Jack Miller happy with progress, Marc Marquez unhappy with 2015 bike as MotoGP testing wraps up
MARC Marquez ended the final open MotoGP test of the season unhappy but on top, while Jack Miller continues to adapt to his new Honda.
MARC Marquez has ended the final open MotoGP test of the season on top as the post-Valencia test wraps up, while Jack Miller continues to adapt to his new Honda.
Marquez’s best effort saw him log a 1m30.973s lap late in the afternoon of the third day, eclipsing Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo’s Day 1 best by just 0.002 of a second.
Despite the test effectively being the first phase of the 2015 season, Marquez set his quickest time aboard the 2014-spec Honda he won the world championship aboard.
“The new prototype has more potential in some aspects but, as is normal, I felt better with the 2014 bike — with which I set my fastest time,” Marquez said.
All teams effectively lost the second day of the test due to persistent rain, while Marquez’s Day 1 activities were limited to a few laps for the cameras on his 2014 bike, in company with his brother Alex on his spare RC213V.
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“It’s true that in one day we have not had too much time to work on setting up the new prototype, but I think that it has potential and that this test has been important for Honda because of the information obtained,” Marquez added.
Talking further to journalists at the end of the day, Marquez offered that Honda had headed in the wrong direction with their changes to the bike.
“We improved with the 2015 prototype in some areas, but lost a little bit in others,” Marquez said, according to crash.net.
“The important thing is that Honda understands more what is the character of the engine and chassis that I like. Because this is the first big change (to the bike) that we did since last year.
“They have gone in one direction and I didn’t like it, we must go in the other one. We have improved the entry to the corners and will try to fix the other problems in the Malaysian test (next February).”
None of the Yamaha riders were able to best their Monday pace, allowing Dani Pedrosa to sneak in and set the fourth-fastest time of the test on the 2015 Honda.
With no 2015 bike to test until early next year both factory Ducati riders headed home after Day 1, leaving Pramac riders Danilo Petrucci and Yonny Hernandez to go ninth and 11th fastest, the former just 0.692s off Marquez’s best.
The white Ducatis sandwiched Cal Crutchlow, who had his second spill in as many days on Lucio Cecchinello Racing’s Honda after water sprayed onto his rear tyre through Turn 1.
“I dragged my knee through some standing water on the inside of the corner and it splashed water out onto my back tyre, so I highsided when I got on the throttle,” Crutchlow explained.
The Brit has a broken thumb and possibly two cracked knees, but that didn’t stop him from heading back out and setting his fastest time of the test.
On the other side of the LCR garage, Miller continued to acclimatise himself aboard the 2014-spec customer Honda.
He cut almost a second off his Monday best to finish the final day in 21st position with a 1m33.746s, 25th on the list of combined times across all three days, but just 2.773 seconds shy of Marquez’s best.
“In terms of lap times, we’re not too far away if you consider that I’ve only just come from Moto3 and I feel happy with the progress and look forward to improving even more as we ride it more,” Miller said.
“We’re not focusing on the times just now though — the main goal is just to get more and more comfortable.”
“I’ve improved every single time I’ve exited the pits, and I can’t wait to get more bike time in Malaysia at the end of the month. As we get more experience we will be able to work a lot more on improving the electronics and the set-up to get a better feeling with the bike.
“I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made with the bike over these days, everything has been new like the weight and the power, but it’s been a great experience.”
While the rest of the MotoGP field can now head on holiday for the rest of the year, with the next official test scheduled for February 2015, Miller will head to Sepang later this month for more testing.
The Malaysian test will give Miller his first chance to ride the bike he will use in 2015, the improved version of Honda’s customer MotoGP bike.
Carrying the same engine as that in the factory bikes, minus the pneumatic valves and seamless-shift gearbox, the RC213V-RS made its race debut at Valencia in the hands of Hiroshi Aoyama, while Nicky Hayden and Karel Abraham spent time on the bike during the test.
The American had good first impressions of the bike, which went through the speed traps at 320.9 km/h — slower than the 338.6 managed by Pedrosa on the full factory machine, but almost 10km/h quicker than the best Hayden could manage on the old RCV1000R during the race weekend.
Either speed is still around 100km/h faster through the trap than Miller’s old Moto3 bike.
Miller will spend the next fortnight getting stuck into a new training regime to help his body cope with the demands of riding the much bigger and heavier MotoGP bike.
“My fitness actually felt good during the test, but I still think I need to get some more strength in the chest area to cope with the new machine,” he said.
“Much of this will come with riding though, and you can only get that strength in those areas by riding a MotoGP bike, so I’m excited to get back to work in Sepang in a couple of weeks.”
Of MotoGP’s other newcomers, Suzuki ended the test the closest they have been to the top of the charts. Aleix Espargaro ended the test in 11th, but a second neat off Marquez’s pace.
Aprilia were a little further away in the bike’s first appearance in the MotoGP paddock, Alvaro Bautista putting the Gresini-run machine 18th quickest, 1.8 seconds off the pace.
COMBINED TIMES — Valencia MotoGP Test
1. (93) Marc Marquez (Honda) Repsol Honda Team 1m30.973s
2. (99) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 0.002s
3. (44) Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 0.145s
4. (26) Dani Pedrosa (Honda) Repsol Honda Team 0.146s
5. (38) Bradley Smith (Yamaha) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 0.231s
6. (46) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 0.277s
7. (29) Andrea Iannone (Ducati) Ducati Team 0.492s
8. (4) Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) Ducati Team 0.671s
9. (9) Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) Pramac Racing 0.692s
10. (35) Cal Crutchlow (Honda) CWM LCR Honda 0.801s
11. (68) Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) Pramac Racing 0.941s
12. (41) Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1.000s
13. (8) Hector Barbera (Ducati) Avintia Racing 1.034s
14. (51) Michele Pirro (Ducati) Ducati Test Team 1.081s
15. (69) Nicky Hayden (Honda) Drive M7 Aspar 1.200s
16. (6) Stefan Bradl (Forward Yamaha) NGM Forward Racing 1.236s
17. (45) Scott Redding (Honda) Marc VDS Racing Team 1.648s
18. (19) Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) Factory Aprilia Gresini 1.837s
19. (63) Mike Di Meglio (Ducati) Avintia Racing 1.949s
20. (15) Alex de Angelis (Honda) Octo IodaRacing Team 2.159s
21. (25) Maverick Vinales (Suzuki) Team Suzuki MotoGP 2.243s
22. (17) Karel Abraham (Honda) Cardion AB Motoracing 2.473s
23. (76) Loris Baz (Forward Yamaha) NGM Forward Racing 2.513s
24. (50) Eugene Laverty (Honda) Drive M7 Aspar 2.536s
25. (43) Jack Miller (Honda) CWM LCR Honda 2.773s
26. (33) Marco Melandri (Honda) Factory Aprilia Gresini 3.363s
27. (66) Alex Hofmann (Aprilia) Aprilia Test Team 4.673s
Originally published as Jack Miller happy with progress, Marc Marquez unhappy with 2015 bike as MotoGP testing wraps up
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