Taking a relaxed start to three days of testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, of the Repsol Honda Team, finished the final IRTA MotoGP test with a mixed bag of results.
Having not visited the track for approximately one year, the pair waited two hours to take to what would have been a dirty track as it is located in the desert, before beginning their testing programs which was made up of refining the set-up, electronics and the all-important aerodynamics as the winglets seen last season have been banned for the 2017 season.
Marquez crashes twice on opening day in Losail
Always keen to ‘find the limit’, 2016 MotoGP champion Marquez fell twice on the opening day of testing; first at turn 16 after approximately two hours of track time, and again at turn two with around an hour of the session remaining. The champion finished a disappointing first day in 12th after completing just 39 laps. His fastest time was 1:55.899 which was over a second slower than fastest man Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team).
Knowing he couldn’t say that day one “was one of the best”, however he was assured that it was only day one, and that they “worked hard on trying many things” including a new fairing that they planned “to test further”. He felt that “some of them worked well while others must be adjusted”.
Discussing how he did not complete a ‘time-attack’ to finish better in the classification, he was “not very worried” as he found their “rhythm wasn’t so bad” and so felt “satisfied” overall. Mentioning the crashes, he admitted that the firsts on was his fault as he “braked a bit too late”, however, he described the second one as “a classic at this track”. He described how it “came almost at the end of the session when the temperature had dropped and conditions weren’t good anymore”.
Pedrosa apprehensive on a dirty track
For Pedrosa, he finished the opening day on the flood lit track as the eighth quickest rider with his fastest time of 1:55.962. The closeness in the times for the two riders, yet their position on the leaderboard was an example of how close things were, Pedrosa was 0.63 seconds slower, yet was enough to separate them by four positions.
Pedrosa described how “on the first day in Qatar you need to adapt to the situation because it’s the first time riding at night”; he also noted that the “track is always a little bit dirty”. He explained how “you need to take some time to understand the track conditions and adapt well”.
Explaining further, he spoke of how “at the end it was quite difficult” as he described how the “track temperature went down and the humidity rose quickly”. He highlighted that it “wasn’t easy to see the moisture while on the bike” and as a result they “saw many crashes”, and so he felt it was “best to stop early”.
Rain a factor to contend with on day two
Taking another relaxed start to testing on the second day of proceedings, one and a half hours passes before Marquez emerged from his pit garage. He managed to complete just five laps before it began to rain which halted proceedings and forced a retreat to the pits. Still, he was able to complete another 50 laps with his fastest time coming on his 10th lap with a time of 1:55.196 which was 0.703 seconds quicker than his previous.
He felt that the “impression was much better” than the opening day, and ended day two feeling “happy” especially as he felt they “worked well and made the correct steps”. Regardless of the improvements, he felt they were “missing something during the day”, however revealed that “in the last run” that they managed to find “something interesting” ready for the final day of proceedings. He was optimistic saying, “We’ll try to keep working in this way, which I believe is the right one.”
Analysing his performance throughout the second day, he felt their “rhythm isn’t bad” but felt they still “need to do better”. Knowing that “the track isn’t one of the best” for Japanese manufacturer, Honda, he aimed to continue “working especially on the electronics side”. He confirmed that the “base [setting] isn’t bad” and that they had “tried something that didn’t give the results” that they were hoping for, however they had something in the pipeline for day three.
Difficult day two for Pedrosa
It proved to be a rather difficult day for his teammate Pedrosa who dropped from eighth down to 16th by the end of the second day. Completing 48 laps, his quickest time was on lap 23 with a time of 1:55.875 which turned out to be 0.183 seconds slower than his fastest time the day previous. He had an even later start to his test than his teammate, opting to make his way onto the track after the rainfall, over two and a half hours after the test got underway.
He admitted that he found it “difficult to manage as the track was quite different” compared to the day previous as “it didn’t have much grip”. He explained that this was the reason they “didn’t go for a fast time” and instead they chose to “improve the feeling”. He felt that “step by step [they] improved but not enough”.
He mentioned how they “tried a long run” which almost covered race distance, in an effort to “understand the bike’s behaviour” and said, “In the end it wasn’t bad”. He hoped that for the third and final day they would “have a better feeling”. Despite the setbacks, he felt they were “at a better point compared to last year at this stage of the season” however he knew there were “some areas that [they] need to understand more” as they continued to “get as much information” as possible before the opening race of the season.
Pedrosa finishes final pre-season test as third fastest rider
The third and final day saw a significant improvement in results for the Repsol Honda team, and Pedrosa in particular, as he finished the day, and the test, as the third quickest rider. Marquez dropped by two positions on the timesheet, but was still able to improve on his time.
After spending the evening working on electronics, aerodynamics and refining the general race set up, all while trying to work on maintaining the race pace, Pedrosa was reluctant to return to the track making the most of the time left on track. Lap 46 out of 50 led to him setting his fastest time of the three days of 1:54.469 which left him third overall, and on combined times.
Left feeling that the final day was “positive in general” and after sorting out a few things from day two, Pedrosa found that “step-by-step” they managed to “improve the feeling, the lap times and [their] rhythm in general”.
Although he felt the “improvement was general” and that they still had “work to do”, Pedrosa confirmed that they “gained confidence” which he thought was a “positive end to the pre-season”. Admitting that Qatar is “not one of [his favourites]” he felt that “the team did a great hob and things kept improving”. He ended the final IRTA test in Qatar thinking they were “in better shape than last year” and hoped to be able to “add this confidence to the motivation for the GP” where he plans to “do our best at the first race”.
More crashes for Marquez as the IRTA test comes to an end
Once again, Marquez experienced several more crashes at the floodlit circuit. Coming off initially at the beginning of the session at turn four when he braked too late, and then again twice passed the half-way point after he lost the front end of his bike. He was in the middle of a race simulation that he had to abandon and although he was able to lap under 1:55 minutes he still only finished the test in 10th. His lap time of 1:54.990 was only 0.66 seconds off the fastest man of the test Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha).
Completing another 47 laps on the final day, making it 136 laps over the three days in total, Marquez ended up feeling “happy with the pace” he found he was able to keep on the final day, but claimed that it “hasn’t been the best test of the pre-season” for the team.
Explaining the incidents on track, he said “I crashed three times, the first at the very beginning because the bike had a wobble at turn 4 and I braked late.” He went on to say how “later in the night [he] lost the front twice” and admitted, “the last crash during my race simulation was my fault”. He explained, “When you are doing a long run you must try and push, otherwise you can’t understand where you really are.”
Reassuring himself, he clarified that it is “better if this kind of think happens now during a test” and he was left hoping that when they return for the race they’ll be “able to manage things better”. He concluded by confirming that he feels their “rhythm is quite good”, and noting that only Vinales “is faster than everyone here” he speculated that if they were to race straight after the test, he believed they “should be able to fight for the podium”.