Valencia MotoGP Testing | Marquez Tops Smith Wednesday

2013 Valencia MotoGP Test Results

Fourteen riders were present Wednesday during the final day of post-season MotoGP testing at Valencia.

And just like Tuesday, the fastest rider was the 2013 MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez. The 20-year-old Spaniard, who broke loads of records en route to his debut title, posted a best lap of 1:30.287 while dialing in his 2014 RC213V.

The time was just 0.5 of a second off his pole for the season finale at Valencia.

Though Marquez’s speed was no surprise, it was Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith who impressed with the second fastest time. The Brit, who will be joined by Moto2 World Champion Pol Espargaro in 2014 MotoGP, was 0.322 of a second slower than Marquez. As for Espargaro, he finished sixth fastest, less than a second behind his teammate.

Fourth fastest was LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl, who was 0.27 of a second slower than Marquez while piloting the new RC213V, finishing just behind the third-quickest rider – Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo.

Dani Pedrosa had a busy day, also testing the 2014 machine and lapping fourth best on Wednesday and fifth overall, his fastest lap coming on Tuesday. Likewise Alvaro Bautista went quicker yesterday than today and was caught out on Wednesday by the new HRC machine for next season, crashing it on his eighth lap on the bike on Wednesday – though without serious consequences.

Just below Bautista and Pol Espargaro on Wednesday’s timesheet, Andrea Iannone was the fastest Ducati equipped rider on the timesheet with Pramac Racing, 1.3s off Marquez’ pace.

Aleix Espargaro did well on the new Forward Racing FTR Yamaha on just his second day on the bike, just outpacing the likes of Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow, and putting in 49 valuable laps on the new machine. Espargaro’s new teammate Colin Edwards did not test as he was already en route back to Texas for a well-earned winter break.

New Power Electronics Aspar riders Nicky Hayden (1:32.123 – 40 laps) and Hiroshi Aoyama (1:32.530 – 60 laps) put in a century of tours around the 4005m Ricardo Tormo track, gathering priceless data and experience with the new Honda RCV1000R.

Completing the timesheet was Paul Bird Motorsport rider Michael Laverty , 0.5s behind Aoyama as his team work on their strategy for the forthcoming season.

Some teams may test privately in the coming weeks, but after the Winter Test ban in December and January the 2014 MotoGP grid will back in action together at Sepang in the 2nd-4th February preseason tests.