Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rolled up the pitbox doors for the fourth day in a row at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto to take profit of the excellent climate and work on more present and future test items for the KTM RC16s. At the end of the eight-hour session Brad Binder had logged the 6th best lap-time – two tenths of a second from P1 – while Jack Miller ranked 17th and less than a second from the top. Test rider Pol Espargaro was 19th fastest.
Only hours after the Gran Premio de España, the orange Red Bull bikes were again burning rubber around the 13 corners of Jerez. The work schedule concentrated on analysis of issues and questions that arose from the 25-lap race the previous day but also experimentation with aerodynamics (fairing parts), suspension settings, ride height devices and the clutch.
Brad and Jack were joined by Pol, who continued his own separate duties with a view to the future shape of the KTM RC16. Binder clocked 64 laps from 10.00 until the end of the session at 18.00 and posted a 1 min 36.6 to be 6th quickest for the day and 0.234 from 1st place. Miller broke the timing beam 73 times at Jerez with the 17th fastest effort: 0.950 from P1. Espargaro made 68 laps and was 1.1 seconds from the top spot.
Now onto Le Mans. Round five will take place at the revered circuit for the Grand Prix de France from May 10-12.
Brad Binder, 6th: “Today was a quite a good day. We had some aero packages to go through to collect some information and keep pushing that side of the project. A little bit with set-up and a different setting for the rear shock that made the bike a bit more stable, which is always great especially at a track like this with the change of direction. We focused on things we can use moving forward next week. With aero you can win in some areas and lose in others so it’s important to take the comments and the data and work on the benefits. Now we can leave here and put things together.”
Jack Miller, 17th: “We worked through a lot today. Played around with the bike a lot. We still need to tackle the vibration issue when the track has a lot of grip and when you make a lot of changes there are a lot of other effects, so we had to find the balance and I think we made some headway. I tested some things today that I’m happy with. Things in MotoGP can change in a heartbeat. We’ll keep our heads down and keep working away.”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “We had things to test in pretty much every area of the bike! It’s been a long weekend. Good conditions but it got windy later in the day. We made some interesting discoveries that we might use soon. We had a small delay with the aero but also worked on the suspension and ride height devices. This was one of three tests we have this season, so it was important, and we gathered the data we needed. With our riders we worked on the short-term competitiveness but Pol – and Dani this past weekend – were working on the mid-term. Overall, a good day.”
Sebastian Risse, Red Bull KTM Technical Manager MotoGP: “We just finished a very intense and productive test. We focused a lot on updates that we can still bring this year, which means the impending aero update but also other items like electronics, engine parts for even more performance and also suspension. We shared the test items around the group, so when we found something positive we could carry it over to the others to confirm. It means we have a complete picture for the items’ performance across the riders and we’ve quite positive it will have some effect in the next races.”
Jerez official test final times
1. Fabio Di Giannantonio (ITA) Ducati 1:36.405
2. Maverick Viñales (ESP) Aprilia +0.087
3. Franco Morbidelli (ITA) Ducati +0.122
6. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.234
11. Pedro Acosta (ESP) Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 +0.488
17. Jack Miller (AUS) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.950
19. Pol Espargaro (ESP) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +1.116
22. Augusto Fernandez (ESP) Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 +1.445
