Luthi and Lowes on it at Jerez test

Former world champions Thomas Luthi and Sam Lowes have topped the time sheets on the opening day of the official pre-season Moto2 test at Jerez, with the Swiss rider finishing the day 0.118 ahead of the Brit.

The first opportunity for many of the field to run together after a number of private tests, with Luthi emerging top of all the day’s sessions on the 2016-spec Kalex machine.

However, Lowes was left positive after finding his time despite concentrating on longer runs on the bike, building on the work he did last week at a private test at the Spanish track.

“It’s been a really good first day, we tested some new parts for Kalex and Ohlins and we worked a lot on used tyres. I’m really happy because we are working well for the race pace: we did a not bad lap time and also many runs with fast laps. We have some more things to try tomorrow, today we worked also a little bit looking for more grip and we’ll continue tomorrow.”

It was a less positive day for fellow Brit Danny Kent, who finished back in fifteenth – but the reigning Moto3 world champion says he knows what he needs to work on in the coming days.

“I’m happy to be back on the track, especially with everyone because we get more of an idea as to where we’re standing and where we need to improve. I’m happy but I still need to improve a lot on myself with my riding style and there’s still a lot of work to do. I’m confident though. 

“Unfortunately at the end of the day we put on a new rear tyre with an old front tyre and we had a small crash into Turn 2 but apart from that everything is going in the right direction.”