Marini tops second day of Indonesia test for VR46 Ducati

VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini was quickest on the second day of MotoGP testing at its new Indonesian venue Mandalika.

The sophomore rider, who is Valentino Rossi’s half-brother, put his works-spec Desmosedici GP22 to good use in leaping to the front with 20 minutes to go, with a 1m31.289s that withstood a barrage of late time attacks from his rivals.

After the opening day of the test proved both contentious and largely unrepresentative due to mud, dirt and stones on the track, the Saturday follow-up proved considerably more fruitful in terms of meaningful running – though the state of the track surface remained treacherous off the racing line.

KTM factory man Brad Binder led for most of the day but was usurped by reigning champion Fabio Quartararo with 30 minute to go, and was ultimately shuffled all the way down to 11th in the closing minutes – while his own final run was thwarted by an apparent mechanical issue. He still ended up the fastest KTM rider, with the rest of the Austrian firm’s contingent no higher than 18th.

Marini wound up topping the session by two tenths over Marc Marquez (Honda), with Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), Quartararo (Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Suzuki) making it five different manufacturers in the top five – albeit with Mir having set the same time as Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco.

Mir was among those to hit the deck during the day, with crashes also recorded for 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).

Despite his crash, Di Giannantonio was the quickest of the rookie crop, with an effort good enough for 17th-fastest but just 0.758s slower than Marini out front.

Session results