Tech3 Racing Team’s Marcel Schrotter and Álex Mariñelarena concluded the second pre-season, three day test at Circuito de Jerez, in southern Spain today. Both riders continued to make strides forward and took advantage of the additional time with the Mistral 610, Moto2 bike around the 4.423 kilometre circuit.
The weather was predominantly good in Andalucía, although the Moto2 riders did not ride until after 13:00 on the opening day, due to waiting for the circuit to dry from the previous day’s rain. Conditions on Wednesday were clear, but a slight fog on Thursday morning did not recede until lunchtime, and caused cooler temperatures for the remainder of the day.
Marcel Schrotter continued to learn and explore options with his Tech3 Racing Team Mistral 610, which is entirely designed and produced by the French motorsport team. After running a race simulation today and working closely with the Tech3 Racing Team, Schrotter proceeded to adapt and make advancements towards finding a feeling with the bike which would suit his riding style. His progress was positive, as he significantly improved his lap times over the three day test. Working from the base setup which he rode with in Valencia, the Bavarian rider completed the opening session of testing on Tuesday with a 1:45.112. After some fine tuning, the young German rider found a comfortable setup, and finished the test in 14th position, with a best time of 1:43.209. The reduction in time amounted to almost two seconds from his first outing on Tuesday.
Álex Mariñelarena further accustomed himself with the Mistral 610 which he will compete with in his inaugural, full time Moto2 season this year. Continuing from his testing in Valencia, the young Spanish rider built on his experience and knowledge of the Moto2 bike and completed 180 laps at Jerez. With his Tech3 Racing Team, he experimented with various set up strategies, and worked around minor obstacles in preparation for the season’s opening race. With the former CEV Buckler race winner’s confidence ever growing, his lap times proceeded to reduce. Mariñelarena’s fastest time on the opening day of testing was 1:44.499. By the conclusion of the test on Thursday evening, the young Spanish rider’s best time was 1:43.367, which left him in 20th position, an improvement of over a second.
Tech3 Racing Team’s Moto2 riders will attend one final testing session before the season opener at the Losail Circuit, Qatar on the 23rd of March. The next session will commence on the 11th of March at the Circuito De Jerez, Spain.
Marcel Schrotter - 14th- 1:43.209:
“Altogether, I’m pretty happy with how this test went. The gap to fifth position is not even half a second, which is a good position to start from for the final test here in 3 weeks. Despite the weather not being ideal, we managed to work through our test schedule on the last day, which was very important especially after the time we lost in Valencia. We tried numerous setup modifications and made some really good progress. At the beginning of the test we concentrated especially on improving the turning of the bike, which I’m really happy with now. Today, I did my first long run, as we wanted to collect data about my feeling with the bike on used tyres.”
Alex Marinelarena - 20th - 1:43.367:
“This was a positive test for us. On the first day, the team and I worked on the turning of the bike, which we improved a lot and I am happy about. On Wednesday, there was an issue with the rear tyre which kept spinning a lot, but today we solved this and I improved my times quickly after. The bike felt very good and the gap to first place is only just over a second. This test was a steady improvement, after 180 laps in three test days, we are going home happy. We have improved our CEV pole by six tenths of a second."
Tech 3 Racing Press Release
