VOL. 55 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 4, 2018 P37
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
C
lose times and a surprise name
at the top of the list left some
intriguing prospects after the
final MotoGP tests of 2018 at Jerez.
Fifteen riders set times within the
first second, and the top six were with-
in two tenths of a second, and while
Ducati and Honda had some obviously
new things to test; changes were less
obvious—though no less important—at
Yamaha and the rest.
The ultimate lap record remained
intact by just three tenths, but the race
record was comprehensively smashed.
The surprise leader was 2018 rookie
Takaaki Nakagami, thrilled with his
chance on the factory bike ridden all
year by absent-injured senior LCR
Honda teammate Cal Crutchlow. His
second-day time of 1:37.945 proved
both that his aptitude is better than just
one top 10 all year on the 2017 bike
he's been stuck with. But his position
also underlined Andrea Dovizioso's
comment that lap times at tests do not
mean too much, when limited numbers
of tires and gathering data is more
important than the stopwatch.
Nakagami's day-two time put him
just 0.025 of a second ahead of cham-
pion Marc Marquez, testing mainly
an engine upgrade, as well as some
different wings and unrevealed chassis
upgrades. After trying different engine
configurations and tunes at Valencia,
The Ducatis focused
on handling rather than
power at the test, with
new boy Danilo Petrucci
(9) learning fast by
topping day one and
finishing second overall.
Takaaki Nakagami
