Jorge Lorenzo led Valentino Rossi in a Yamaha 1-2 on Monday at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as testing ahead of the 2014 MotoGP season got underway. Less than 24 hours after relinquishing his world title, Lorenzo’s quest to regain his crown started in earnest on an experimental day for Yamaha.
For Rossi, today marked the dawning of a new era with Jeremy Burgess no longer by his side. The Italian announced Silvano Galbusera as his new crew chief and the man who guided Ben Spies to the 2009 World Superbike title and Marco Melandri to multiple victories with BMW worked with Rossi for the first time today.
Rossi and Lorenzo each evaluated the 2014-spec YZR-M1 while also running a 2013 machine as a point of reference and the pair completed 90 laps between them. Lorenzo’s quickest time, set on his 2013 bike, was a 1:31.257 which left him a tenth ahead of Rossi with Stefan Bradl half a second back on the same Honda RC213V which took him to sixth in Sunday’s race.
Ducati were another team adjusting to change with new General Manager Luigi Dall’Igna on hand to oversee new signing Cal Crutchlow’s first day on the Desmosedici. The Briton racked up 39 laps as he acclimatised himself to the GP13 and finished the day in sixth behind Andrea Iannone and teammate Andrea Dovizioso who tried out a new fairing. Test rider Michele Pirro was seventh with Yonny Hernandez the fifth Ducati rider to run today in eighth. The Colombian has been confirmed as a Pramac rider for 2014 and will race in the new ‘open’ class next season.
New Aspar signing Hiroshi Aoyama was ninth on the first of the new production Honda RCV1000R machines with Moto2 champion Pol Espargaro tenth on his first day with Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Much like the majority of 2013, Espargaro found Scott Redding close to him in the running order and the British youngster battled through obvious pain in his left forearm to complete 34 laps, the quickest of which placed him eleventh overall.
| MOTOGP OFFICIAL TEST – VALENCIA (MONDAY 11TH NOVEMBER) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | RIDER | MOTORCYCLE | TEAM | TIME | |
| 1 |  JORGE LORENZO |
YAMAHA YZR-M1 | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 1:31.257 | Report |
| 2 |  VALENTINO ROSSI |
YAMAHA YZR-M1 | YAMAHA FACTORY RACING | 1:31.350 | Report |
| 3 |  STEFAN BRADL |
HONDA RC213V | LCR HONDA MOTOGP | 1:31.751 | |
| 4 | ANDREA IANNONE |
DUCATI GP13 | ENERGY T.I. PRAMAC RACING | 1:31.925 | |
| 5 | ANDREA DOVIZIOSO |
DUCATI GP13 | DUCATI TEAM | 1:31.943 | Report |
| 6 |  CAL CRUTCHLOW |
DUCATI GP13 | DUCATI TEAM | 1:32.054 | Report |
| 7 | MICHELE PIRRO |
DUCATI GP13 | DUCATI TEST TEAM | 1:32.698 | |
| 8 |  YONNY HERNANDEZ |
DUCATI GP13 | IGNITE PRAMAC RACING TEAM | 1:32.745 | |
| 9 |  HIROSHI AOYAMA |
HONDA RCV1000R | POWER ELECTRONICS ASPAR | 1:33.020 | |
| 10 | POL ESPARGARO |
YAMAHA YZR-M1 | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 1:33.187 | Report |
| 11 | SCOTT REDDING |
HONDA RCV1000R | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 1:34.195 | |
| 12 | MICHAEL LAVERTY |
ART | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 1:34.378 | |
| 13 |  MARTIN BAUER |
S&B SUTER | REMUS RACING TEAM | 1:35.115 | |
| 14 |  MIKE DI MEGLIO |
FTR | AVINTIA BLUSENS | 1:36.304 | |
