Marquez makes his mark in Valencia post-season test

The first prelude to the 2014 MotoGP season, the Valencia post-season test wrapped up today at Circuito Ricardo Tormo, with newly-crowed World Champion Marc Marquez clocking the fastest time – a 1’30.287 – over the three days on his Repsol Honda RC213V.

Marquez set his best time on the final day of action using the combination of the soft compound front and medium compound rear slick, topping the timesheets by 0.311 seconds over Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith who set the second fastest time overall. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo was third quickest over the three days of testing, setting a personal best lap time of 1’30.768 on the second day of the test.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

Weather conditions for the Valencia test were similar to the race weekend, with fine, dry weather and track temperatures reaching a peak of 33°C on the afternoon of the second day of testing. All slick tyres in the test allocation were utilised during the test, with a total of 2318 timed laps being completed by riders over the three days.

The Valencia test is the last time all MotoGP™ teams get to test together for 2013, with the next IRTA group test taking part at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit from February 4-6 next year.

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“The three-day test at Valencia was a good way to wrap up the season, with fine weather allowing us to gather a lot of usage data and rider feedback on our slick tyres. It was great to see some new riders make their introduction to the MotoGP class, while some established riders made the switch to their new teams all of which has created a lot of anticipation for next season. I’d like to thank all the teams and riders for their cooperation throughout the 2013 season and Bridgestone will be back bigger and better for the 2014 season with a new range of tyres that will feature the latest technological developments to deliver even higher levels of safety and performance.”

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department
“Thanks to the good weather over the three days, this was one of the most productive end-of-season tests in years. The riders were able to make a lot of laps which helped us to collect a lot of data, with the on our new specification hard rear slick and getting preliminary data on how the open-class machines use tyres. We now have a lot of data to work with over the winter break, during which time we will be developing new tyre options for the riders to evaluate at next year’s pre-season tests.”

Bridgestone MotoGP