Lorenzo leads as riders push limits during final test day

The final day of the pre-season test in Qatar came to an end as Jorge Lorenzo topped the time sheets by 0.516s. It was a difficult day for some of the riders as they pushed too far, resulting to a number of falls. 

Tito Rabat suffered a fall at Turn 6, but was fortunate not to be hurt. Later in the evening, the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS man suffered another fall, but he escaped without any injuries.

Both Aleix Espargaro and Loris Baz fell with over two hours remaining. There were further falls for Hector Barbera and Cal Crutchlow, All the riders later headed to the Clinica Mobile for precautionary checks and were deemed fit.

Valentino Rossi suffered from a second fall at Turn 10 midway through the session. He wasn't hurt during the fall and was able to continue with the tests. The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider finished fifth place with a record time of 1‘55.429s, just 0.6s behind team mate Lorenzo.

“In the end I‘m quite happy. Unfortunately I had another crash in the same corner, but it was a small one and I was able with the team to try everything. In the last hour and a half we improved the setting and I had quite a strong pace and did a good time attack. The lap time is not so bad and more importantly I did a race simulation and I was strong. I think that it will be quite tough, because it seems that from the first test the other bikes improved a lot, but now we are there at their level. I think a lot of riders can be fast for the first Grand Prix, but we are competitive. The problem was that the track improved a lot day by day and the stress on the front tyre increased, so we had to move. Yesterday was not so bad, but today‘s was too soft. I think the last five laps of the race will be difficult for everybody, but the bike is good to ride, so we‘re able to keep a good pace,” said Valentino Rossi during a team press conference held after the test.

Jorge Lorenzo took the lead on the final day with a time record of 1’54.810.Lorenzo’s race simulation was impressive with the majority of laps in the low 1’56s and several in the 1’55s, even towards the end. Scott Redding, the satellite Ducati rider was able to produce a great lap of 1’55.326 aboard his Octo Pramac Yakhnich GP15. He came 0.516s behind Lorenzo and 0.2s margin over Andrea Iannone.

The MotoGP World Championship currently have several days off before practice for the first Grand Prix of the year begins on the 17th of March in Qatar.