Valentino Rossi back on top on second day of testing at Jerez

Valentino Rossi secured the top time of the second day of testing at the Jerez De La Frontera in Spain with the Yamaha Factory Racing rider leading his teammate Jorge Lorenzo in second and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Cal Crutchlow. Like the first day testing, day two was also affected by rain with little action before lunchtime. When the riders did get on track the majority of the fast times came in the second half of the day.

Logging an apt total of 46 laps, Rossi registered a fastest time of 1m 39.525s that was good enough to see the seven-times MotoGP champion on top of the timing sheets with teammate Lorenzo very close behind on a best lap of 1m 39.540s while the ever tenacious Crutchlow closed the gap to the top riders and set a best time of 1m 39.574s to secure third place. Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa ended his second day in 4th position (1m 39.630s) with Andrea Dovizioso in 5ht for the Ducati Racing team (1m 40.322s) while Alvaro Bautista secured 6th for the GO&Fun Honda Gresini team with a best lap of 1m 40.686s.

Marc Marquez was off the boil somewhat today with the Repsol Honda rookie in 7th place setting a best time of 1m 40.714s with Stefan Bradl close behind on the LCR Honda RC213V (1m 40.783s). Finishing day two in 9th was Andrea Iannone for the Pramac Racing team with a best time of 1m 41.088s and securing the final spot in the top ten was Ducati Racing’s Nicky Hayden (1m 41.325s). The best CRT machine today was that of Avintia Blusens rider Hector Barbera who set a best time of 1m 41.376s for 11th spot and the Spaniard finished ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith with a best time of 1m 41.398s.

Aleix Espargaro ended his second day in 13th place for the Aspar team (1m 41.444s) with Danilo Petrucci sitting in 14th with a best lap of 1m 41.529s for the IodaRacing team and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro in 15th on a best time of 1m 41.603s. Randy De Puniet (Aspar) set the 16th best time of 1m 41.686s with Claudio Corti in 17th (1m 41.701s) followed closely by Ben Spies (Pramac Racing) on a best lap of 1m 41.702s with Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) setting the 19th best time of 1m 41.916s and Paul Bird Motorsport’s Yonny Hernandez rounding out the top 20 with a best lap of 1m 42.050s.

Bryan Staring continues his learning curve on the Honda Gresini CRT machine (1m 42.107s) with Colin Edwards ending his second day in 22nd for the Forward Racing team with a best time of 1m 42.154s. Hiroshi Aoyama finished with the 23rd best time of 1m 43.959s ahead of Michael Laverty on the second of the Paul bird Motorsport machines (1m 44.185s) and sitting in 25th and final position is Lukas Pesek on the IodaRacing machine with a best lap of 1m 44.874s.

Rossi was very happy with his second day’s testing and said, “Today's test session was very positive for us. I’m so happy, especially because we used a different style of setting. It is very important for us to understand this setting, which can help and effect my riding style to ride the bike in a better way and stay more constant, especially with good lap times on old tyres. To make the first position with a time of 39.5 is good and also being as fast as Jorge. Me and my team are very happy with the pace and I think we will try to continue to work on this way.”

Lorenzo was also happy with what he worked on and with second position. He said, “The track was dry but not in perfect conditions today, there was not so much grip on the track and we had some problems in some corners, where the bike was not very stable. In general it was a very positive test. We worked on suspension and electronics today and we saw that compared to Austin the Yamaha's were much more competitive.

There are three Yamaha's in the top three and that is good for the motivation of the brand. The track is not in the best condition, it’s dry but it’s not perfect because of the rain. I think we have to focus on getting more stability on acceleration and get more comfortable with the race pace,” Lorenzo added.

Crutchlow was a very happy rider at the post session interviews after reaching the top factory machines again. He said, “I am very happy with how today went and it was good to get in some laps in the dry. We had a few things to try with the bike and the weather meant we could assess what was positive and negative. It wasn't easy at the start because the track was really dirty and then later on it got quite cold and slippery, but we got some important work completed on the set-up.

My Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team did a great job and I am sure with some small adjustments tomorrow we can be faster. The pleasing aspect of today was I was very consistent and that makes me confident for when we come back for the race here. The fact that the top three was filled by Yamaha also bodes well for the race in a few weeks. I am right in the mix with the factory bikes again and this is very satisfying for me,” Crutchlow added.