Marquez tops opening day of Valencia test

Marc Marquez started the 2016 season by leading the way on the opening day of the post Valencia Grand Prix test. The double MotoGP world champion was keen to move past the events of the last two weeks and get back on track and focus on reclaiming his world championship from the newly crowned Jorge Lorenzo.

Marquez completed 47 laps on his Honda and was able to gain more experience with the Michelin tyres. Having not used the French rubber since Aragon Marquez commented that he had been able to see an improvement from the tyres since the last test.

For Pol Espargaro, who had been looking forward to using the Michelins, the improvements over the course of the season were marked. In the pre-season Sepang test he had struggled with the front locking in straight line braking whereas today he could feel much more confidence with the tyres although he did have a crash in turn one after little warning. Espargaro finished seventh fastest.

Aleix Espargaro and Eugene Laverty both had two crashes. Afterwards Laverty said that with the change to the Ducati GP14.2 that he was learning the bike but that tyres weren’t the cause of his crash. “We had a problem with the front suspension but we’ll have a new setting tomorrow and it should be fine.” The change to Ducati had gone well for him and he felt immediately better on the bike compared to the Open Honda.

Scott Redding was another rider switching to Ducati and he also found immediate improvement to finish 11th fastest and was confident on the bike from the off. The braking stability was better and the engine was smooth and comfortable. “Everyone says this bike is a beast but it was so smooth today, I really enjoyed riding it.”