PRESEASON TESTING ENDS WITH INDONESIAN RACING GRESINI MOTO3 READY FOR LOSAIL DOUBLEHEADER
The Moto3 season had its official debut last weekend with the IRTA test as Gabriel Rodrigo and Jeremy Alcoba did their best to find the best feeling with their Honda machines #2 and #52.
There was a lot of work to be done for both riders, with the Argentine who mainly worked on his race pace across the three days and only tried a time attack on Sunday’s last session. He recorded the fifth quickest time (2’04.790secs), half a second away from the pace setter of the test. Despite crashing out at turn 14 on day two, Rodrigo is very happy with the feeling aboard his bike and he will surely among the favourites in the first GP of the season this weekend.
There were smiles on the other side of the Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3 pit-box as well as Jeremy Alcoba, despite being a bit more cautious, he was able to finish only a couple of tenths away from his teammate as he was the last rider to be able to lap under the 2’05secs barrier. The Spanish rider still needs to improve his race pace a little, but he knows the areas he needs to work on.
Proceedings will begin this Friday at 18:00 local time (GMT +3) for the first free practice of the #QatarGP, while the race will get underway on Sunday at 17:00.
5th – GABRIEL RODRIGO #2 (2’04.790)
We have been competitive from day one. We worked hard on the bike set-up and we improved especially on fast corners (we struggled in Portimao in this department). On Saturday we continued to focus on the longer run and tried the harder tyre option: we probably were top five, even though we lacked something in sectors three and four. We wrapped up this test in a great way, I have great confidence on this bike – something I haven’t enjoyed in a long time. No matter the tyre option I felt great, with a good race pace, so the expectation cannot be but high for the first two GPs here at Losail.”
7th – JEREMY ALCOBA #52 (2’04.928)
We got better session after session. We worked a lot with the tyre options available, and I liked better the combination of harder front and rear for the race. We are finding some interesting solutions riding wise and my feeling is growing with the track as well. There is still a lot to improve, both about myself and the bike, but we logged a good lap in the time attack. The two races will be hard, with the race pace improving each time, but we can stay with the front group.”
