Valentino Rossi finished a day of testing as the fastest rider for the first time this year, leading a Yamaha 1-2-3 on the penultimate day’s running before Qatar. Rossi pipped factory teammate Jorge Lorenzo the quickest time by 0.015s with Cal Crutchlow three hundredths of a second further back in third for Tech 3.
After the heavy rain of Saturday, the Jerez circuit was still damp in the morning but the riders were able to get down to some serous dry track time after lunch. Rossi, appropriately, completed 46 laps on his way to a 1:39.525, marginally quicker than last year’s pole position. Lorenzo and Crutchlow joined him in the 1:39.5s bracket while Dani Pedrosa came in just a tenth off the pace himself on the first of the factory Hondas.
Andrea Dovizioso put in a strong showing for Ducati, ending the day just eight tenths off the pace in fifth with Alvaro Bautista sixth. The Spaniard’s day was heavily disrupted though after a crash at the Sito Pons corner left him with two fractured fingers on his left hand. The injuries aren’t thought to prevent him from running tomorrow but an hour of dry running was lost in the accident.
Marc Marquez had one of his less impressive days in MotoGP in seventh although he still outpaced the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl and Andrea Iannone who both crashed as well. Nicky Hayden completed the top ten ahead of the impressive Hector Barbera who led the CRT pack, beating Bradley Smith and Ben Spies on prototype machinery in the process.
| Official MotoGP Test – Jerez (Sunday 24th March) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time | Laps | |
| 1 | 46. Valentino Rossi |  |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:39.525 | 46 | |
| 2 | 99. Jorge Lorenzo |  |
Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:39.540 | 34 | |
| 3 | 35. Cal Crutchlow |  |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:39.574 | 44 | |
| 4 | 26. Dani Pedrosa | |
Repsol Honda Team | 1:39.630 | 31 | |
| 5 | 04. Andrea Dovizioso | |
Ducati Team | 1:40.322 | 30 | |
| 6 | 19. Alvaro Bautista | |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini | 1:40.686 | 35 | |
| 7 | 93. Marc Marquez | |
Repsol Honda Team | 1:40.714 | 36 | |
| 8 | 6. Stefan Bradl |  |
LCR Honda MotoGP | 1:40.783 | 32 | |
| 9 | 29. Andrea Iannone | |
Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | 1:41.088 | 15 | |
| 10 | 69. Nicky Hayden |  |
Ducati Team | 1:41.325 | 35 | |
| 11 | 8. Hector Barbera | |
Avintia Blusens | 1:41.376 | 25 | |
| 12 | 38. Bradley Smith | |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:41.398 | 41 | |
| 13 | 41. Aleix Espargaro | |
Power Electronics Aspar | 1:41.444 | 48 | |
| 14 | 9. Danilo Petrucci | |
Came IodaRacing Project | 1:41.529 | 32 | |
| 15 | 51. Michele Pirro | |
Ducati Test Team | 1:41.603 | 32 | |
| 16 | 14. Randy de Puniet |  |
Power Electronics Aspar | 1:41.686 | 34 | |
| 17 | 71. Claudio Corti | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:41.701 | 26 | |
| 18 | 11. Ben Spies | |
Ignite Pramac Racing | 1:41.702 | 29 | |
| 19 | 17. Karel Abraham |  |
Cardion AB Motoracing | 1:41.916 | 35 | |
| 20 | 68. Yonny Hernandez |  |
Paul Bird Motorsport | 1:42.050 | 32 | |
| 21 | 67. Bryan Staring |  |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini | 1:42.107 | 39 | |
| 22 | 5. Colin Edwards | |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:42.154 | 33 | |
| 23 | 7. Hiroshi Aoyama |  |
Avintia Blusens | 1:43.959 | 25 | |
| 24 | 33. Michael Laverty | |
Paul Bird Motorsport | 1:44.185 | 21 | |
| 25 | 52. Lukas Pesek | |
Came Ioda Racing Project | 1:44.874 | 33 | |
