Pol Espargaro led the way at the head of the times for Honda at the conclusion of the first day of running at the second pre-season test in Indonesia.
The Spaniard therefore also now holds the outright two-wheeled lap record at the recently-completed Mandalika circuit, the venue having only hosted a sole World Superbike Championship round so far.
The first day of running also ended up coming to a close 45 minutes later than planned after a red flag flew early on due to track conditions, a recent rain shower having left the track extremely dirty-thus facilitating a lengthy clean-up operation.
As a result times dropped as the day progressed, KTM’s Miguel Oliveira top of the pile with a 1:37.788s effort heading to the lunch break ahead of Marc Marquez and Johann Zarco.
The times continued to tumble throughout the afternoon session, Espargaro eventually posting the fastest lap of the day – a 1:32.466s tour over five seconds quicker than Oliveira’s earlier attempt – to secure the new Honda RC213-V its first scratch time ahead of the continually impressive Aleix Espargaro on his Aprilia by 0.471s.
Brad Binder ended up third in what was a better showing from KTM after a quiet Sepang outing last week, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins and reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo completing the top five on his Yamaha.
Jack Miller was sixth for Ducati ahead of the second Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, with Joan Mir eighth overall on the other Suzuki GSX-RR.
Andrea Dovizioso was an encouraging ninth for the new RNF Racing Yamaha squad just under eight-tenths-of-a-second adrift of Espargaro’s benchmark, the top ten being rounded out by Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin.
Fabio Di Gianantonio ended day one as fastest rookie on his Gresini Ducati in 14th, while Oliveira ended up slipping to 16th by the conclusion of the action just ahead of the second factory Honda of Marc Marquez.
Francesco Bagnaia continued to not chase an outright lap-time throughout his programme as he ended down in 22nd, ahead of only rookies Darryn Binder and Remy Gardner.
Keyword: Espargaro and Honda lead opening day of Mandalika test