Vinales leads Yamaha 1-2 in MotoGP test after the Catalan GP

Most of the field stayed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the second day of testing in the 2021 season, despite Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro suspended due to a swelling in his arm – a legacy of recent arm pump surgery.

LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami led the opening hour of the race with a time of 1: 40.648 minutes. The Honda driver supported HRC’s extensive testing program, which was distributed among all of its drivers.

The session was interrupted after about 45 minutes because Avintias Luca Marini fell, although the Italian was uninjured in the spill.

Franco Morbidelli had no new items to test on Monday and mainly concentrated on the set-up work, the Petronas SRT rider was the fastest after hour two on his Yamaha with 1: 40.22 minutes.

Reigning world champion Joan Mir led the session by 1: 39.816 minutes after the third hour, with a Suzuki spokesman explaining that the Spaniard’s program consisted of testing bike and electronic setup ideas, but not new developments.

After Mir’s teammate Alex Rins was out after an operation on his right arm, which he broke in a training accident last Thursday, Sylvain Guintoli took his place on Monday.

I was the benchmark for a long time before Quartararo took the lead with 1: 39.537 minutes and ended the sixth hour in the lead.

Quartararo admitted on Monday afternoon that he should have been disqualified at the Catalonia GP on Sunday because he had driven with his leather racing suit open in the closing stages.

Also read:

Instead, he was given a three-second penalty that put him in sixth place after falling from third to fourth place with another three-second penalty for violating the distance limit.

With just under 50 minutes of the remaining session, his Yamaha team-mate Vinales took the top spot with 1: 39.516 minutes before improving it to 1: 39.400.

Both Yamaha factory riders worked on basic setup ideas, while Vinales also tried out a new chassis and carbon swingarm as he worked on his pace at the end of the race.

Nakagami completed the top 3 ahead of Mir and Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, who crashed at Turn 5 in the afternoon.

Pol Espargaro also crashed at Turn 9 on Monday, but the Honda rider finished sixth ahead of Johann Zarco, Morbidelli from Pramac, race winner Miguel Oliveira on the KTM and the other SRT Yamaha owned by Valentino Rossi.

Marc Marquez showed clear signs that his physical condition was improving as he completed 87 laps on his Honda in 11th place, 0.654 seconds behind the pace, ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and Marini.

Jack Miller joined his Ducati teammate Bagnaia in the gravel trap at Turn 5 and finished 14th ahead of LCR’s Alex Marquez.