Larry Lawrence | February 17, 2016
Photo by Gold & Goose
Wednesday’s day one of the three-day MotoGP test at the Phillip Island Circuit in Australia, was hampered by rain most of the day. The rain trailed off and the track was drying in the final hours, giving teams the opportunity to test all three types of Michelin MotoGP tires – rain, intermediate and slicks. At the end of the day it was Danilo Petrucci on the Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati atop the timing charts, having turned a 1:31.764 on slicks in a brief period when the track was partially dry.
Trailing Petrucci and rounding out the top three were Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales (1:32.483) and Monster Energy/Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith (1:32.590).
Even though Petrucci’s time was done on a mostly dry track, conditions were far from ideal. His lap was over two seconds off the pace set by Marc Marquez in last year’s test.
The one surprise was that defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo was well off the pace in 16th, with a time of 1:40.138 on his factory Movistar Yamaha. Lorenzo seemed comfortable waiting for better weather in the other two days of the test. The same could be said of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who clocked the 17th fastest time.
Testing continues Thursday and Friday.
Wednesday MotoGP test time from Phillip Island, Feb. 17, 2016
1 PETRUCCI, Danilo Octo Pramac Yakhnich 1:31.764
2 VIÑALES, Maverick Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:32.483 0
3 SMITH, Bradley Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:32.590
4 REDDING, Scott Octo Pramac Yakhnich 1:32.864
5 CRUTCHLOW, Cal LCR Honda 1:32.948
6 ROSSI, Valentino Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1:33.088
7 ESPARGARO, Pol Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:33.126
8 HERNANDEZ, Yonny Aspar MotoGP Team 1:33.841
9 MILLER, Jack Marc VDS Racing Team 1:33.992
10 IANNONE, Andrea Ducati Team 1:34.049
11 RABAT, Tito EG 0.0 Marc VDS 1:35.273
12 MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 1:35.354
13 ESPARGARO, Aleix Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:35.584
14 LAVERTY, Eugene Aspar MotoGP Team 1:35.679
15 TSUDA, Takuya Suzuki Test Team 1:36.166
16 LORENZO, Jorge Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1:39.825
17 PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 1:40.138
18 DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team No times
