Speed and laps continued at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto as the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Tech3 KTM Factory Racing teams continued their work and relentless schedule with the first official mid-season IRTA test. At the end of the sunny but windy day in southern Spain, Brad Binder had set the 2nd fastest time.
Jerez
Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira and Remy Gardner clocked over 150 laps as Raul Fernandez missed the test session due to his injured right hand; the problem had forced his absence from the Grand Prix race the previous day.
Binder marked his quickest time midway through his testing run, although the South African also suffered a crash into Turn 7 due to the gusty conditions. Binder, like his teammate, continued to refine the base setup on the KTM RC16 for the rest of the 2022 season.
He also experimented with a brand new Akrapovic exhaust. Oliveira trialled varying aerodynamic options while prematurely ending Gardner’s work after a fall left the strong Australian with a sore back and hand.
MotoGP now pauses for a week before the SHARK Grand Prix de France at Le Mans on May 14-15.
Brad
Brad Binder: “We tried a new pipe today, and the guys can now go back and see the full extent of the difference. I liked the sound! Importantly, the bike’s power delivery was slightly stronger, but with the KTM RC16, we haven’t lacked anything. We’ll keep working on it. Otherwise, we played with our base setup and tried to improve rear contact with the braking point. I’m happy that we managed to make some progress.”
Miguel
Miguel Oliveira: “A long day. We’ve had a few issues when we put new tires on the bike, so we couldn’t confirm everything we were testing with performance and speed. We found one or two things that we believe could be good for Le Mans. We’ll go there with an open mind.”
Francesco
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “We’ve been continuing our base setting work here. Since we changed our method to go racing, we needed to maintain this line, but we also had a few new things. It was tricky because it seemed to get windier as the day went on, which made it difficult to compare what we experienced in the race.
Brad made some good laps and discoveries, and Miguel also found some exciting things that will be helpful for analysis. We will go to Le Mans confident, and then we’ll anticipate some new parts at the next test in Barcelona.”
Sebastian
Sebastian Risse, Red Bull KTM Technical Manager MotoGP: “The test went well, but we still have to work out the complete evaluation of our progress because the conditions were so different today compared to the race weekend here; that’s quite common at Jerez.
So, we need to see how our work can translate to other tracks. We looked at many bike areas, around the engine, an exhaust, aerodynamic options, and many base setup work. It will be interesting to see what we can carry over to Le Mans.”
Jerez Official IRTA Test
- 1. Johann Zarco (FRA), Ducati 1:37.136
- 2. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.158
- 3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA), Yamaha +0.302
- 4. Jack Miller (AUS) Ducati +0.320
- 5. Pol Espargaro (ESP) Honda +0.420
- 21. Miguel Oliveira (POR) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +1.183
- 22. Remy Gardner (AUS) Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +1.453
via Press KTM
