With only the Repsol Honda Team, Yamaha Factory Racing and LCR Honda MotoGP attending the private test, where the riders were also testing Bridgestone's new rear tyre, it was the current Championship leader who set the fastest time, clocking a 1.48’244 whilst testing a new engine as well as a new chassis.
The Mallorcan managed to better his yesterday's lap time from yesterday, but was unable to match Pedrosa’s lap time of 1.47’983. Lorenzo commented: "Today was a very long day. We did a race simulation at the end of the session of 22 laps. Now I feel very tired, but it was necessary to see the performance of the special rear tyre. I think the rear tyre was a little bit worse than the ones I tried across the two days. Something was wrong, because I had much more chattering and a bad feeling on the corners. But in general we’re leaving the track with happiness and confidence, because we are one second faster than the last time."
His American teammate Ben Spies, who will be replaced by Italian Ducati rider Valentino Rossi next year, finished the day in fourth with a 1.48’946. The Texan seemed to be pleased with his day’s work. Spies said: "We basically tested the bike over race distance and did a race simulation, and set the bike up more for the end of the race. We worked on some different fork and shock settings. A little bit of electronics but nothing major, just fine tuning with the bike. It seems ok and I’m positive for the rest of the year."
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa finished the day behind his fellow compatriot at Yamaha. Pedrosa was testing a new exhaust and focussing his efforts on suspension. The Honda rider, who won the last two rounds in Indianapolis and Brno, said: "Today I had a test on a new exhaust to see if we can get better driveability of the engine. Some positives. We also tried a different rear shock to get more grip. In general it was a positive test so I’m happy."
WSBK rider Jonathan Rea, who fills in for the injured Casey Stoner, continued to put in the laps Rea improved on his time yesterday and finished under two seconds off the top. The Northern Irishman said: "Yesterday we did a lot of work with the base setting, and we confirmed that this morning. Still, I’m not so happy finishing the corner. And this afternoon I tried a long run on the tyre and my fastest lap came right at the end, so I need to push this tyre much harder. But it’s like trust thing...I need to trust the tyre more. When I went out in the last outing with the new tyre, I pushed a little harder and trusted the tyre, and it worked. Maybe the idea is to just push more and more."
German LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl finished the day in third, working with the factory spec bike. Bradl, who won last year's Moto2 Championship, was pleased that some of his findings will help improve rear grip on his current machine. Bradl said: "It’s a request from Honda that they want to have some information about this new bike, and we re-tested a similar situation as we did yesterday. We found some more grip, and I’m happy to go with it, but also it was an improvement for our bike, which we’re using this year."
