At around 3.30pm rain put a premature end to the private MotoGP tests at Mugello: a full-on storm with hail to boot. The riders had no choice to but to seek refuge in the garages and take stock of the work completed during the morning. As rain came in towards lunchtime, teams decided to work through the lunch break to make the most of the time available to them.
being private tests, there was no official timing service but we can provide an (incomplete) list of unofficial times. In these cases, we should always consider a small margin of error when looking at the times but the list provided some idea as to riders' levels at Mugello.
Leading the way are two Hondas, Marc Marquez the only rider to duck under 1’47”. The 1’46”8 that the Spaniard set is roughly two tenths slower than Vinales' pole time of last year (1’46”575). As he stated at Jerez, Marc's work involved the testing of new fairings, to evaluate the possibility of homologating one for the Le Mans GP.
Just behind Marquez, 4 tenths behind in fact, is Cal Crutchlow, confirming the RC123V bike's current competitiveness The Ducati is not far off the pace either, with Andrea Dovizioso just a tenth from the LCR rider (we have no times for Lorenzo).
Behind the Italian on the red bike are the two Yamahas that, having to wait for important new parts for the M1, focused mainly on prepping for the Italian GP. Vinales set a best of 1’47”7, 3 tenths behind him is Valentino Rossi.
Andrea Iannone's Suzuki is another tenth from the Doctor, the Italian pair followed by the Aprilias. Aleix Espargarò (who crashed in the morning, before Nakagami did the same during the afternoon) lapped in 1’48”5, only one tenths slower than his team-mate Scott Redding. Alex Rins rounds out these unofficial standings.
The Honda and Yamaha teams will not test tomorrow, while Ducati will be on track with test rider Pirro. Aprilia and Suzuki will also stay on, as their concessions mean there is no limit to the tests they can carry out with their official riders.
UNOFFICIAL TIMES
1. Marc Marquez (Honda) 1’46”8
2. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1’47”2
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1’47”3
4. Maverick Vinales (Yamaha) 1’47”7
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’48”0
6. Andrea Iannone (Suzuki) 1’48”1
7. Aleix Espargarò (Aprilia) 1’48”5
8. Scott Redding (Aprilia) 1’48”6
9. Alex Rins (Suzuki) 1’48”9