Jerez testing: Razgatlioglu with Yamaha close to competitive time, new Honda a second faster?

From Monday to Tuesday afternoon, the Circuito de Jerez held a private test for the MotoGP teams organized by KTM, who rented the track. The Honda, Aprilia and Yamaha test teams also participated in the test, and in addition to their test rider, Cal Crutchlow, the Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu, the 2021 SBK world champion, who is a serious candidate for the transition to the highest class of the motorcycle championship, was also invited.

According to unofficial data, Toprak completed 63 laps at the Andalusian track, with his fastest lap clocking in at under a minute and 40 seconds. The Turkish rider finished the day 1.7 seconds behind the fastest rider, Dani Pedrosa, and just 8 tenths behind Crutchlow's best time on the same bike.

The conditions in Jerez on Monday were excellent, with sun and heat, but no rubber on the track, despite this the racers achieved high speeds with two racers setting times under 1.38:1.38.194. If we take for comparison last year's first free practice for the Spanish GP, where Joan Mir with Suzuki was the fastest with a time of 15, Franco Morbidelli with Yamaha achieved the 1.38.979th fastest time with XNUMX, just six tenths faster than the time he achieved Razgatlioglu on Monday, in his second opportunity on a MotoGP bike, the first time in dry conditions.

During the first day of the test in Jerez, as many as nine motorcycles were on the track. For KTM, Pedrosa used two bikes to set the fastest time of the day (1.37.8), covering 70 laps.

Honda also tested with two prototypes driven by test driver Stefan Bradl. Bradl set the second best time of the day, just 129k behind Pedrosa, which is impressive considering Honda was testing a new Kalex-built chassis. Bradl set the best time on the 'HRC 2' engine, which could be the latest model, while he was almost a second slower on the 'HRC 1' engine. In total, Bradl led 85 laps, 64 of them with the 'HRC 2' engine, and Honda engineers and technicians were still working on the track after 23pm, according to Spanish media. Before Marc Marquez and Mir will test the new chassis of the German supplier, it was necessary to study a mountain of data.

Lorenzo Savadori with Aprilia also used two bikes, and after a total of 55 laps he achieved the sixth time of the day.

Yamaha had three engines at the Andalusian track, 'Yamaha 1', 'Yamaha 2' and 'Yamaha 3'. The first two were in the hands of Crutchlow, who set the fourth fastest time of the day with 33 laps. With the 'Yamaha 2' engine, he achieved the seventh fastest time after 35 laps, driving a total of 68 laps.

The 'Yamaha 3' used by Toprak finished the day with 63 laps at the Jerez circuit, setting the eighth fastest time, 1.7 seconds behind the reference time of the day and just 0.775 seconds behind Crutchlow's best time. These data undoubtedly made Lin Jarvis and Massimo Meregalli, the sports management of the Yamaha team, smile, who did not want to miss the testing of the rider from Antalya, who they see every time as a serious possibility to transfer to the official team and make up the most media couple on the MotoGP grid together with Fabio Quartararo.