Please do not take it that we are referring to the apocalypse and what happens the after that. We are not so pessimistic about the world. This article is all about the post Valencia MotoGP three day test that began at Valencia. The significance is that every year this event offers riders and teams in MotoGP to sample the equipment that they will be using the next season. The curtain came down on the 2013 season of MotoGP on Sunday the 10th of November which saw the incredibly talented Marc Marquez break all records and become the youngest ever MotoGP champion and that too in his rookie year.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow are marked for testing of next years equipment. On Monday the Repsol Honda team stayed away from the track presumably because most personnel may have been hung over from the victory celebrations of Sunday night. However other teams managed to reach the track to start testing at noon. Unsurprisingly, in the absence of the factory Repsol Honda team, the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi set the leading times. However, it is not very clear as to which bike (the 2013 spec or the 2014 spec) was actually used to set the times on. Irrespective of that both Lorenzo and Rossi declared that they were pleased with the 2014 spec machine. Rossi especially claimed that he was most happy with the new bike’s front end feel which was missing in the old one.
Lorenzo on the 2014 Yamaha M1
But the more important stories were of the debutantes for next year. Pol Espargaro who rode the Monster Tech3 Yamaha seemed ecstatic about how easy the Yamaha was to ride despite the power advantage that it has over the Moto2 machine that he had been riding for the past couple of seasons.
Pol Espargaro on the Tech3 Yamaha
Honda’s production racer the RCV 1000 R made its debut on the track and Scot Redding riding for team Aspar rode around on the motorcycle rather gingerly since he has not yet recovered from the injuries that he sustained at Motegi. Nicky Hayden who was to ride the other production machine was absent on the first day as was Karel Abraham of Cardion AB team which will be running the RCV 1000 R.
Scot Redding on the Team Gresini Honda RCV 1000R production racer.
But most of the interest was centred around team Ducati because the gunslinger style rider Cal Crutchlow made his debut on the D 16 of this year. To his credit despite a very small run of about 40 laps he set a best time which was only a tenth slower than his former and now present teammate Andrea Dovizioso. It is to be noted that Dovizioso has been on the Ducati the whole of this year while Crutchlow only just got onto the Ducati for the first time.
Crutchlow on the Ducati D 16