LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami topped the final day of the MotoGP test at Jerez after beating factory Honda’s Marc Marquez by 0.025s.
Nakagami was among the riders to improve late in the day with his time of 1m37.945s enough to displace Honda’s factory rider Marquez (1m37.970s) by 0.025s with the Spaniard leading the way until the final hour of the day.
Also jumping to third at the same time was Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales with a 1m38.066s with Jorge Lorenzo making it three Hondas in the Top 4 by finishing fourth with a 1m38.105s lap time.
In the lap count, Nakagami did 66 laps to Marquez’s 56 with Vinales completing 78 and Lorenzo doing 65. After topping the first day, Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci ended up fifth with a 1m38.109s, completing 68 laps.
The same of number of laps was done by Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli (1m38.118s) in sixth – the Italian showcasing prime form once again. Morbidelli was followed by three Ducati riders.
The Pramac Racing duo of Jack Miller (1m38.207s) and Francesco Bagnaia (1m38.333s) sandwiched Andrea Dovizioso (1m38.292s) to be seventh, eighth and ninth with the factory Ducati rider able to run despite the crash on Day 1 of the test.
Dovizioso still did 44 laps with Miller completing 57 and Bagnaia doing 44 to be the highest-placed rookie once again. The Top 10 was completed by Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who undertook 63 laps to post his best of 1m38.522s.
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was a bit slower than his teammate again in 11th with a best of 1m38.596s, completing 67 laps. He led his protege Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo, who did 58 laps to set his best of 1m38.761s.
Avintia Racing Ducati’s Tito Rabat (1m38.876s) showed better pace again to be 13th from Suzuki’s Joan Mir (1m38.961s) and KTM’s Pol Espargaro (1m39.144s) in the Top 15. Rabat completed 60 laps as did Espargaro with Mir doing 58.
Ducati tester Alvaro Bautista (1m39.338s) was the only one to stop in the day when he ran out of fuel. The Spaniard finished 16th with 65 laps to his name ahead of his former teammate Karel Abraham (1m39.744s) in Avintia Ducati.
The leading Aprilia of Andrea Iannone (1m39.826s) was 18th with teammates Aleix Espargaro (1m40.156s) and Bradley Smith (1m40.325s) 20th and 21st respectively while KTM’s Johann Zarco (1m439.864s) was 19th in between.
Iannone completed 36 laps with Zarco doing 64, Espargaro 11 and Smith 59. The Spaniard managed to get some laps despite sickness. Suzuki’s tester Sylvain Guintoli (1m40.498s) was 22nd with 65 laps ahead of the two KTM Tech 3 riders.
Hafizh Syahrin (1m40.520s) finished 23rd from Miguel Oliveira (1m40.577s) as Aprilia tester Matteo Baiocco (1m41.901s) rounding the 25 riders. Syahrin completed 54 laps to Oliveira’s 61 and Baiocco 48.