Jonas Folger set the fastest time of the day for the first time this winter as Moto3’s final pre-season test got underway at Jerez on Monday. The Aspar rider finished 2012 strongly with pole position at the final round at Valencia and in perfect conditions at Jerez, showed the kind of form that could see him mount a title challenge in 2013.
The German finished just three tenths shy of the benchmark time set at the February test here and went six tenths faster than he’d gone himself, beating Alex Rins by a quarter of a second. The Estrella Galicia rider remains one of the stand-out performers in pre-season, as do Maverick Vinales and Luis Salom who completed the top four, the trio all on virtually identical times.
The Ambrogio Racing riders continue to show promising pace too with Brad Binder and Danny Webb fifth and seventh on their Suter Hondas. Both were just three quarters of a second off the pace with the Briton revelling from his change in teams. His former employers are also making strides with Miguel Oliveira splitting the Ambrogio duo in sixth while Efren Vazquez took his Mahindra to fourteenth.
Jack Miller was eighth fastest ahead of reigning Spanish Moto3 champion Alex Marquez with Romano Fenati completing the top ten. The San Carlo Team Italia rider was testing a new Honda engine which he hopes will help close the gap to KTM and the initial signs appear to be positive having halved the two second gap from the previous test.
| Moto3 Jerez Test: Combined Classification – Monday 18th March | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Best Time |
| 1 | 94. Jonas Folger |  |
Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | 1:47.149 |
| 2 | 42. Alex Rins |  |
Estrella Galicia 0’0 | 1:47.401 |
| 3 | 25. Maverick Vinales | |
JHK t-shirt Laglisse | 1:47.457 |
| 4 | 39. Luis Salom | |
Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1:47.468 |
| 5 | 41. Brad Binder |  |
Ambrogio Racing | 1:47.903 |
| 6 | 44. Miguel Oliveira |  |
Mahindra Racing | 1:47.940 |
| 7 | 99. Danny Webb |  |
Ambrogio Racing | 1:47.959 |
| 8 | 8. Jack Miller |  |
Caretta Technology-RTG | 1:48.154 |
| 9 | 12. Alex Marquez | |
Estrella Galicia 0’0 | 1:48.182 |
| 10 | 5. Romano Fenati |  |
San Carlo Team Italia | 1:48.214 |
| 11 | 32. Isaac Vinales | |
Bimbo-Ongetta-Centro Seta | 1:48.493 |
| 12 | 61. Arthur Sissis | |
Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1:48.528 |
| 13 | 63. Zulfahmi Khairuddin |  |
Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1:48.544 |
| 14 | 7. Efren Vazquez | |
Mahindra Racing | 1:48.806 |
| 15 | 31. Niklas Ajo |  |
Avant Tecno | 1:49.006 |
| 16 | 4. Francesco Bagnaia | |
San Carlo Team Italia | 1:49.038 |
| 17 | 17. John McPhee | |
Caretta Technology-RTG | 1:49.094 |
| 18 | 11. Livio Loi |  |
Marc VDS Racing Team | 1:49.139 |
| 19 | 58. Juanfran Guevara | |
CIP Moto3 | 1:49.186 |
| 20 | 89. Alan Techer |  |
CIP Moto3 | 1:49.297 |
| 21 | 10. Alexis Masbou | |
Ongetta-Rivacold | 1:49.297 |
| 22 | 23. Niccolo Antonelli | |
Go & Fun Gresini Moto3 | 1:49.357 |
| 23 | 9. Toni Finsterbusch | |
Kiefer Racing | 1:49.416 |
| 24 | 22. Ana Carrasco | |
JHK t-shirt Laglisse | 1:49.479 |
| 25 | 57. Eric Granado |  |
Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | 1:49.505 |
| 26 | 65. Philipp Oettl | |
Paddock TT Motion Events | 1:49.566 |
| 27 | 77. Lorenzo Baldassarri | |
Go & Fun Gresini Moto3 | 1:49.583 |
| 28 | 53. Jasper Iwema |  |
RW Racing GP | 1:49.763 |
| 29 | 84. Jakub Kornfeil |  |
Redox RW Racing GP | 1:49.910 |
| 30 | 3. Matteo Ferrari | |
Ongetta-Centro Seta | 1:50.059 |
| 31 | 19. Alessandro Tonucci | |
Team La Fonte Tascaracing | 1:50.473 |
| 32 | 66. Florian Alt | |
Kiefer Racing | 1:51.165 |
| 33 | 29. Hyuga Watanabe |  |
Team La Fonte Tascaracing | 1:51.202 |
