With the 2013 MotoGP championship and Marc Marquez’ title now written not only in the record books, but also in the GP racing annals, the series now turns its head towards 2014 with the first post season test getting underway at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia.
The fastest rider of the first day was Sunday’s race winner Jorge Lorenzo who posted a stratosferic 1:31.
257 in the closing stages of the day with the 2013 version of his M1, while the 2014 machine also got a shakedown from both Lorenzo and team mate Valentino Rossi, who had his new crewchief Silvano Galbusera (Marco Melandri’s World Superbike crew chief at Yamaha and BMW) at his side, after suddenly and rather dramatically parting ways with the legendary Jeremy Burgess on the eve of the Valencia race.
The Repsol Honda team decided to sit the day out after celebrating not only Marquez’ title but also their third consecutive Constructors Championship title and leaving the field to the Honda satellite teams and the teams that have switched from CRTs to the new Honda RCV1000R production machine.
Monday was also a day of changes, debuts and more rider confirmations for the upcoming season.
Cal Crutchlow got his first taste of the much malingered in Ducati.
The English rider was just eight tenths of a second off pace from Lorenzo on the first day with the Desmosedici GP13 and he wasn’t the only new thing in the Ducati garage besides Crutchlow and Daniele Romagnoli, Gigi Dall’Igna also officially took his place as Ducati’s new General Manager.
After being highly sought out by Yamaha, Moto2 World Champion Pol Espargaro got his chance to ride his Tech3 branded Yamaha M1, while new team mate Bradley Smith sat out the day ready to return to track tomorrow.
2013 Moto2 runner-up Scott Redding also debuted in MotoGP riding Gresini’s Honda’s new and much anticipated RCV1000R, but the English rider is still not 100% fit following his crash at Motegi.
Hiroshi Aoyama who is now riding for Power Electronics Aspar team took to track with the only RCV1000R available for the moment for the Spanish squad, while Nicky Hayden will be riding the machine on Tuesday and Wednesday .
Yonny Hernandez who replaced the retired Ben Spies in Pramac Ducati in the last five rounds of the season was officially confirmed for 2014.
He’ll be riding the Desmosedici GP13 ‘open’, that is those machines allowed 24 liters of fuel and will be equipped with the Magneti Marelli spec ECU.
Locked out of the Aspar team following the confirmation of Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama, Randy de Puniet will get a chance to test for Paul Bird’s PBM team tomorrow.
Valencia Day 1 test results:1 LORENZO J.
Yamaha Factory Racing 1:31.
2572 ROSSI V.
Yamaha Factory Racing +0.
0933 BRADL S.
LCR Honda MotoGP +0.
4944 IANNONE A.
Pramac Racing +0.
6685 DOVIZIOSO A.
Ducati Team +0.
6866 CRUTCHLOW C.
Ducati Team +0.
7977 PIRRO M.
Ducati Test Team +1.
4418 HERNANDEZ Y.
Pramac Racing +1.
4889 AOYAMA H.
Power Electronics Aspar +1.
76310 ESPARGARO P.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +1.
93011 REDDING S.
GO&FUN Honda Gresini +2.
93812 LAVERTY M.
Paul Bird Motorsport +3.
12113 BAUER M.
Remus Racing Team +3.
858
