PULL&BEAR ASPAR Team MotoGP - Qatar Test 12017-03-12 09:03Pull&Bear Aspar Team rider fourth on first day as team-mate Álvaro Bautista spends time comparing tests on two versions of Ducati GP16 AsparTeamMotoGP_TestQatar 1 AsparTeamMotoGP_TestQatar 11 AsparTeamMotoGP_TestQatar 17 AsparTeamMotoGP_TestQatar 2 AsparTeamMotoGP_TestQatar 6 Almost a month on from their last test in Australia the MotoGP riders were back on track tonight for the first of three evenings at the Losail circuit in Qatar, venue of the opening round of the 2017 season in just a couple of weeks. Just one second separated the top ten riders tonight, with a mere 1.3 seconds covering the top seventeen. The fastest of them was riding a Ducati, in the shape of Andrea Dovizioso, who topped the session with a lap of 1'54.818, more than three tenths of a second quicker than Maverick Viñales and half a second over third-placed Cal Crutchlow. Pull&Bear Aspar rider Karel Abraham was a stunning fourth place ahead of factory Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo and rookie Jonas Folger, who completed the top six. The last test of the 2017 MotoGP preseason continues tomorrow night. Pull&Bear Aspar Team rider Karel Abraham was the fastest 'Independent' Ducati rider for virtually the whole of the second half of the session, finishing up just eight tenths shy of Dovizioso's best. Abraham's best effort of 1'55.613 was also the last of his 42 attempts, having spent the final stages of the session riding alone. Álvaro Bautista spent today comparing two versions of the Ducati GP16 he will ride this season, although he missed the opportunity to set a fast lap when track conditions were at their best. The Spaniard is confident that some more specific changes will help him give his best tomorrow, having finished tonight in sixteenth position, with a best effort of 1'56.116 after 43 laps. 4th Karel Abraham 1:55.613 (42 laps): “Today in the beginning it looked like it would be a very hard day because the track was very dirty and very slippery. We did three exits and it didn't get better. But afterwards as all the riders went out everything got much better, we had one set of tyres completely destroyed so we put some new ones in and tried two new electronic settings for the throttle control. To be honest the first one was really bad and I still wasn't happy with the second one. So we decided finally to come back to the original set-up and put a soft tyre in to chase a lap time. There was nobody out there so I had to push on my own and on my last lap I set my best time, which I was surprised by but I am confident now with the bike so I am happy with the work we have done and hopeful of making better lap times in the future.” 16th Álvaro Bautista 1:56,116 (43 laps): “Today we had two Ducati GP16s available to ride so we took the opportunity to test a lot of things on both. It was a day to try things, to recapture our rhythm and wrap up some work we had unfinished from other tests. We lost a little time at the end trying out some new software from Ducati, which meant we couldn't use a new tyre because the track conditions were no longer optimum. Tomorrow, when everything is in its place, we can work on the smaller details.” Source: AsparTeam Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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