IRTA Test Jerez

Elias and Porto, second and third respectively in the second IRTA test day in Jerez
Heavy rainfall at the Jerez circuit limits once again 250cc and MotoGP riders’ and teams’ performances
The rain that had been falling all night and great part of the morning forced the riders to get on the track later than expected and carefully given the fact that the track never got completely dry. During the last hours and since the weather had stabilised, teams and riders took the chance to set-up the bikes with regard to tomorrow, the last testing day in Jerez. The Australian Anthony West set the best time of the day in the 250cc class, followed by Toni Elias and Sebastián Porto, second and third respectively. Both Fonsi Nieto as well as Héctor Faubel preferred not to take any risk given the bad track condition and reduced the number of laps, while Olivé was forced to finish earlier due to a stomach problem. Tomorrow will be the last testing day and everybody is expecting a better development than today. Toni Elias, 148.177, 67 laps: Today has been a complicated day due to the weather and the track conditions. This morning’s rain helped us to ride on a wet track and despite not clocking good times we found quite good settings for wet conditions. In the afternoon we continued working under dry conditions although the track had still some wet areas and we had to ride carefully. We don’t have to give too much importance to the times today, because the track wasn’t in good conditions; we were much faster yesterday. Fonsi Nieto, 149.550, 29 laps: It’s been a shame. It rained all morning and we almost lost the day waiting for better weather conditions. The rain stopped at noon, but the track didn’t dry up completely and you can easily get hurt under such conditions. I went out to warm up pistons in the afternoon to get the bike ready for tomorrow. Now we’ll have to wait for tomorrow and see if the weather is on our side. Sebastián Porto, 148.990, 39 laps: There’s not much we’ve been able to solve today with this weather. It rained the whole morning and taking into account that I’m still adapting to my new bike, this isn’t of much help. But, well, we have to look at the positive side and today we’ve managed to do some kilometres, and that’s also important. At the end of the day we tried out some different solutions for the chassis’ setting and we’ve actually got some improvement. Let’s see if the weather is better tomorrow and we can keep on testing and making kilometres. Héctor Faubel, 1’52.998, 9 laps: It hasn’t been a good day to ride because of the rain. Both the team and I decided not to take any risks. I just made nine laps to do some testing and that’s it. The bike is working fine, everything is perfect. Rain settings are completely different than dry settings and the times are obviously much slower. Let’s hope for good weather tomorrow to make some more tests, because the responses are completely different in wet and today’s results aren’t representative at all. Joan Olivé, 2’04.051, 12 laps: I’ve had a terrible night, I wasn’t able to sleep until five o’clock in the morning and I felt really bad. We arrived at the circuit a bit later than usual and at the hospital they told me not to eat or drink anything to calm down my stomach. I still had fever at 1 o’clock in the afternoon but I wanted to test the bike and make some laps to check if everything is in its place after yesterday’s crash. I wanted to leave everything ready for tomorrow. After the ride I kept on feeling bad so the doctor send me back to the hotel to get some rest. I hope to feel better tomorrow to continue with the planned tests.   Classifications1. Anthony West: 1.47´935 seg2. Toni Elías: 1.48´177 seg3. Sebastián Porto: 1.48´990 seg4. Roberto Rolfo: 1.49´023 seg5. Manuel Poggiali: 1.49´177 seg6. Fonsi Nieto: 1.49´550 seg7. Erwen Nigon: 1.49´576 seg18. Héctor Faubel: 1.52´998 seg22. Joan Olivé: 2.02´822 seg