowest day to fastest day:
| No | Rider | Bike | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Improvement | Fastest Lap |
| 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM RC16 | 1:32.690 | 1:31.704 | 1:29.978 | 2.712 | 1:29.978 |
| 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:31.432 | 1:29.802 | 1:29.103 | 2.329 | 1:29.103 |
| 22 | Sam Lowes | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:32.307 | 1:30.895 | 1:30.200 | 2.107 | 1:30.200 |
| 45 | Scott Redding | Ducati GP16 | 1:31.755 | 1:30.435 | 1:30.005 | 1.750 | 1:30.005 |
| 94 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha M1 | 1:30.578 | 1:29.664 | 1:29.042 | 1.536 | 1:29.042 |
| 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:30.802 | 1:29.501 | 1:29.361 | 1.441 | 1:29.361 |
| 25 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha M1 | 1:29.989 | 1:28.847 | 1:28.549 | 1.440 | 1:28.549 |
| 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati GP16 | 1:30.770 | 1:29.411 | 1:29.984 | 1.359 | 1:29.411 |
| 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM RC16 | 1:31.200 | 1:30.645 | 1:29.857 | 1.343 | 1:29.857 |
| 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati GP17 | 1:30.631 | 1:30.197 | 1:29.342 | 1.289 | 1:29.342 |
| 76 | Loris Baz | Ducati GP15 | 1:31.249 | 1:30.852 | 1:29.977 | 1.272 | 1:29.977 |
| 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda RC213V | 1:30.281 | 1:30.245 | 1:29.033 | 1.248 | 1:29.033 |
| 5 | Johann Zarco | Yamaha M1 | 1:30.867 | 1:29.880 | 1:29.670 | 1.197 | 1:29.670 |
| 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP17 | 1:30.410 | 1:29.483 | 1:29.248 | 1.162 | 1:29.248 |
| 43 | Jack Miller | Honda RC213V | 1:30.426 | 1:29.838 | 1:29.358 | 1.068 | 1:29.358 |
| 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati GP15 | 1:31.179 | 1:30.142 | 1:30.452 | 1.037 | 1:30.142 |
| 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati GP16 | 1:30.771 | 1:30.352 | 1:29.792 | 0.979 | 1:29.792 |
| 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:30.065 | 1:29.325 | 1:29.101 | 0.964 | 1:29.101 |
| 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda RC213V | 1:29.497 | 1:29.309 | 1:28.843 | 0.654 | 1:28.843 |
| 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP17 | 1:30.262 | 1:30.150 | 1:29.615 | 0.647 | 1:29.615 |
| 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:29.926 | 1:29.947 | 1:29.547 | 0.400 | 1:29.547 |
| 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 1:29.683 | 1:29.674 | 1:29.470 | 0.213 | 1:29.470 |
Comments
Viñales
I'm guessing that after all the consternation of last year’s decision on whether or not to leave Suzuki Viñales is feeling pretty good about his choice thus far.
new Honda motor
at the end of 3 days testing ,there are 3 RC213 in the top 5,
I noticed on CC35 bike the lower exhaust seems a lot longer? would that "tune" the exhausts for more mid-range ?
Interesting
I'm thinking that Rossi is the man doing the sandbagging here, he is playing the game better than Marc Marquez by making such marginal progress whilst not being too specific on what he thinks needs to be improved.
I guess we will see all in a few weeks.
No sandbagging, development/testing instead
I read on crash.net that he's been working on tire management because he's been having big issues in the 2nd part of the race. From day 1 and the previous tests, it's clear that setting a fast lap is not an issue. Yamaha needs to get their tires to last the whole race in a better condition so they can put up a fight till the end of the race.
These are tests, not races. They're by no means an indication of how the season is going to fold out or what the real race pace of the riders is.
End of race
Rossi didn't seem to be doing race Sims or rate very highly in long runs but Mav did. Seems like Vinales was doing that test program while Rossi was searching for something?