Before heading to Sepang for the upcoming MotoGP pre-season tests, the riders of the VR46 Riders Academy took to the track at Mandalika for two days of private tests on road bikes, organized by their sponsor, Pertamina.
Valentino Rossi couldn't miss out on the occasion, taking advantage of these days of training alongside his young protégés to try out the Indonesian track for the first time. The circuti made its debut on the MotoGP calendar in the season following his retirement at the end of 2021.
Most of the Academy riders trained with the Ducati Panigale, except for Marco Bezzecchi who rode an Aprilia RSV4 1100 and Luca Marini who rode a Honda CBR1000RR-R, while the Doctor showed off on his Yamaha R1 GYTR.
According to the times released by GP Racing Indonesia, Rossi finished 2.3 seconds off the benchmark time of 1:33.937 set by Francesco Bagnaia on the first day of testing. He then managed to reduce his gap to 1.9 seconds from the top the following day, when Pecco again set the fastest time with a lap of 1:33.557, ahead of Bezzecchi and Morbidelli by 53 and 89 thousandths of a second.
These are really impressive times for the 46-year-old, who'll be back in action on February 12th and 13th on the GT World Challenge Europe, tackling the Bathurst 12 Hour at the wheel of BMW line-up by Team WRT.