Luca Marini tops Mandalika pre-season test Day 2

Luca Marini topped the timesheets by the end of the second day of the final pre-season test of the year at the Mandalika Circuit in Indonesia.

VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini topped the time charts on day two of MotoGP testing in Mandalika, Indonesia. With 20 minutes to the end of the session, Marini, who is Valentino Rossi’s half-brother tasked his works spec Desmosedici GP22 to move to the front with a 1m31.289s that held off a storm of late-race charges from his opponents.

The VR46 driver spent much of the day outside the top ten, but did venture out for a time assault near the conclusion of the day, setting a 1:31.289s to drop the track record even further after Pol Espargaro established a new benchmark time of 1:32.466s on Friday at the newly-completed circuit.

Following the track surface issues caused by mud, grit, and stones on the track on Friday, the Saturday test session proved far more successful in terms of successful shakedowns despite the status of the track surface off the racing line remaining challenging.

Majority of the riders in attendance also chose to run a test simulation on the final hour of the event, with Marc Marquez finishing second 0.192s back of Marini and Maverick Vinales once again showing Aprilia’s dominance by finishing third on the RS-GP.

Fabio Quartararo, the reigning MotoGP world champion, placed fourth for Yamaha, ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir who rounded out the top five despite having had a slight fall at Turn 11 earlier in the day. A mere 0.297s separated the five different manufacturers.

Johann Zarco finished sixth fastest for Pramac Ducati  ahead of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini, while Pol Espargaro finished eighth overall. Jorge Martin finished ninth fastest after surviving a low-side at Turn 16 early in the race, with Francesco Bagnaia finishing  tenth as the highest-ranked factory Ducati rider.

With barely an hour to go, Brad Binder was in first place, but due to the close competition, he was moved all the way back to 11th, the lead KTM rider just ahead of Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli.

2020 MotoGP champion, Joan Mir, was forced to retire after crashing earlier on in the session, along with Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), Andrea Dovizioso (RNF Yamaha), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and three rookies – Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati), Raul Fernandez (Tech3 KTM) and Darryn Binder (RNF Yamaha).

Di Giannantonio was the fastest among the rookies, finishing 17th and only 0.758s behind Marini in the lead despite his crash.

2022 OFFICIAL MANDALIKA MOTOGP TEST – SATURDAY (FINAL)