Pol Espargaró leads a start in Mandalika full of incidents

February 11, 2022

Mandalika.- The activity began at nine o’clock, although more than an hour later the stewards showed the red flag, given the large amount of mud that had been deposited on the asphalt, and that the machines took almost two hours to clear.

A group of riders organized a meeting with Carlos Ezpeleta and Franco Uncini, the two highest-ranking executives in the championship who had traveled to Indonesia, and they all agreed to give the track a margin so that it could improve with the circulation of the bikes. Finally, the times went down until with just over 20 minutes to go until the conclusion it started to rain, a circumstance that invited the teams to pack up.

Espargaró closed the best lap in 1m 32.4 seconds, four tenths below the best lap recorded in November in this same scenario, in the visit of WorldSBK (Razgatlioglu).

Behind Polyccio’s Honda, almost half a second, his brother Aleix finished, while Brad Binder was third fastest.

The fourth fastest lap was awarded to Alex Rins, while Fabio Quartararo (fifth) and Jack Miller (sixth), completed a sextet made up of the six brands that co-exist in the contest.

Maverick Viñales finished seventh, ahead of Joan Mir (eighth), while Andrea Dovizioso (ninth) and Jorge Martín (tenth) closed the top ten.

Marc Márquez finished 17th, 1.3 seconds behind the time of his neighbor in the workshop, and Pecco Bagnaia finished 22nd, 1.8 seconds behind the first.

At this point, the uncertainty revolves around the effect that the rain that is eventually expected for this coming night in Lombok could have, and what conditions the track will be in this Saturday, the penultimate day of the preseason.

Results of Friday’s MotoGP test at Mandalika

Pos.	Pilot	Motorcycle	Weather
1	Pol Espargaro	Sling	1’22”446
two	A. Espargaro	aprilia	+0″471
3	B. Binder	KTM	+0″477
4	On. Rinse	Suzuki	+0″592
5	F. Quartararo	Yamaha	+0″642
6	J. Miller	Ducati	+0″648
7	M. Vinales	aprilia	+0″681
8	J. Mir	Suzuki	+0″778
9	A. Dovizioso	Yamaha	+0″779
10	J. Martin	Ducati	+0″892