Marc VDS Racing Team headed the Moto2™ timesheet at Jerez on Tuesday, as Scott Redding went fastest in a test session profoundly influenced by the weather. As heavy showers came and went, the British rider was one of 19 to register a lap time.

There was barely any track action for the first hour and a half, despite all of the Moto2™ and Moto3™ field being able to use the Spanish circuit at that point. With a huge downpour arriving and proving to be the first of several throughout the day, there was frustration up and down the pit lane as critical track time was lost.

Bedding in this year’s new, universal Honda 600cc Moto2 engines had been one of the tasks of the first two days, although many spent most of Tuesday in their garages. In fact, the weather was a reminder of that from the previous Jerez test and came as a blunt replacement of the blue sky and calm breeze of 24 hours earlier.


With Monday pace-setter Toni Elías being demoted to second for Blusens Avintia, Dominique Aegerter’s Technomag carXpert machine went third. Both trailed Redding, whose best effort was 1’55.082 – nearly 12 seconds slower than Elías had managed while enjoying perfect weather conditions on Monday. Early pace-setter Mike di Meglio’s JIR Moto2 bike dropped to fourth, ahead of QMMF Racing Team’s Anthony West and Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico Terol.

Although a dry line emerged for the final hour, this was another combined session and much of the Moto2 field decided not to aim for quick times. Rafid Topan Sucipto, Xavier Simeon and Marcel Schrotter completed the top ten for their respective QMMF and Desguaces La Torre outfits.

Moto2™ testing resumes on Wednesday, with the green light illuminating at 10am local time (CET). Thankfully for the teams and riders, significant improvements are anticipated in terms of the weather.

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