Lorenzo leads the way after day one

Reining world champion Jorge Lorenzo was the fastest rider on the opening day of the final IRTA test in a soggy Jerez de la Frontera.

Rain has been  a reoccurring theme of the pre season testing ahead of the 2013 season, and Jerez was no exception to this theme.

With the morning session a nigh on wash out, it wasn’t until the afternoon that the riders decided to venture out onto the track.

The fastest rider of the day was two time MotoGP and reining world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

The world champion has worked massively, and now is somewhat of a rain specialist was the fastest rider and posted his fastest time right after the lunch break. His unrivaled lap time was a 1′47.423.

Immediately behind the world champion was the Repsol Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez. Despite behind second and third respectively the Spanish pair were over a second behind their compatriot, and Pedrosa just 0.050 seconds behind his vastly experienced team mate. There was also some complaints from Pedrosa of the chatter which hampered the RC213V at the start of last season.

Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly as the case may be in the wet) the Ducati’s were competitive at up the sharp end, but it was Pramac’s Andrea Iannone who was the fastest of the five Ducati’s present in Jerez.

Iannone posted a 1’48.984 second lap, which was just over a second and a half slower than Lorenzo’s time, and was faster than Ducati’s test rider Michele Pirro who was fifth (and will be wild carding in the Jerez race in May) with Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso 7th and 10th respectively.

Valentino Rossi continued to get acquainted with his M1, although he faces advsirty with technical problems contuing to hamper his efforts as he ended the day sixth fastest. Both Rossi and Lorenzo riders received new frames to test, but they will wait till tomorrow to use them.

Sandwiched inbetween the factory Ducati riders were Yamaha and Honda satellite riders Cal Crutchlow and Stefan Bradl who were seventh and eighth respectively.

Faster CRT rider was Yonny Hernández who was on his new Green, Gold and White PBM ART, although the Colombian used two sets of his four rain tyres today.

MotoGP Jerez test Day 1 results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’47.423 (39 laps)
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.051 (30)
03- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.101 (38)
04- Andrea Iannone – Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.561 (27)
05- Michele Pirro – Ducati Test Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.869 (48)
06- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.020 (36)
07- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.220 (20)
08- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.269 (19)
09- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 2.367 (33)
10- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.843 (22)
11- Ben Spies – Ignite Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 3.534 (18)
12- Yonny Hernandez – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP13 – + 3.846 (31)
13- Alvaro Bautista – Go&Fun Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 3.854 (31)
14- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – ART GP13 – + 3.910 (26)
15- Claudio Corti – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 4.611 (35)
16- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 4.624 (14)
17- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda Suter BMW – + 4.757 (18)
18- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 4.868 (17)
19- Hiroshi Aoyama – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 5.253 (56)
20- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 6.569 (17)
21- Bryan Staring – Go&Fun Honda Gresini – FTR Honda MGP13 – + 8.696 (31)
22- Lukas Pesek – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda Suter BMW – + 8.990 (17)
23- Michael Laverty – Paul Bird Motorsport – PBM 01 – + 9.508 (12)