Surprise At Mandalika Circuit, Luca Marini Masters Day Two Of MotoGP Test And Smokes Defending Champion

Luca Marini mastered the second day of pre-season testing at the Mandalika Circuit. (photo: twitter @motogp)

JAKARTA - On the second day of the official MotoGP test at the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit, Lombok, NTB, Saturday, February 12, Italian racer Luca Marini took the lead. The Mooney VR46 Racing team rider showed the potential of Ducati's speed and became the fastest on the second day.

The riders were able to go faster today after their inaugural performance at the Indonesian pride track was interrupted by dirty track conditions on the first day.

From midday to late afternoon, KTM Factory Racing's Brad Binder made a best lap time of 1'32"814 at the top of the chart.

The South African rider was able to bring his motorbike faster than the best time of the first day made by Pol Espargaro of the Repsol Honda team (1'32”466).

Binder, who is focused on trying rear traction, also beat Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 MotoGP champion from the Yamaha team, who had to settle for second place by a narrow 0.006 second margin. While Alex Rins of Suzuki is in third place, and is 0.070 seconds behind.

Enea Bastiani (Gresini Racing) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) complete the rankings for the top five drivers who were less than 0.1 seconds from the session leader to noon.

The second day of the test took place on a dry track throughout the day, although the weather was cloudy during the day.

In the afternoon session, 30 minutes before the end, Quartararo made a time attack and was able to go 0.2 seconds faster than his previous record and topped the record time with a lap time of 1'31"564.

However, not long ago, Luca Marini again made a surprise when he was able to go with his best lap 0.275 seconds faster than Quartararo.

Marc Marquez also took advantage of the last minute to confirm the potential of the Honda RC213V bike, which underwent a radical change this season. He pushed into second position, 0.192 seconds behind Marini.

Maverick Vinales did not miss a time attack to bring the Aprilia RS-GP motorbike to third place (+0.227), shifting Quartararo to P4.

Suzuki's Joan Mir and Johann Zarco of the Pramac Racing team round out the top six riders separated by less than 0.3 seconds from Marini who held on to the top of the clock at the end of the day.

Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing), Pol Espargaro, Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) complete the top ten rankings.

As Antara reported, Binder slipped to P11 after experiencing technical problems, while Franco Morbidelli trailed him in P12 ahead of Alex Rins, Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami.

The second day of testing showed just how tough the competition was this season when the time difference between the top 18 riders was less than a second.

The fastest rookie of the day, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing) settled in P17, just 0.758 seconds adrift of the session leader.

Ducati also dominated the top seven top speed records today, with Enea Bastianini driving the fastest to 314.8kph.

Andrea Dovizioso crashed early in the morning at Turn 1 and his Yamaha bike was badly damaged, while his team mate Darryn Binder crashed at Turn 12 towards the end of the session.

The riders will spend time in Mandalika until Sunday, 13 February continuing to develop their new bike, finding the right limits and setup before the season opener in Qatar on 6 March and returning to Lombok two weeks later for the Indonesian Grand Prix.