Mika Kallio clocked the quickest time on Tuesday as Moto2 pre-season testing kicked off at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia. The intermediate class, renowned for close and competitive racing, lived up to its billing immediately with just one thousandth of a second separating the top two and a second covering the top twelve.
Much focus will be on Kallio at Marc VDS following the departure of Scott Redding to MotoGP and the Finn set the fastest time of the day on his Kalex in the second of three sessions to take place. Jordi Torres, running a Suter for the Aspar team, was right behind in second with Thomas Luthi just 0.047s off the pace in third. Nicolas Terol topped the morning session with a time good enough for fourth overall while Esteve Rabat, one of the main title favourites, was fifth with the fastest time of the final session.
Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top six with his new Idemitsu Honda Team Asia crew with former teammate Julian Simon seventh ahead of two current world champions. Sam Lowes, winner of last year’s World Supersport crown, was just 0.733s off the pace on the sole Speed Up in the field with reigning Moto3 champion Maverick Vinales also making impressive progress to finish ninth, narrowly ahead of teammate Luis Salom.
The new Caterham team made a solid start with Johann Zarco eleventh and Josh Herrin 23rd and there was an equally encouraging opening day for Gino Rea, back as a regular rider, with the Briton seventh in the final session, placing him sixteenth overall.
| MOTO2 OFFICIAL TEST – VALENCIA – 11TH FEBRUARY 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | RIDER | BIKE | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 |  MIKA KALLIO |
KALEX | MARC VDS RACING TEAM | 1:36.206 |
| 2 |  JORDI TORRES |
SUTER | MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM MOTO2 | 1:36.207 |
| 3 |  THOMAS LUTHI |
SUTER | INTERWETTEN PADDOCK MOTO2 | 1:36.253 |
| 4 | NICOLAS TEROL |
SUTER | MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM MOTO2 | 1:36.459 |
| 5 | ESTEVE RABAT |
KALEX | MARC VDS RACING TEAM | 1:36.522 |
| 6 |  TAKAAKI NAKAGAMI |
KALEX | IDEMITSU HONDA TEAM ASIA | 1:36.768 |
| 7 | JULIAN SIMON |
KALEX | ITALTRANS RACING TEAM | 1:36.869 |
| 8 |  SAM LOWES |
SPEED UP | SPEED UP | 1:36.939 |
| 9 | MAVERICK VINALES |
KALEX | PONS HP 40 | 1:36.992 |
| 10 | LUIS SALOM |
KALEX | PONS HP 40 | 1:37.053 |
| 11 |  JOHANN ZARCO |
CATERHAM SUTER | CATERHAM MOTO RACING | 1:37.155 |
| 12 |  ALEX DE ANGELIS |
SUTER | TASCA RACING MOTO2 | 1:37.196 |
| 13 |  ANTHONY WEST |
SPEED UP | QMMF RACING TEAM | 1:37.371 |
| 14 |  MARCEL SCHROTTER |
TECH 3 | TECH 3 RACING | 1:37.413 |
| 15 | AXEL PONS |
KALEX | ARGINANO & GINES RACING | 1:37.489 |
| 16 | GINO REA |
SUTER | AGT-REA RACING | 1:37.531 |
| 17 | SANDRO CORTESE |
KALEX | DYNAVOLT INTACT GP | 1:37.738 |
| 18 |  FRANCO MORBIDELLI |
KALEX | ITALTRANS RACING TEAM | 1:37.780 |
| 19 | ROMAN RAMOS |
SPEED UP | QMMF RACING TEAM | 1:38.002 |
| 20 | RANDY KRUMMENACHER |
SUTER | IODARACING PROJECT | 1:38.097 |
| 21 | DOMINIQUE AEGERTER |
SUTER | TECHNOMAG CARXPERT | 1:38.107 |
| 22 | JONAS FOLGER |
KALEX | ARGINANO & GINES RACING | 1:38.113 |
| 23 |  JOSH HERRIN |
CATERHAM SUTER | CATERHAM MOTO RACING | 1:38.351 |
| 24 | LOUIS ROSSI |
KALEX | SAG TEAM | 1:38.431 |
| 25 |  AZLAN SHAH |
KALEX | IDEMITSU HONDA TEAM ASIA | 1:38.550 |
| 26 | ROBIN MULHAUSER |
SUTER | TECHNOMAG CARXPERT | 1:39.060 |
| 27 | HAFIZH SYAHRIN |
KALEX | PETRONAS RACELINE MALAYSIA | 1:39.174 |
| 28 | LORENZO BALDASSARRI |
SUTER | FEDERAL OIL GRESINI MOTO2 | 1:39.475 |
| 29 |  THITIPONG WAROKORN |
KALEX | A.P. HONDA SAG TEAM | 1:40.452 |
| 30 | ALEX MARINELARENA |
TECH 3 | TECH 3 RACING | 1:41.123 |
| 31 | TETSUTA NAGASHIMA |
MOTOBI | TELURU TEAM JIR WEBIKE | 1:41.415 |
