VOL. 55 ISSUE 9 MARCH 6, 2018 P29
bike, as would be normal for the
satellite Yamaha team. The bike,
however, is fitted with the latest
aero-body fairing, with boxed
wings like the factory bikes.
Rossi was happy with his time,
but still had reservations about
his potential race pace and tire
wear, while teammate Maver-
ick Vinales—dominant in all last
year's tests—was looking glum
as the factory bike, based on
the 2016 machine, was suffering
with wheelspin and acceleration
problems. After finishing last
year with a troublingly erratic
bike, the factory has just two
weeks to solve similar problems
for the start of 2018.
Zarco and Rossi narrowly
eclipsed third-fastest Andrea
Dovizioso, whose (wingless)
factory Ducati had been strong
throughout the three days. Al-
though teammate Jorge Lorenzo
was still clearly not fully com-
fortable in his second year, the
satellite Ducati riders Danilo Pe-
trucci and Jack Miller, on a GP18
and GP17, respectively, had also
been impressively fast.
Ducati, already a title chal-
lenger last year, seems to have
taken a step forward.
So too Honda, whose 2017
RC213V was hard to ride to the
limit, meaning that Marc Mar-
quez had to use all his gifts to
defeat Dovi's Ducati at the last
race.
Now the latest power-up
Honda RC213Vs had also been
threateningly fast and consis-
tent, with satellite-team rider Cal
Crutchlow (LCR Honda) the best
of them, fourth overall.
Vinales' late setup improve-
ment moved him up to fifth,
ahead of Marquez's Repsol
Honda. Marquez was happy with
the result and with Honda's prog-
ress, but predicted a competitive
season ahead. "The situation is
different from one track to an-
other, and even at different times
of the day," said the reigning
world champion.
This reflects a variation in per-
formance of the Michelin tires
from bike to bike, and even as
the temperature changes, which
was already a factor in last year's
competitive season.
Ecstar Suzuki's Andrea Iannone
had been fastest on day two, with
a time good enough to put him
sixth overall ahead of Marquez.
But the Italian missed the last day,
Valentino Rossi carded
second but still has
reservations about his
race pace.
Danilo Petrucci was
impressively fast on
the Pramac Ducati.
