Maverick Vinales Tops Day Two At Phillip Island

The weather improved and so did the times on day two of the MotoGP test at Phillip Island. Taking that top spot was Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales, leading a tight field, with the top 10 all under a second of the Spaniard.

For Vinales it wasn’t just the top time that gave him confidence, but also the progress made in developing the Suzuki in its sophomore season.

“Today we worked well in two ways,” Vinales said. “The first is the fastest lap, which gave me the first place, and the second is the approach we had with the development, improving little-by-little but consistently in every run, applying little improvements to the machine without any major change.”

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez took the second spot, trailing Vinales by just .161 of a second. Although Marquez was still not comfortable with the bike, he felt they were making some progress.

“Today we were able to ride in the dry for the entire day, and I think we can draw good conclusions from the testing we did because it seems that here we have found a base setup that can work well,” Marquez said. “It’s true that this is a special track, in which you have to be careful about what you test because it might confuse you at other circuits, but I am happy with how the day went overall. We’ll see if we can continue improving tomorrow, because I still think we can make a lot of progress with the balance of the bike; I still don’t feel fully comfortable with it.”

In third was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo. After having a stellar performance at Sepang, the reigning champ was struggling a bit at the Phillip Island Circuit.

“Today we have experienced some issues on the front with the stability to ride confidently with open throttle,” Lorenzo said. “I think it was a combination of the type of track, the type of tarmac and the type of corners, which are faster than Sepang and are inducing these problems. If we can solve the problem we can be much quicker, let’s see if it’s possible. Looking at what happened today, it looks like the new electronics are going to change the performance of the bikes a lot on other tracks. Someone can have an advantage at one track and maybe they have more problems at another. We have to understand how to be more competitive here to get the same advantage we had in Sepang.”

Behind Lorenzo was teammate Valentino Rossi who was much happier with the proper Summer weather that they were hoping for.

“I’m very satisfied about today because from the morning until the end I was always fast and competitive and in one of the first positions,” Rossi said. “I also had a good feeling with the bike and I was able to improve, from the morning to the afternoon, the pace and the lap times. I’m satisfied, because I have a good pace and also my best lap is good. I got fourth position, but the first four are the four riders that were more competitive today and are close in times, so we are there at the front. For sure, keeping up the pace in the race will be harder, simply because you get less help from the electronics, you have to do more work with your body and the throttle, so that will be a bit more demanding.”

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow finished fifth again on day two, leading a pair of Ducatis – Avintia’s Hector Barbera and factory Ducati’s Andrea Iannone.

Marquez’ teammate Dani Pedrosa was eighth and felt that in spite of his ranking on the time sheets it was a positive day, because it’s typically a track he struggles at. He also echoed his teammate’s sentiments that they were making improvements. So although they still haven’t found a setup, they gathered a lot of data and learned more about the behavior of the bike.

Rounding out the top 10 was Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati’s Scott Redding and Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith.

2016 MotoGP Phillip Island Test Day Two Results: